Often times I am called upon to fix friends computers. Sometimes it's hard depending on their situation, so when I remember to, I bring a cd (or usb drive) with programs on it. Usually I have them describe the problem, then I decide what I'll need. Right now I'm trying to create a good cd that has a lot of things that would be useful, if you have any to add, please do:

Here is a site with a similar list (contributed by Monga): Other sites list of utilities

Virus/Spyware Updates:
NAV latest virus defs: Latest virus definitions for any Symantec Anti-Virus program
Newest ref list for Adaware: Latest spyware reference list for Lavasofts Adaware
Newest ref list for SpyBot: Latest SpyBot Search&Destroy definitions

Virus/Spyware Detection/Removal Programs:
Mcafee Stinger: Searches specifically for some of the most common trojans and removes them
Lavasoft Adaware: A great spyware detection/removal program
Spybot Search&Destroy: Another spyware detection/removal utility, good to run both this and adaware
SpywareBlaster: A utitlity that closes secuirty holes to prevent spyware and other things from being installed
SpywareGuard: Made by the same people who make SpywareBlaster. A real-time protection solution against spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
HiJackThis: A utitlity to detect any irregularness with your windows Operating System
Trojan Remover: A great utility for finding and removing trojans - 30Day Trial
CWShredder Alternate Link: Helps get rid of of the Cool Web Search hijacker, only removes some of the older variants
Kill2Me: A removal tool specifically for the Look2Me parasite
BHODemon: A tool to quickly and easily remove/disable BHO's. Commonly used for browser hijacks.
TrendMicro's Housecall: An online virus scanner, free.
KazaaBeGone Alternate Link: A Kazaa uninstaller which scans and removes all elements of all Kazaa versions, as well as all of the bundled software that comes with it.
SSA Keylogger Cleaner: A utitily that will remove the SSA keylogger
Panda AntiRootkit: Panda AntiRootkit is a free utility that performs in-depth scans of your computer in search for hidden resources, identifying and disinfecting known and unknown rootkits.

Symantec Trojan Removal Tools:
List of Removal Tools
Sasser Removal Tool
Beagle Removal Tool
Blaster Removal Tool
Welchia Removal Tool
Nimda Removal Tool

Useful Network Utilities:
DrPing: Doctorping will check the latency to a class of internet routers spread through the US, and take your browser back to a broadbandreports page, to display your ping score, and your rank.
TCPView: Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections.
ZoneAlarm free firewall: If you refuse to pay for a software firewall, use this
Protowall: A free utility that blocks undesired connections, to and from your computer via blocklist.
PeerGuardian: PeerGuardian 2 integrates support for multiple lists, list editing, automatic updates, and blocking all of IPv4 (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), making it the safest and easiest way to protect your privacy on P2P.

Useful Applications:
Winrar: A compression utility, like WinZip
Regclean: Cleans your registry of old entrys left behind after an uninstall of a program
Adobe Reader
YahooPops!: YPOPs! is an application that provides POP3 access to Yahoo Mail. It is available o­n the Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac platform
Startup List: Gives you a list of what is being loaded on startup
Hotmail Popper: Hotmail Popper is a small application that allows you to check your Hotmail account from a normal POP mail client.
AIDA32: AIDA32 is system information and benchmarking tool with full hardware & software information on 80 pages.
TrayIt!: For each application which applies TrayIt! it creates a small icon in the System Tray.
Media Player Classic: Looks like wmp6.4, but has more features including being able to play realmedia and quicktime files.
ShootTheMessenger: Disables Windows Messenger Service so you don't have to do it manually
Belarc Advisor: The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser.
WCPUID: Displays info on your processor and motherboard
MBM5: Motherboard Monitor is an extremely useful utility that allows you to monitor your CPU speed, temps, fan speeds, and CPU utilization.
CoolMon: A program for monitoring vital system stats and almost anything else you wish to display on the desktop. It can also display stats from remote pc's and publish real-time stats on a webpage. The application can display CPU, RAM and page file usage, hard drive usage, MotherBoard Monitor temperatures and fan speeds, various network stats and more.
WinSock XP Fix: If you encounter connection problems after removing network related software, Adware or after registry clean-up; and all other ways fail, then give WinSock XP Fix a try
Process Monitor: Process Monitor includes 3 utilities: Regmon, Filemon and Process Explorer
Process Explorer: Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Old Versions: This site has old versions of popular programs available for download.
Audacity: Free Audio editing, mixing, processing program
SpeedFan: SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.
GSpot: Excellent program to determine what Audio and Video codec's you need.
FileMon: FileMon monitors and displays file system activity on a system in real-time.
RegMon: Regmon is a Registry monitoring utility that will show you which applications are accessing your Registry, which keys they are accessing, and the Registry data that they are reading and writing - all in real-time.
FireFox: FireFox is an alternate to using InternetExplorer
Free version of SpaceMonger Pay version: Helps you find out what files and directories are taking up the space on your hard drive.

