Programs that I find absolutely essential

This list is continually growing, as I learn more ways to protect my computer from every sort of attacker.

Sygate Personal Firewall Pro
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_pro.htm

I've tried many, many firewalls. Most either didn't work well, or didn't want to combine with some of the other items I had installed on my computer. Sygate is very intuitive to use, and blocks everything you want blocked while allowing the things you want. It's easy enough to use that I even recommended it to Mom.

WashAndGo
http://www.abelssoft.de/engl/washandgo.htm

From the site:
WashAndGo allows you to reclaim drive space quickly, by getting rid of space-wasting "garbage". WashAndGo can remove *.bak,*.tmp files, zero-byte files and wrong-uninstall entries. It can delete defective links, empty the tmp. directory, erase old browser-cache files, and clean your Start folders. There is a variety of security options: it will give you a prompt so you can choose which files to delete; it can store all marked files in a special backup directory before deleting them - after 14 days the files can still be
found in the Windows trashcan. The program is fast, secure, and reliable. Let WashAndGo reclaim your wasted disk space."

CounterSpy
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy.cfm

From the website:
Spyware and adware does more than just steal information about your computing habits. It slows down your PC and may break it so badly you can't even get on the Internet. The answer is CounterSpy . It has
Active Protection™, (you could call that a "spy-wall").

And from PC World:
"CounterSpy had the highest detection rate in our tests. The most effective scanner--CounterSpy--was also the fastest, taking only a minute to perform a complete scan of a system with 2.7GB of data. Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy proved the most capable of the bunch, finding and stopping 93 percent
of all the running processes created by our 45 test programs."

Diskeeper
http://www.executive.com/defrag/defrag.asp

From the site:
Diskeeper 9 features a high-speed defragmentation engine that runs in the background, eliminating fragmentation-related slowdowns and crashes. With Diskeeper, you never need to worry about fragmentation because Diskeeper handles it for you—automatically and undetectably!

From my own experience, Diskeeper will defragment drives that other programs say are
unfixable. In addition, their help staff responds quickly and will work with you to solve any problems.

Spybot - Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

It would be easy to spend a fortune on good programs to protect your computer. But thankfully, some of the best are still free. I'd definately buy Spybot if they charged for it, but it's one of the wonderful free ones that
works as well or better than many you could pay for.

From the site:
"the home of Spybot-S&D, the best (according to PC World, PC Mag, Download.com...) privacy software available!"

Make sure that you run Tea-timer also (it's included with the download) and you'll not only have a great program to remove spyware, but one to help keep stuff from getting on your computer in the first place.

SpywareBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Makes a great one, two punch when combined with Spybot.

From the site:
"Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today.
By simply browsing to a web page, you could find your computer to be the brand-new host of one of these
unwanted fiends!

The most important step you can take is to secure your system. And SpywareBlaster is the most powerful protection program available.

# Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software.
# Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
# Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer."

Adaware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

From the site:
Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level.

Peer Guardian 2
http://methlabs.org/

Probably my favorite program on this list. It blocks incoming attacks and is constantly updating the list so your computer will be safe and secure and yours! It will amaze and astound you who is trying to get onto your computer, and the worst part is that the government is doing nothing to stop them...in fact, they are
trying their darnest to help them. Makes you want to give up on the democrats and the republicans both. But back to PG2. It's free and very needed. In fact, if you're like me, after using it a bit, you'll wonder why you ever went on-line without it.