Your Windows system may come with software to tell you all about your hardware or play video, and nearly everyone has a PDF reader program on their computers these days. But we’ve selected this handful of programs because they truly go above and beyond—either by improving upon the standard performance of other “utilities,” or by outright changing the game in how you interact with your computer.  We hope that you’ll find at least a couple of them (if not all!) useful in your everyday computing.

System Information for Windows – download

SIW is a portable freeware program you can use to obtain, among other things, a complete software and hardware inventory of your computer system.  It will detail all the components of your machine, from brand to speed to size, and every program you have installed, whether good or bad.  It’s also got some handy tools for recovering lost passwords and optimizing your network connections. It will even export the data it collects to easy-to-share formats like CSV and Excel. If you have multiple computers, or tend to inherit machines with suspect pedigrees, you might get a lot of use from this nifty utility.

Speccy - download

Speccy is another system inventory tool, but unlike SIW, it focuses on a more concise presentation of your hardware specifications.  The interface is a little more user-friendly and easy to read, and it will also export to other text-based formats like CSV or HTML for sharing or taking to-go. Unless you really want the software and license inventory that comes along with SIW, Speccy is the softer, nicer inventory software for the slightly less technically inclined among us.

SequoiaView – download

Even if your middle school Biology days are far behind you, you’ll probably remember that the cross-section of a cut tree shows rings of varying widths that correlate to years of the tree’s life.  SequoiaView does something similar for your computer’s hard drive.  It scans all the files and folders in your system and then arranges them in a color-coded and scaled graphical representation, so you can see exactly how much space your collection of funny LolCats images takes up.

Recuva - download

Don’t lie, it’s happened to you. You get to your computer to open up that super-important file that you were working on before you decided to clean up your desktop in a fit of good intentions, and—oh no. It’s gone. You’ve deleted the super-important file, and now life as you know it is effectively over.  Of course it’s happened to you. It’s happened to me three times already today. Luckily, I use Recuva. It’s a nifty little program that will search the depths of your directory for those files that “accidentally” got erased. You can use it on your computer’s hard drive, but also on any external drives, cameras, memory cards, or even your iPod. It’s also got a “secure erase” feature to make sure the files you really and truly want to delete will get gone for good.

DriverEasy – download

Anyone who’s used a Windows system with new hardware before knows what a pain it can be.  Even so-called “plug and play” accessories require a minute or two of setup to begin working, and the worst ones might never work at all if you don’t have the proper device drivers or know where to get them. Enter Driver Easy. This program will scan your system to get a gander at all your hardware peripherals, search the web for the most up-to-date or applicable drivers, and present them for your convenience. What could be better? Your stuff will work better with the most current software and bug fixes, and you won’t have to worry about a thing!

VLC – download

VLC is the do-it-all video player. This fabulous open-source software runs without ads or junk, and will play pretty much anything you can throw at it without the need to download endless codecs. It’s famously virus-safe, fast, and powerful.  You can say goodbye to skipping video, or opening six different programs for all  your different media filetypes.

Foxit Reader - download

While Adobe might have developed the PDF filetype, most people these days will agree that their program for reading these useful files is bloated, buggy, and not very functional (unless, of course, you shell out the big bucks for Acrobat Pro).  That’s where Foxit Reader comes in.  It’s a lightweight PDF reader that starts and loads in a flash, but not before making sure the file you’re trying to open isn’t carrying some extra baggage in the form of unwanted malware. It will print without crashing Print Spooler, and opens multiple documents in handy tabs to keep your desktop clear. It’s compatible with interactive forms, and allows you to comment, bookmark, and even validate digital signatures on your PDF documents.

Sumatra PDF - download

Sumatra is another alternative to Acrobat that deserves a recommendation. I admit its desktop view before you open a file is maybe more yellow than anything ever should be. But viewing actual files is an elegant and minimalist experience. Sumatra is a great option for big multi-page files, since its presentation view just fades into the background and lets you focus on the content without distraction. While it does not have as many security or comment features as Foxit, you can view and print your documents speedily and with no crashes.

FileHippo Update Checker - download

If you run a lot of third-party software on your computer, you’re either constantly annoyed by alerts to update, or are running significantly out-of-date versions of most of those programs.  If you’d rather download and install those third-party updates in one fell swoop, then FileHippo’s Update Checker is the program for you. It will scan your installed software in a flash (as little as a second or two!) and contact the FileHippo website to check for any available updates. It then presents them to you in an easy-to-access list, and you can pick and choose the updates you want to run. Quick, simple, and ever so convenient.

Thanks to Income Insiders for the image. And yeah, we know it’s a MacBook Pro. But it looked cool.

Viruses, worms, malware, and spyware all pose a very real threat to your computer’s security.  And even if you’re very careful, you’ll probably suffer an infection at some point. At best, these troublesome bits of programming will make it hard for you to use your computer without their interference. At worst, your personal information might become compromised.  It’s important to take the proper precautions to avoid infection when you use your computer (like keeping all your software up-to-date, only opening email attachments that come from trusted sources, and avoiding risk-taking behavior and downloads online). But on top of all that, you need a good antivirus. Here are our top picks for the various places you might be computing.

