It’s getting close to the gift-giving season and you might be thinking about building (or rebuilding) a Windows computer as a present for someone, or possibly even as a gift to yourself. When I rebuild a computer, I like to install a standard set of utilities and tools that are very useful for keeping the computer working well and for fixing any problems that will inevitably occur.

Windows XP and Vista come with a variety of software tools for providing useful services, such as backing up and defragmenting the hard drive and scanning for malicious software. However, not all tools you may need are included with Windows, and certainly not the best tools for every job. And when you start adding up the costs of all the tools you might need, you’ve just added several hundred dollars to the cost of rebuilding that old computer! Doesn’t anybody make good Windows tools that are also free?

In this article, I look at ten categories of computer utilities used to fix, maintain, and provide useful services for Windows computers, and I make recommendations of free tools for you to try. All of the tools listed are freely distributed under a public license and are available from their owner’s Web site, or from the amazing selection of Freeware tools at MajorGeeks.com.

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There are many bad places on the World Wide Web. And by bad I don’t mean poorly designed Web sites containing pages filled with useless information (my personal Web site would qualify here). I am referring to Web sites that are specifically designed to do bad things to your computer. These so-called malicious Web hosts have but one purpose: to infect your computer with Adware, Spyware and even Malware when you visit their Web pages. There is a lot of money to be made in stealing your private information, tracking what you do on the Internet, and gaining control of your computer. Malicious Web sites are a significant tool used to accomplish these nefarious goals.

I know what you are thinking: “There are a lot of free Spyware and Malware scanners out there. I’ll just use one of those!” Yes, there are many free and low-cost anti-Spyware and anti-Malware programs. However, most virus and Spyware scanners work by identifying malicious software after it has infected your computer (and if you attempt to remove the Malware you can never be sure that it is truly gone). In other words, scanners are reactive to the presence of malicious software on your computer. What you really need is protection that is proactive and prevents the Malware from infecting your computer in the first place. And wouldn’t it be nice if this protection were simple to install, transparent to operate, and be free of charge as well? Have you ever heard of the hosts file?

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