I have gotten a new computer with Windows 2000 on it. Since this is my second one (i had to get rid of the forst one after 2 weeks because of hardware failure) i really want to be safe. Can anyone recommend me some very good spyware, antivirus and trojan softaware. Also anything else useful to start off. I know firefox is a good apllication. Thanks

AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, are two malware utils that have stood the tests of time. Avast.com has an excellent freebie a/v util; simpler to use than Norton/MacAfee...; very light overheads in terms of resources etc... Runs like a charm... Zonealarm (freebie) firewall has served me well for '98/ME/W2K/XP. I used to encourage ccleaner too; for cleaning out the residual "muck/debris..." on occasion. It worked fine upto W2K, but had some issues with it and XP, and decided to drop it for the moment. This having said not everyone has had similar issues with ccleaner/XP...

Listed below is what I usually install (free on the Internet.) Acrobat Reader UltimateZip 2.7 later versions are no longer free and WinZip is no longer free AdAware Spybot Search and Destroy Filezilla a graphical FTP program Putty for SSH, Telnet, Rlogin Abexo Free registry cleaner Mozilla Firefox Irfanview for displaying images, conversions and slideshows CDBurnerXP Pro a free graphical CD/DVD burner app (works with Windows 2000 also) Latest JRE or JDK from Sun Microsystems (Java Runtime Environment or Java Development Kit) OpenOffice (I download but do not install) in case a friend does not have Microsoft Office Latest non-beta Windows Media Player Latest non-beta free Real Player

The lists above are excellent. Just a work of caution about Adaware and spybot. There are many imatators out there. Some that actually are adware/malware. Try getting those files and others here: http://www.pcworld.com/browse/1727/topic.html?page=1

Excellent point about Adware/Spybot... "genuine" Adaware is at: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Spybot is at: http://www.safer-networking.org and pick your country/location of choice

Apps that I've come to love Clonespy Bulk Rename Utility Audacity All in my favorite flavor - Free!

Hello, This is what I always install on any system I setup: *Make sure all Microsoft's Critical Updates are done *Ad-Aware and Spybot *Adobe Reader *Flash Player Shockwave Player (from Adobe's site) *Windows Media Player *Norton Antivirus *I like FireFox, but my Browser of choise is MAXTHON *OpenOffice There are lots of free Utilities online, but try to get just the essentials and STAY AWAY from BETA versions. I get a lot of stuff From PC World (www.pcworld.com/downloads) Frankie566 Who knows, knows and who doesn't know, dosen't know jack! Una cosa si yo se, que nada se!