Best overall: eSet NOD32

Whether for your home or business, NOD32 is the best antivirus software out there. It’s lightweight, so you won’t notice it running or slowing down other operations on your computer. It’s fast, so full scans take a fraction of the time that they take with other softwares using older engines. And the best part? NOD32 uses traditional virus “definitions” to keep your computer safe, but it also uses what’s called heuristics, which means it proactively watches for certain types of behaviors that can be classified as malware rather than waiting around on a string of code it can match to a potential threat.  It’s got built-in protections to keep bugs from disabling its processes, and it even searches “secure” encrypted channels that tricky viruses sometimes use to enter your system. If you opt to use NOD32 for your business, the license even includes server-side monitoring and maintenance so your IT professional (ahem) can keep an eye on your system’s health for you. And the real kicker? It’s very reasonably priced, including discounts on multiple licenses and renewals.

Best for the whole family: Kaspersky PURE Total Security

Computers are a big part of life these days, and lots of households have more than one.  In some cases, there might be one for mom, one for dad, and one or two for the kids. If that’s the case in your house, you might want to consider PURE Total Security. It bundles its antivirus software with a two-way personal firewall and excellent spam protection to keep your computers safe on all fronts. It has a password manager, automatic backup and restore functions, and a “file shredder” so you can delete sensitive files with confidence.  It’s also built for your home network, so you can manage the scans and settings of all the computers you’re covering from one machine. There are built-in, customizable parental controls, so you can check up on your kids’ activity from the comfort of your own PC.  It’s also got lots of options to customize your safety profiles, like running suspect programs in a “Safe Run” mode, as well as “Gamer Mode” for when you need to optimize system performance without compromising your protection. The box version covers 3 PCs, but if you choose to download, you can get coverage for 3 or 5 PCs. And like NOD32, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Best for Mac: eSet Cybersecurity for Mac

Macs have a great reputation for safety.  Since the company was such a small share of the personal computer market for so long, not many people bothered to write malevolent programming for them. But eventually the bad guys will catch up with Macs, and even the excellent security features built into OS X may not be enough to deflect their attacks.  That’s where Cybersecurity comes in. It’s specifically tailored for OS X, so it runs quietly in the background of your normal tasks without slowing everything to a crawl like a lot of antivirus programs do. Like NOD32, it uses both conventional virus definitions and the heuristic method to trap threats to your Mac, but it also eradicates PC viruses that may not be affecting your computer that you could inadvertently pass on to your PC-owning brethren.  It will even scan virtual machines, so if you have Windows installed on your Mac though Fusion or Parallels, it can keep that safe for you too! And again like NOD32, the pricing structure is excellent for covering multiple machines at a discount.

Best for on-the-go: VirusTotal.com

Every once in awhile, you may find yourself on an unprotected computer: you’re staying with relatives, or you just got a new machine and haven’t installed your antivirus solution yet.  Whatever the reason, it’s nice to know there’s a place you can go to perform a quick check for safety on individual files or URLs.  Simply upload the file or copy and paste the site address, and Virus Total will tell you if there’s anything there to worry about.  It’s a handy little tool even if you already have an antivirus installed and just need to verify something right this second, since it saves you from scanning a whole folder or drive. And best of all, it’s free!  Just bookmark the site and you’re good to go.

Thanks to allGeektv for the image

The vulnerability was used in the cyber attacks against Google, yahoo and others over the last couple weeks. If you’re running any versions of Internet Explorer please install any updates from Windows Update that are pending on your system or grab the update manually from Microsoft’s site.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 – Critical

I love having multiple monitors. It makes working in multiple application so much easier. Most of the time I’ll have several browser windows, email, a couple servers, some windows explorer windows and other various things open and dual monitors makes switching between the programs much more fluid. What do you do if you don’t have the room (or budget) for a second monitor? Adding virtual desktops gives you almost the same functionality, for free!

What is the benefit of multiple virtual desktops?  For me, when I’m working on several projects at once virtual desktops allow me to segment the windows into groups and makes it so that I only see the windows that I don’t get lost in the shuffle of open apps.

I’m a big fan of a program called Dexpot.  It’s compatible with all modern verisons of Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) and allows you to have up to 20 virtual monitors (the default is 4) with alpha transparency, fast screen switching options and the ability to move windows back and forth between different virtual desktops.

Dexpot is totally free, lightweight and fast.  Give it a try.

http://www.dexpot.de/index.php?lang=en

Fences allows you to group your icons within individual…well…fences. Each fence is re-sizable, movable as a group of icons and has it’s own label. All you need to do to create a fence is right click and hold and drag a box around the icons you wish to group together, like in the video below.

The free version allows for an unlimited number of fences, quick hide abilities, auto scaling of fences for when you change resolutions and the ability to save configurations before you makes changes and revert if you don’t like your new setup.  They offer a paid version that gives you the ability to automatically grab files by extension, date, name, etc, set different opacity levels for different fences.

Check it out here:

http://stardock.com

One thing that drives me nuts about mobile computing is when I don’t notice my battery is running low until my computer is forcing itself into hibernation.  Sometimes having a little battery icon next to the system clock isn’t enough, for those times BattCursor is a lifesaver.

BattCursor uses Windows Aero Glass (the component built into windows that makes the boarder around applications in Vista/7 transparent) and your cursor as a visual reference for your battery life.  You can set the colors for full charge, half charge and low battery, use your mouse as a visual guide to battery life and even have BattCursor control your power profiles and change your CPU or backlight brightness depending on battery status.

Check it out at BattCursor.net [via downloadsquad]