Forty-Three of The Best Free Windows Enhancements That You Should Know About

There is an impressive range of excellent freeware Windows enhancements and tweaks. This posting will present forty three excellent additions to Windows that you will like.

When I first thought of this post, I more or less knew what programs I wanted to list here. The common theme that brought these together was that they were all really cool Windows “enhancements”: i.e. apps that tweak or change the way we work with files, folders, applications, or the system environment itself (or, apps that brings functionality to the Windows environment that could or should have been a built-in option in Windows ).

Two more things to say before presenting the list itself; the first is that this list might not include some well known titles because in some cases I shied away from Windows enhancement apps that try to do many things at once in favor of simpler, more straightforward ones. The second is to be aware that many of these have overlapping functions and hotkeys that you wouldn’t necessarily want installed on the same system at the same time (you also dont want to overburden your PC, so install selectively).

Note: this post took a long time to write, so please Stumble or Digg!

Full list here: Forty-Three of The Best Free Windows Enhancements That You Should Know About | freewaregenius.com

PC-Security

Have you just noticed that your computer is running slow lately, using a lot of Internet bandwidth for no reason at all? Read on and we will reveal to you how can we help resolve this issue.

Adware is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

Spyware is a type of malware that is installed surreptitiously on personal computers to collect information about users, their computer or browsing habits without their consent.

Threats are evolving by the second. It's no longer just about viruses. Spyware, trojans, worms, rootkits, bots and phishing attacks are all on the rise.

Malware writers are constantly reworking their code to evade security defenses. The ESET Threat Center features resources to understand the nature of these evolving threats, their impact on your business, and why proactive protection is so important.

• The total number of unique phishing reports submitted to APWG in January 2008 was 29,284 an increase of over 3,600 reports from the previous month (Anti-Phishing Working Group)
• In 2007, 3.6 million adults lost a total of $3.2 billion as a result of phishing attacks in the United States. (Source: Gartner, Inc.)
• One out of every ten sites on the Web is infected with "drive-by" malware — malware that automatically installs itself on a computer when it visits a site (Google research, 2007)
• Annual worldwide economic damages from malware exceeded $13 Billion in 2006, which is $10 Billion more than in 1997 (2007 Malware Report, Computer Economics)

That is not all though. The anti-virus software must be updated on a daily basis. That is one of the superior features of anti-virus software as it downloads a list of new bugs and fixes on to your system. This means that, for instance, if a new virus BLAM32 is released today, and you have been updating your virus database daily, you will receive all the necessary protection for your system against BLAM32.

As is often said in security, "Anti-virus software is only as good as its' last update". Merely 73% of individuals update their anti-virus regularly, leaving more and more holes for viruses to pick at.

The most common effect of a virus infection, reported by 70 percent of respondents, was rendering a PC unavailable to the user, the study found. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that viruses had cost productivity, while 37 percent reported loss of data. ICSA Labs research 2002

Read full article at Avonsys - PC Security

From Fiji IT experts at Avonsys

20 Indispensable Browser Based Apps | Design Informer

There’s nothing better than a good browser based app. Browser based apps require no downloading and no installation, so you can start using them whenever and wherever you like. What’s more, each one of these apps is accessible from any computer in the world, provided that it’s connected to the internet, so there’s no need to take expensive and heavy hardware with you when you’re out of the office. Some of these apps can be used on your mobile phone too!

There are browser based alternatives to almost every traditional piece of software you frequently use, whether it’s for word processing, image editing, listening to music, screen sharing, storing files and folders, or even making to-do lists. Here, we bring you 20 indispensable web apps, which once you’ve tried, you’ll never want to live without again. Most of the apps explored below are free, so there’s nothing stopping you from giving them a go.

By: Tom Walker: 20 Indispensable Browser Based Apps | Design Informer