Technology Useful software?

[mward04]

What are some of your favorite programs? For...

Spyware
Internet Browsing
Pop-up blocker
DVD Burning
MP3
Others? (P2P, IM)

Mine are:
Spyware (Spybot)
Internet Browsing (I hate to say it but...IE)
Pop-up blocker (Google)
DVD Burning (Nitro/Shrink)
P2P (Kazaa)
IM (Yahoo)
MP3 (iTunes)

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[Stroganoff]

Eudora - e-mail (non-Microsoft...less security risks). Get "Spamnix" add-on if you have a huge spam problem

mIRC - love it. great for chatting, scripting, and P2P (learning curve though)

WinRAR - I stopped using WinZip. WinRAR handles rar, zip, ace, and many other compression formats.

I would have to agree: Spybot and Ad-Aware. I'm using Symantec Antivirus (same engine as Norton). I don't use McAfee VirusScan anymore.

For playing MP3s, it's ALL about WinAmp!
For ripping MP3s, Exact Audio Copy gives you a perfect duplicate of your CDs.
For encoding MP3s, I use the LAME codec and tie it in with Exact Audio Copy.

I agree on the Google pop-up blocker.

For browser, I tried Firefox and liked it, but I'm back to IE because I want all the pages to display perfectly. Right now the only things Firefox has going for it are: much more secure, no pop-ups, tabbed browsing, add-ons.

I'm a newbie with graphic editing, and I never really learned Photoshop. I use Paint Shop Pro a lot for basic editing.

 

[mward04]

This may sound kind of stupid but, what differences will you notice with the Spyware software?

 

[Stroganoff]

This may sound kind of stupid but, what differences will you notice with the Spyware software?

Definitely not stupid...I just installed Spybot last week in fact. I was previously just using Ad-Aware. I use both now "just in case," because they use different ways to search your computer. Spybot seems to catch everything (and more) than AdAware, but I could be wrong.

I wish I knew the difference too.

I think Ad-Aware does more scanning of your hard drive, blindly looking for anything bad, whereas Spybot looks in commonly known places for programs that are known to be bad.

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Edit: I did a search on a techie forum and found a great tutorial: http://home.comcast.net/~quako33/spyware.htm

 

[youngin]

Yea definitely have those two. Recently I had a hijacker that was really frustrating and spybot didn't catch it but adware did. They really do complement each other. I actually have a third one that's pretty good called Spysweeper which I just throw in just to make sure nothing got by.

Umm for myself:
Spybot, Adware and Spysweeper
IE just cuz i don't feel like trying any other ones
Zone Alarm pro actually does a good job blocking ads and has a lot of other things that are useful
For DVD burning I have so many depending on what I want to do
Stopped downloading recently so don't use P2P much anymore
Trillian for IM but use aim in it

 

[gwyn779]

Spyware (Spybot)
Internet Browsing (I hate to say it but...IE)
Pop-up blocker (Google)
DVD Burning (Nitro/Shrink)
P2P (Kazaa)
IM (Yahoo)
MP3 (iTunes)

Spybot and AdAware, in general I've found to be a very good combo.
Netscape 7. Built-in pop-up blocker so you don't have to bother with anything else, tabbed browsing, plus things look like they should in IE.
AIM just because that's what all my friends use.
Let's see, mp3's...WinAmp for playing on the desktop, MusicMatch Jukebox for ripping, PocketTunes for my palm pilot.