Yearly Archives: 2011

Quickly install/update software

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If you’ve just bought a new PC or reinstalled Windows, then I’m sure you’d love to save some time installing software. There’s so much software to install and it can take a while to download it all, then keep them up to date. This is where Ninite comes to save the day!

Ninite
Ninite.com is a great website where you simply click on all the software you need installed, download the Ninite installer, then run it and wait. Ninite will then install all the software you chose without any toolbars or junk that’s usually included, if you agree to install it (many people do install the toolbars and adware by mistake – Ninite helps prevent this!).

Currently Ninite can install many popular browsers, messengers, email clients, media players, runtimes such as .NET, image editing software, document readers/writers, security software such as Microsoft Security Essentials and much more. There’s just so much software available, and you can simply choose your favourites or the one’s you know best.

Ninite: Official Website

New PC running slow? Decrapify it!

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Is your PC running slow? Getting lots of random popups? Even if it’s new there could be a lot of software you didn’t install, making your new PC run very slow. Many PC manufacturers will pre-install extra software, trialware and generally software you won’t ever need. PC Decrapifier is an easy to use application that can help you remove the software you don’t really need.

So what does PC Decrapifier do?
PC Decrapifier will firstly create a system restore point, so if anything goes wrong, you can restore your PC back to the way it was before removing anything. Then it will scan your PC for software that is known to be crapware (the software you don’t really need), then after a single click from you (just to confirm you don’t want it), it will then remove the software for you.

After the known crapware is removed, you’re shown a list of software that is installed to your PC. If there’s any software you don’t want or use, it can be removed but you might want to Google Search the software first, unless you know what it is.

Download PC Decrapifier: Official Site

Microsoft’s new antivirus boot disk

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Microsoft have been working on a new standalone antivirus, named Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper (MSSS?), which scans for viruses and spyware without the need to boot into Windows. This is currently in beta, but seems to work very well.

If you’ve used Microsoft Security Essentials, then you’ll already be familiar with the interface as it’s very similar and even uses the same virus and spyware definition files. To make use of System Sweeper all you need to do is download the 32bit or 64bit version (depending on your version of Windows) and install it to a USB flash drive. At the time of writing this post it takes up around 260MB of space, so a flash drive of around 512MB should be fine. Once you’ve installed MSSS simply reboot your computer, choose to boot from your flash drive and then scan for viruses. If any are found simply quarantine or remove them.

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper isn’t a replacement for an antivirus, and is really there to help remove viruses that stop you either running your own antivirus scans or prevent you from booting into Windows altogether. If you need a decent but free antivirus, then consider Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s completely free and I recommend it to all my own customers.