What’s the fuzz about Windows registry cleaners? They are everywhere, claiming to clean up your PC and make Windows run faster. Are these claims sustained? In order to answer that question, a bit of theory is necessary to better understand what’s going on when a registry cleaner application applies all sorts of optimizations.

Windows Registry is an essential part of an operating system. Storing all kinds of information from vital system and hardware configuration settings to completely unimportant stuff such as list of your latest searches, keeping Windows Registry clean and tidy makes Windows happier, and gives a significant boost to the performance of your PC. On the contrary, frequent tasks such as the installation and de-installation of various programs bloat the registry make it fragmented and littered with data that is no longer used.

Commercially available Windows Registry cleaners keep your Windows Registry tidy by cleaning up the clutter, removing obsolete entries, fixing invalid links and deleting shortcuts to non-existent files. A tidy registry means better performance. In a word, Windows Registry cleaners attempt to make your computer run as new.

These are some of the most powerful and popular spyware removers which are widely available. All of them are completely free for download from their official websites and for personal use.

These are some of the most powerful and popular spyware removers which are widely available. All of them are completely free for download from their official websites and for personal use.

Advanced Spyware Remover (ASR): This software from Evonsoft protects your system against and removes numerous malwares such as stealthy spyware, aggressive adware, system hijackers, tracking cookies, keyloggers, dialers, etc. It also scans and lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and System. The new version even includes a Quarantine Manager. Available for download free of cost at www.evonsoft.com/download.htm/

STOPzilla (http://www.stopzilla.com/): STOPzilla is very powerful in protecting against phishing and ID Theft. It features Real-Time Spyware and Adware protection, Integrated Cookie and History cleaning, Integrated Home Page Hijacker protection and a Popup protection. The ZILLAsmart technology automatically checks for updates on a daily basis, and support is free 24/7 via live chat, email or a toll free number.

AD-aware Personal (http://www.lavasoft.com/): A product from Lavasoft, this spyware removal software provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components b detecting known and unknown variants of malware by using the Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology. It scans fixed and removable drives, memory and Windows registry.

Spy Cleaner Lite (http://www.spycleaner.net/): Programs and applications that automatically install themselves on your system are identified and removed by Spy Cleaner. It scans for traces of recognized adware modules in the DAT files, registry and temporary Internet files. After the search, it provides you with a log file.

Spy-Ad Exterminator Free: The software scans for and deletes, ignores, or quarantines your system’s memory, hard drives, and registry for spyware, adware, worms, hijacks, keyloggers, IE Toolbars, etc. Has up to 20,000 malwares in database, which can be updated online.

Disspy Lite: The Disspy Lite scans memory, registry, cookies, files and folders and removes all detected malwares such as keyLoggers, Hijackers, Dialers, Spyware, Adware, Browser Helper Objects, Spyware cookies, aggressive advertising and other malware. All removed files are quarantined for restoration when needed, and users can choose to be alerted whenever a newer database version is available for download. Download available at http://www.h-desk.com/new/Download.12.0.html/

Free Spyware Scanner (www.spyscanner.net): This spyware remover has a huge database of spy components which infects the system, and offers remarkable features such as options for scanning your drives and Registry, updating online, and saving the last, best system set-up as a backup, and the option of saving log file of the scan result and file deletion for future reference.

AdDriller (www.cdmworld.com): AdDriller scans and cleans over 30,000 now malwares. It also includes features such as like active monitoring and HEX Viewers besides removing adware, spyware, malware, Trojans etc, and new features such as scheduling, scan depth, messenger services enable and disable.

Malware Sweeper (http://www.malwaresweeper.com/): This remover not only scans your registry and drives for known adware modules and Spywares, but for your active memory ad components, which are not stored on your hard drive and last only as long as the computer is powered up. It also removes bundled spyware components from Kazaa, Morpheus, audiogalaxy, grokster, Limewire, Imesh, Gnutella.

Broadband Internet connectivity is so common these days that almost no one has a second thought about connecting to the Internet. Connecting is easy, but what if you need to control or restrict the ways in which the Internet connection is to be used? Sure enough, widespread availability of unlimited, unmetered Internet connections has its pros. But what about the contras?

Broadband Internet connectivity is so common these days that almost no one has a second thought about connecting to the Internet. Connecting is easy, but what if you need to control or restrict the ways in which the Internet connection is to be used? Sure enough, widespread availability of unlimited, unmetered Internet connections has its pros. But what about the contras?

Everybody is talking about nowadays how fast their connection is. Fast and unlimited maybe fine for the most home users, but this is not necessarily the same for work or study environments, public places, or specific age groups. The Internet contains enough threats such as spyware and viruses to make you wish to restrict access to certain resources. A virus can corrupt or destroy information on your PC, causing you spending days to recover data. Spyware steals your personal information and slows down your computer’s performance, making it a pain to work on. While it is usually possible to fix a PC contaminated with spyware and viruses, it is much safer and easier to prevent the infection in the first place – by restricting the browsing to the list of known, safe Web sites.

Restrict Internet browsing in Internet Explorer to the defined list of safe Web sites with Ashkon Software WebAllow http://www.weballow.com! WebAllow prevents electronic infections by block access to all but selected preapproved Web sites in Internet Explorer, effectively protecting your computer from spyware and viruses. If a user on your computer tries to access a website that is not on the list of allowed sites, she is redirected to a Web page of your choice to inform her about your access restriction policy.

While viruses and spyware sound familiar enough, Internet threats are not limited to those. The Internet offers a great variety of resources that are not always appropriate for your audience. Online computer games may be fine for the kids, but they can occupy the employees’ attention in an office. Online chats, forums and blogs are popular among students and office employees, occupying their time and taking away from their study or work – wasting valuable time. Finally, while certain Web sites may be appropriate for adults, these same sites are not likely to make you smile when accessed by your children due to coarse language or adult content.

Use WebAllow at home to block all but kid-safe Web sites on your home PC. Use it in the office to prevent your employees wasting their time playing computer games, chatting on the forums or reading breakdown news. Use the same product in the school, college or university to concentrate students’ attention on their study by only allowing access to their online class materials. Install WebAllow in a store or in a library and allow your customers to access your book or product catalog and nothing else. Do not let your computer users misuse Internet connection with WebAllow!

When installed, WebAllow is easy to configure by the administrator, and impossible to disable or uninstall by the regular users. It embeds into Internet Explorer and makes it impossible to visit Web sites other than defined. WebAllow is light on memory and disk space, and is perfect to be used on any computer type from powerful workstations to public computers with small memory and hard drives.

Once configured, WebAllow requires absolutely zero administration and runs completely unattended. WebAllow will improve your personal privacy and computer security, protect your kids, increase employee performance and motivate students. Download evaluation copy for free at http://www.weballow.com/

Prior to trying the Avast 4.6 Home Edition, I was very much a Norton user. I knew there were a lot of free antivirus software out there but I wanted to be on the safe side and use something tried and true. However, with the increase of spyware and virus attacks, my computer was not always spared and there were times I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. That’s when I thought that it was time to try something new – and free.

Like a brush is to a painter an essential skill in the field of graphic design is Photoshop. The software offers increased productivity as well as flexibility. The features include aspects like file browser, vanishing point tool, smart sharpen filter, noise reduction filter, smart objects, as well as camera workflow enhancements.