Try New Technology

Self Help

Last Updated: 2023-09-02 @ 16:30 (UTC)

On this page are links to applications that can be used to protect, clean-up and tune-up computers along with applications I find useful to have. Below are a few things you MUST UNDERSTAND before using any of the applications/scripts in this list:

  • This list is provided to help save you the time of hunting these applications/scripts down on your own.
  • I do not take any responsibility for problems that may arise from the use of these applications; please see the FAQ, Help, Forums, etc. of the software in questions for this!
  • Please do not contact me for support and/or help with fixing machines or questions regarding the applications.
  • If you do not like an application on this list then don’t use it.
  • Use all applications on this list at your own risk!

Adware, Antivirus, Rootkit, Malware, Nagware, and Spyware Applications:

  • AdwCleaner (“AdwCleaner is a program that searches for and deletes Adware, Toolbars, Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP), and browser Hijackers from your computer.”)
  • All in One System Rescue Toolkit (“This utility disc is designed to quickly and efficiently aid a technician with troubleshooting and repairing Windows based PCs.”)
  • aswMBR MAY NOT WORK and just cause a GREEN/BLUE SCREEN on newer hardware/OS! (“aswMBR is a anti-rootkit scanner that searches your computer for Rootkits that infect the Master Boot Record, or MBR, of your computer.”)
  • ComboFix (“ComboFix is a program, created by sUBs, that scans your computer for known malware, and when found, attempts to clean these infections automatically.” “Please note that running this program without supervision can cause your computer to not operate correctly. Therefore only run this program at the request of an experienced helper.”)
  • Emsisoft Anti-Malware(formerly A-Squared)
  • Emsisoft Emergency Kit (“… is very useful for infections, such as Ransomware…”)
  • ESET SysRescue (“ESET SysRescue Live is a malware cleaning tool that runs independent of the operating system from a CD, DVD, or a USB. It has direct access to the disk and the file system, and therefore is capable of removing the most persistent threats”)
  • Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST) (“Farbar Recovery Scan Tool, or FRST, is a portable application designed to run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 in normal or safe mode to diagnose malware issues. It is also possible to run FRST in the Windows Recovery Environment in order to diagnose and fix boot issues.”)
  • Gandalf’s Windows 10PE x64 Redstone 3 build 16299 version 03-13-2018 (Windows 10 x64 PE; good for testing hardware, scanning for infections w/o booting the systems OS, backups files, etc.)
  • HitmanPro (Just use the free 1 time scan and you can put in any bogus e-mail address for the activation it requires before cleaning.)
  • HiJackThis (Scan your computer to find settings changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis generates an in-depth report to enable you to analyze and fix your infected computer.)
  • Junkware Removal Tool (“…a security utility that searches for and removes common adware, toolbars, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) from your computer.”)
  • Kaspersky Free Rescue Disk (A bootable rescue disk to help post-infection.)
  • Kaspersky Lab Free Utilities (A collection of utilities for cleaning infections and decrypting ransomware infections.)
  • Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Free (designed to quickly detect, destroy, and prevent malware)
  • Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac (designed to quickly detect, destroy, and prevent malware on Macs)
  • Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware (beta) (“Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware Beta is a program that protects your computer from file encrypting ransomware programs.”)
  • Malwarebytes’ Anti-Rootkit (Beta) (“…used to search for and remove rootkits from your computer.”)
  • Malwarebytes’ Chameleon (“Gets Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Installed and Running”)
  • RKill Download and use the iExplore.exe version! (“Security Software that Removes Malware and Adware Your Anti-virus Will Miss. Fast and Simple.”)
  • RougeKiller (“…tool designed to clean your computer if you are already infected with a virus and your operating system is not working properly as a result of the infection.”)
  • TDSSKiller (“TDSSKiller is a utility created by Kaspersky Labs that is designed to remove the TDSS rootkit.”)
  • Tron (The next best thing to run after RKill if cleaning up an infected machine.)
  • uBlock Origin (Efficient blocker that is easy on the CPU and memory while being open-source.)
  • Unchecky (“Unchecky aims to keep potentially unwanted programs out of your computer.”)
  • Unhide (“…reverts back the changes made to your files and Windows Registry by the rogue.FakeHDD family of rogue anti-spyware program.”)
  • Zemana AntiMalware (“…is a second opinion cloud based malware scanner that allows you to perform on demand scanning as necessary.”)
  • ZHPCleaner (“…is a software designed to combat the pirates of browsers (Hijackers).”)

