The Exorcist

I've got a little bit of a daily streak going here, so I think I'll go ahead and make a quick Saturday morning post. Today I'm going to see my parents to try and rescue my mom's computer. It seems to have a host of viruses, which suddenly makes me wish I had come up with a cool tie in to Legion :)

Anyway, last night my resident computer expert, Tim Dreyer, gave me a list of programs that any computer doctor would want in his handbag when making a house call. I can't give a great description of what they all do just yet (hopefully I'll be able to later today!) but I thought I could list them here in case anyone needs the help. All of these are free but some also have pay versions, so be sure to look for the right download link. A big shout-out to Tim for all the help!

• AVG Anti Virus - a completely free anti virus software. It's what all the kids are using these days, and it's supposed to be just as good as the ones you pay big $$ for.


• Spybot Search & Destroy - I think it removes spy bots, but maybe it gives stock quotes or sports scores...


• Avast Anti Spyware - heard what Spybot was doing and wanted to join the crowd.


• Hitman Pro 3 - a good diagnostic tool with an even better name. Malware runs in fear.


• Autoruns - lets you see every single program that automatically runs on your computer.


• Ad-Aware - another good program, this one detects all kinds of bad stuff on your computer. But I'm sure it doesn't critique any of your term papers.


• a-squared Anti-Malware - every college student knows the only thing better than one A's is two A's!


• RootKit Revealer - a tool that (as far as I can tell) helps clean up your Windows registry against those hard-to-reach problems.


• CCleaner - comes in to optimize and clean up your computer after all those other guys have finished doing their jobs - and tracked mud all over the house.