The Internet has all kinds of software available to those for those willing to dig it out. Only the barest of bones is offered here.....

In today’s world it is absolutely essential to have Virus protection and a personal firewall.  There are many entries in the freeware arena, some of which I have included here, but, it at all possible, you should purchase your safety. By far the best are the Norton Products from Symantec.  I strongly recommend Norton System Works and Norton Internet Security.

After that demand on your money, the rest will be offered for free.

First of all, you may not be using one of the most effective tools that you have - the System Scheduler.  You can get to this by drilling down (Start Button-> All Programs-> accessories-> system tools-> scheduled tasks. There you can schedule your system maintenance daily, weekly, monthly or whatever and let WINDOWS do these things for you. For example, my scheduler has the following tasks:

AdAware Remove lurking “spyware” Backup Backup files to a safe place DeFrag Speed up disk performance Clean Sweep Discard obsolete files Disk Doctor Fix file and partition table errors Live Update Update software Virus check Scan all files for viruses AtomPro Verify system clock Norton WIN Dr. Cleans my dirty WINDOWS

One of the best freeware programs available is FreeRAMXPPro which frees up your computer’s memory and speeds thing up in general.

Passkeeper lets you keep track of all those bothersome user names and passwords.

Everyone knows about GOOGLE, but not everyone knows all of its capabilities:

     GOOGLE Desktop Searches the files on your computer just like            GOOGLE searches the Web

     GOOGLE Images lets you find photos or drawings on the Web

     GOOGLE Groups lets you specialize your search to specific subject       areas.

     GOOGLE News lets you search newspapers from all over the World.

     FROOGLE lets you shop for specific items, including comparison              pricing.

     GOOGLE Scholar finds books, abstracts, papers et al. for                   researchers

     And you can even use GOOGLE to translate pages in foreign                languages.

Winuscon (short for Windows User Console) unearths many Windows's most useful features and sets them neatly on your desktop.  I use this especially to keep track of all the balls I typically juggle simultaneously.

Ad-Aware does its best to rid your system of adware and spyware left by unscrupolous web sites.

True to its name, Tiny Personal Firewall has a small footprint, but it still gives you strong protection against Internet threats.

AtomTime is a Windows application which will connect to the Atomic Clock time server in Boulder, Colorado (USA) via the Internet and fetch the current atomic clock time value

Internet Explorer has a nasty habit of allowing so-called Browser Helper Objects (or BHOs) to install themselves into IE. Some BHOs are helpful, like the Google Toolbar, but others (especially those planted by viruses or spyware) can be malicious and harmful. BHODemon gives you a quick look at the BHOs installed on your PC, tells you whether a specific BHO is known to be safe or harmful, and gives you the ability to enable or disable individual BHOs with a single mouse click.

Motherboard Monitor triggers an alarm if it gets so hot inside your box that components are in danger of melting.

If you have DSL or a cable modem, your IP address is permanent. Although this has benefits, it also carries the serious shortcoming of rendering your PC vulnerable to attacks. A firewall, in this respect, becomes not just desirable but a necessity. ZoneAlarm is a top choice

Protect your data from malicious hackers and prevent unauthorized access to your files from inside your network with Sygate Personal Firewall

One way sleazy advertisers monitor your surfing habits is with Web bugs: invisible graphics embedded in Web pages or e-mail that return data to the tracker's Web site. True to its name, Bugnosis analyzes the pages that you visit and alerts you when it finds any of these pesky things.

It is next to impossible to keep up with the different ways intruders use to gain access to a PC. FireEyes lets you know exactly when your PC is being accessed--and by whom. It doesn't protect your PC from intrusion, but it gives you the chance to make up your own mind as to whether a connection is legitimate or suspect.

Or to see what else is available, visit PC World.

To add bells and whistles to your Web Site, visit BRAVENET.