A lot of people have been asking how to clean up their computers and have been complaining of slow response, sluggishness, slow boot time, unresponsiveness, popups etc.  Here is a list off the various utilities you can use for free to clean up your computer.

Obviously, the best bets are the commercial software since it is in their best interest to be at the top of the game.  The shareware solutions although they are excellent are not always the most up to date.  But if your bank account is empty, they will do the trick.

Spybot Search & Destroy v1.5 – is by far the best anti-spyware solution. It offers real-time protection through its TeaTimer function (even though it is a little annoying).  The signature database is quite comprehensive, containing about 106.700 entries at the time when I reviewed it.  You can find additional documentation here including how to automate the scans.

Ad-Aware 2007 Free v7 – is one of the most well-known anti-spyware solutions. Most of the features are disabled and only available if you purchase the software.  It is nonetheless an excellent product to use.

AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition v7.5 – is a free trial version of AVG Anti-Spyware Pro that disables most of its features after 1 day of use. So, initially you get a fully featured anti-spyware solution that offers real-time protection and automatic updates. After that you will be asked to buy the "Pro" version or, you can continue using it for free but with less features. Eventually you will be left with only the anti-spwyare engine. You will have to manually update the application and also make manual scans of your system. Even so, AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition v7.5 is a good solution that offers a good detection engine and a very nice and easy to use interface.

Comodo BOClean Anti-Malware v4.25 – is a strange application since once you install it, it runs silently in the background as a memory-resident application without giving you any warning messages, pop-ups, or anything else. The GUI appears ancient and has only minimal configuration options.  It is an excellent tool, but you will find yourself wondering if it is actually doing anything – but don’t worry – it is!

Spyware Terminator v2 – is probably the most full featured and robust spyware removal tools out there. It offers effective real-time protection without sacrificing too many system resources. The number of updates & signatures is excellent, the features and spyware detection rate are almost as good as the scanning speed.

SpywareBlaster v3.5 – just like Comodo BOClean, this application acts like a prevention tool that protects your PC from spyware, adware, dialers, browser hijackers, and other potentially unwanted programs. Unlike Comodo, SpywareBlaster does not update itself automatically. If you want the ‘Auto Update’ feature you will have to buy a license key. The interface is better than Comodos but, even so, it still feels like an outdated application.

Tags | Disaster Recovery, General, Microsoft, Security, Windows Vista, Windows XP