Cleaning/Tune-Up Applications:

  • BleachBit (A bit tricky to figure out, but it’s very good and takes care of things CCleaner doesn’t. Officially – “…designed to help you easily clean your computer to free space and maintain privacy.”)
  • SFCFix (”
    SFCFix is a tool designed to automatically repair file system and registry corruptions detected by SFC /SCANNOW. SFCFix uses advanced algorithmic searches to find and replace corrupt/missing system files. Project has been abandoned.”)
  • SpinRite 6 (“…is able to recover data, repair & maintain hard disk drive and even solid state flash drives!” – PAID)
  • Windows Repair (All In One) (help fix Windows problems on windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 2008, and 2012)
  • UltraDefrag (Better than Windows stock De-fragment application.)
  • WinDirStat (disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool)

Network Applications:

  • FileZilla (Free and open source FTP Client / Server)
  • JPerf (network throughput utility; new UI for the old JPerf which was a fork of IPerf.)
  • KiTTY (“KiTTY is a fork of PuTTY“)
  • mRemoteNG (“…a fork of mRemote, an open source, tabbed, multi-protocol, remote connections manager.”)
  • NetAdapter Repair All In One (“…is a utility that acts as a Swiss army knife for network related Windows tasks.”)
  • Nmap (“…free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing.”)
  • Open Visual Traceroute (Open source cross-platform visual traceroute with 3D map component)
  • PuTTY (open-source SSH, Telnet, and RAW client)
  • SuperPuTTY (“…allows the PuTTY SSH Client to be opened in Tabs.”)
  • WiFi Profile Manager (“WiFi Profile Manager is a simple tool to view your Preferred Wireless Network Profiles in Windows 8 / 10.”)
  • WinSCP (open-source SFTP, SCP, FTPS, and FTP client)
  • WinMTR (free network diagnostic tool)
  • Wireshark (“…world’s foremost network protocol analyzer.”)
  • Windows 7+ WWinSockFix (Microsoft Support page with tool for how to reset TCP/IP through NetShell)

Miscellaneous Applications:

  • 0 A.D. (Not a program to really help you, but just thought I’d link to this very FUN, but very young, RTS! “A free, open-source game of ancient warfare.”)
  • 7-Zip (“7-Zip is a file archiving application with a high compression ratio. Supports most common compression file types.”)
  • Ardour (Open-Source audio software for Recording, Editing, and Mixing.)
  • Audacity (“…is free, open source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing.”)
  • Avidemux (“Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.”)
  • Blender (Open-Source and complete 3D creation suite.)
  • Bluefish Editor (Open-Source editor targeted towards programmers and web developers.)
  • Brackets (“A modern, open source text editor that understands web design.”)
  • CoreCtrl (Free and Open Source GNU/Linux applications for control over CPU and AMD GPUs.)
  • CPU X (Free and Open Source software that is similar to CPU-Z. Designed for GNU/Linux; also, it works on *BSD. )
  • Evince (“document viewer for multiple document formats”…”specifically designed to support the file following formats: PDF, Postscript, djvu, tiff, dvi, XPS, SyncTex support with gedit, comics books (cbr,cbz,cb7 and cbt).”)
  • Firefox ESR (Generally a much more stable version of the Firefox web browser.)
  • F.lux (makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like
    sunlight during the day.)
  • Freeciv (a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization.)
  • FreeUndelete (Free for personal use to recover delete files.)
  • GIMP (“…is a cross-platform image editor…”)
  • HamStudy.org (A Website and HamStudy.org Mobile Apps to help study for Amateur Radio tests)
  • HFSExplorer (HFSExplorer is an application that can read Mac-formatted hard disks and disk images.)
  • Inkscape (“Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It’s free and open source.”)
  • Kdenlive (Non-linear video editing; being ported to Windows.)
  • KeePassXC (GNU GPL; “KeePassXC is a community fork of KeePassX, the cross-platform port of KeePass for Windows.”)
  • KeePass DX (“Open Source Password Manager for Android”)
  • Krita (Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program)
  • LibreOffice (replaced OpenOffice.org as a free Office Suite)
  • Lightworks (professional NLE software. Has a free and pro version.)
  • LiVES (“…is a Free, Open Source video editor *and* a VJ tool.”)
  • LMMS (Open source digital audio workstation)
  • Natron (“…Free and open-source compositing software”)
  • Notepad++ (“…free source code editor and Notepad replacement. Mostly used on Windows, but there is a Linux SNAP package for it too.”)
  • OpenSCAD (“…software for creating solid 3D CAD objects.”)
  • OpenShot (“…designed…to be an easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful video editor.”)
  • PDFtk (“…graphical tool for quickly merging and splitting PDF documents and pages.”)
  • POV-Ray (“The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, Free Software tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics.”)
  • Raw Therapee (like Adobe Lightroom)
  • Recuva (I just use the FREE version – “Recover your deleted files quickly and easily.” I do NOT use any of the other products from these guys, and only use this as a last resort.)
  • Shotcut (“…free, open source, cross-platform video editor.”)
  • Sublime Text 4 (Payware, but free to use otherwise. Multi-platform support. Package Control platform is a must to manage plugins!)
  • System76 Keyboard Configurator
  • Thunderbird (My preferred desktop mail client.)
  • VeraCrypt (“VeraCrypt is a free disk encryption software brought to you by IDRIX (https://www.idrix.fr) and that is based on TrueCrypt 7.1a.”)
  • Visual Studio Code (Free and Open Source Code Editing IDE that runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac. From Microsoft. Currently my go to IDE.)
  • The Battle for Wesnoth (“…is an open source, turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme.”)

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