January 17, 2005

Dictionary.Com defines the word “utility” as something having "the quality or condition of being useful; usefulness." In computer terms, a utility program any piece of software that helps you do something else. There are many “utility programs” available that will help you improve your Internet experience. Some may be websites with tests available to help you get the most out of your connection. Others are actual programs that can be installed on your computer to help you accomplish varying degrees of difficult tasks.

During the some twenty-odd years that I have been working with computers and software, I have always kept a toolkit full of these useful utilities to help make my job easier and faster. In the days of DOS, they were often programs that added features directly to DOS itself. In the era of Windows, many of these programs have become applications unto themselves and can't be replaced. 

So here is my Top Ten List of Utilities of 2004 in no particular order: 

1. Ad-Aware – More often than ever before when you visit certain websites, these sites store programs and data called ‘Spy ware’ on your computer to help marketer's sell to you. At one time this was relatively harmless, but not anymore. Aside from the fact that all these extra programs running on your computer can slow it down, there is also a correlation between spyware being on your computer and the amount of spam you get in your email. More and more, this is becoming a serious threat due to hackers using this method to install "backdoors" on your computer which give them access to everything from the keystrokes you type to the files stored on your computer. Ad-Aware will scan you hard drive, registry and memory for any of these hidden programs and help you clean them off your computer. This program will interfere with programs like Gator, so you’ll want to read all of the warnings before running it. But I like this one very much. You can download it at http://www.lavasoft.nu.

2. SpyBot -- Sometimes, Ad-Aware alone is not enough. When that happens, SpyBot is a good program to use to clean off those really pesky spyware programs. Using Ad-Aware & SpyBot together will remove almost all spyware/malware programs from your computer. You can get a free copy of this at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html .

3. AVG -- When the program hogging your resources is even more insidious, you are probably dealing with a virus! I can remember a time when the only way you could get a computer virus was if someone gave you a disk with a virus on it. Oh, those were the good, old days! Now when you can potentially receive more data to your computer by visiting a single web page than could be carried on a single disk, viruses have become more and more prevalent. Almost everyone I know has been infected by a computer virus at some point in their "computer lifetimes." No one is safe and no one product can stop them all. However, our recommended choice, AVG gets almost all of them. We have used and recommended AVG for over two years and frankly, I haven't seen a better product. No only are virus updates free, but if you are installing the program on your home computer, the program itself is FREE! The license agreement forbids using the free version on your corporate computers, but even then the cost is very low and the subscription lasts a full two-years. AVG uses few resources than any other virus product out there and it is simple to install and even easier to run. Updates are automatically downloaded and installed and you can even schedule the scanning to be fully automatic as well. Download the free edition and try it out. If you like it at home, order a copy for your office. It's worth the time and the money. 

4. WinZip – Back in the days of DOS, PKZip was the leader in the file compression arena, but when Windows came around, WinZip got to the market first and took almost all of the PKZip customers. PKZip tried to catch up, but by the time they got their Window’s product finished it was too late; WinZip just did a better job on their product and now they own the market. You can download an evaluation version at http://www.winzip.com.

5. Acrobat Reader – This program just gets fancier and fancier every time a new version is released. It is the only way to read a .PDF file, which usually is just a digital representation of a printed page. This program is one of those that sit in the background until you need it and then just does it’s job and nothing more. Get the latest copy at http://www.adobe.com.

6. Print Directory – This program is simple but it solved a problem for me. Many times, I need a list of the files in a particular directory. As you may know this is more difficult than it used to be in DOS because of the long filenames. Print Directory handles this with ease. You can get an free copy at http://widgetech.com/freeware/printdir3_1.shtml.

7. Treesize – Need to find out why your large hard drive has no space available? Want to locate the space waster programs on your computer? Treesize can help. It will sort through all the files on your hard drive and help you identify what folders are taking up the most space. You can view graphs or just check the percentages. You can delete within the program, but please be careful! That big file that you delete just might be critical to the operating system! However, finding old graphic files that you can delete or games you can uninstall is a snap with this program. Download the evaluation copy at http://www.jam-software.com/treesize.shtml.

8. Google – Without a doubt the best search engine around. http://www.google.com. ‘Nuff Said.

9. SpeedGuide – Want to explore how to speed up your Internet connection or find things you can do to speed up your operating system? Check out the huge amount of information at http://www.speedguide.net. It looks overwhelming, but just read the stuff you are interested in and ignore the rest. They have a free TCP/IP optimizer that you can run and test your connection.

10. TPCQPC.Com – I don’t usually brag, but this time I will. Our website at http://www.tpcqpc.com is the one source you need to get started on the Internet. From weather to news to search engines to politics to stock reports to good places to shop online, we provide you with links to all of them. Plus we keep you up to date on what’s new, what’s useful, and what is helpful. 

 Well there’s my list of the best utilities out there. I know there are more and maybe one day I can do a list of second-bests. Who knows, next time the list might have changed. But you can be assured that we are searching everyday for more utilities to make our lives a little easier and more manageable.