How to best utilize your utilities

By JAMES DERK
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, June 05, 2007

There are some great tools out there to help your computing experience. I receive a lot of questions about what utilities to use for what so I thought it best to put it all down in one place.

So let's get to the list.

--Windows Defender. Because Microsoft Windows is so vulnerable to attack, it seems natural that Microsoft would step up to try and patch the holes. When the company bought a product called Giant Anti-Spyware, it was rumored to be a product that Microsoft would revamp and put on the market.

But for now, the new product, called Windows Defender, remains free to customers with "genuine" Microsoft Windows.

(Microsoft is using verification to keep some of their most popular downloads free.)

Defender is a good product to prevent infection of Windows and a pretty good tool to remove existing infections. And you can't beat the price. You can get it from Microsoft.com (pick the downloads page.)

--Another first thing I do when I install a computer is install Mozilla Firefox. As most people know, Firefox is a browser alternative to Internet Explorer. It's better, faster, more nimble. It also is less likely to be infected with spyware and junk. Once you install it, it will automatically offer to import your Favorites from Internet Explorer to make your transition easier. There's no reason not to have both browsers on every computer. You can get Firefox at getfirefox.com.

--For anti-virus protection there is, of course, a raging debate. Security companies claim that to get the protection one needs, a price needs to be paid. However for most consumers, a free product will do just fine.

For years I have been a fan of AVG's paid product and most home computers can do just fine with AVG Free Edition. It is very generous of the company, Grisoft, to release a free version considering the cost of providing routine updates.

You can download the free version at free.grisoft.com

--Parental control software is built in to Windows Vista, but most parents will want something more powerful and flexible. I have been using a paid product for years but recently a company called Blue Coat started offering its protection for free for home use. Called "K9 Web Protection", the product installs easily and is automatically configured.

If you surf to a blocked page, the product gives you the opportunity to unblock the page permanently or temporarily using the master password (make it a hard one to guess!). You can download it at k9webprotection.com. You need to put in a valid e-mail address to receive the product's registration code but I tested it on a throwaway e-mail account and the account has not received any spam.

--Open Office: We have talked about this one before. If you need to spend the money on Microsoft Office, go ahead but if you don't need the brand name go download OpenOffice, an open-source version. It is very powerful and compatible with many Office formats.

Get it at openoffice.org.

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James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm and tech columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim(at)cyberdads.com