O/S: I reccomend Microsoft Windows XP Professional if you are looking for the most modern hardware support, and most compatibility. SP2, (when it comes out), will drastically improve the default security settings, and I would highly reccomend installing it once it is released to manufacture. Officeware: If you choose to go the free route, and still be adequatly served, I reccomend OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 This is a completly free fully featured office suite. I highly reccomend this product, as it is very adequate for 90% of users. If I were to compare it to a Microsoft offering, it would be equivilant to Microsoft Office Standard edition minus an email client. To get this product, go to http://www.openoffice.org Anti-Virus: I reccomend AVG 6.0 Free Edition. This anti-virus program is very well designed, and regularly updated. I have found AVG to be the best solution for home use, and I reccomend it over any other product on the market. To get this product, go to www.grisoft.com Firewall: I have found Tiny Personal Firewall 2.0.15 to be very configurable, and powerful as well. Virtually nothing gets by this firewall. This firewall is not very easy to set up for an inexperienced individual, but if you want the most protection for the least money, I reccomend this product. This also includes the ability to notify you if you have a rule violation, and log all connections attempted. This product has been discontinued, but if you search on Google for it, you will find it. Version 2.0.15 was the last free version. Email: I reccomend Mozilla Firebird 0.71. This is a very well designed email client with biult in spam filtering, multiple account ability, theming, and many other features available. This is regularly updated, and is freely available. To get this product, go to www.mozilla.org Anti-Spyware: For this, I reccomend a combination of products. For the front line of defense, I reccomend installing the products SpywareGaurd, and SpywareBlaster. I consider these products very good and blocking the initial install of spyware, and disabling any spyware that may be currently installed on your system. These products are regularly updated, and work similar to the "on demand" scanning feature of your anti-virus program. There are currently 3022 items that I have blocked from installation on my system with these products. To get these products, go to www.javacoolsoftware.com. As a blocking and scanning product, I reccomend the installation of Spybot Search & Destroy. This program is very good at scanning your registry and hard drive for known spyware products, and is continually being updated. This product is also very good at blocking new installations of spyware products with the addition of the immunize function. This is a wonderful addition to the protection offered by SpywareBlaster and SpywareGaurd. This product is available at security.kolla.de. The last program I reccomend for a complete spyware detection service is Ad-Aware 6.181 Free Edition. This is a very good product for detecting installed spyware on your system, and removing those offending items.
Updates are regular, and this product is very good at removing most spyware entries from the registy, and also removal of spyware cookies. This product is very well written, and there are also many different plugins available that extend the capabilities of this program. This product is available at www.lavasoft.de Command Line Utilities: I reccomend the Unix utility set for Windows. This will allow you to have many of the commands of a Unix system on your windows box, and drastically extend the capablilties of your command prompt. This product is available at unxutils.sourceforge.net. The only stupid question is the one not asked.
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