Data Recovery/Permanent Deletion:
BadCopy Pro: A utitlity to recover lost data from floppy disks
Darik's Boot and Nuke: A program that will SECURELY delete an entire HardDrive
Eraser: A program that will SECURELY delete selected files
NTFS DOS boot disk: Provides read access to NTFS drives from the MS DOS environment.
CHNTPW: Utility that will allow you to reset your Windows password.
GetDataBack: Utility that will recover files from a HardDrive failure, both NTFS and FAT. Only a Trial though.
KillBox: Killbox removes files that don't want to be removed due to them being in use, or malware, or whatever. Good tool, but should only be used as a last resort!

Programming:
AutoIt: AutoIt v3 is an opensource BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI.

Full cd's that you need:
AutoPatcher: A cd that includes all the current XP/2000/2003 Windows Updates and other special features
UltimateBootCD: A boot cd to do diagnostics on your hardware or run Anti-Virus without booting your system
WindowsUBCD: UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair, restore, or diagnose almost any computer problem.
Knoppix STD: This is mainly a Security Live CD used by Security professionals. Outdated though
BackTrack Live CD: This is also a Security Live CD, it's much more updated than Knoppix and generally regarded as the best

Windows Updates:
Updates for all versions of Windows: Here they have all the service packs and all the critical updates you need to install immediately after making a new installation and BEFORE putting the computer on the network.



*I will probably update this later with more + short descriptions and try to organize these better
**Other ppl contributed to this list, it wasn't just me. Alan was a big contributor.

I welcome your additions

Spybot S&D

Thanks- that's a great idea! now I have a new project to make a CD!

mcafee stinger.exe

Sisoft Sandra is always a good tool to have around.

trojan hunter

trojanhunter.com


Hijackthis
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/


spybot
http://security.kolla.de/

I concur. Though, if it's mainly used to deal with viruses and trojans, I'm not sure how useful Sandra would be.

F

I carry a flash drive with me containing the following:
Acrobat Reader
AdAware + most recent updates
Belarc Advisor
CWShredder
Get Data Back (FAT & NTFS)
Google Toolbar
Hijack This
InfranView
Kill2Me
Norton AV 2004 15 day trial + most recent definitions
Spybot + most recent updates
Virus/Trojan Removal Programs (Klez and the like - whatever the flavor of the week is)
WinRAR
WinZip
As you can see I do alot of virus, trojan, adware & spyware removal plus data recovery. Such is my life.

I also carry around a bunch of CD's containing:
Every Windows OS from 95 - XP and associated service packs & updates
Different versions of MS Office + updates
Internet Explorer 6
Ultimate Boot CD (great CD, get it here: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com)
AOL 7, 8 & 9 (I gotta have them, what can I say)

Then I have Cd's containing:
CD burning software
Data recovery software
Data elimination software
Drive Imaging software
FTP Software
Password Recovery software
PC Diagnostic software
File Synchronization software
and let's not forget boot floppies

I got more, but I think that's enough for now

I think you'll like this too: http://www.autopatcher.com
I classify this as one of those "must have" tools if you install XP alot.
Download = 254MB

^^

^^

This should be a "pinned" topic. Lots of good advice for everyone.

^^

can we pin this??

Great thread!

I would like to add some diagnostic utilities (Windows)

TCPview realtime viewing of all TCP activity that is easy to understand and fast loading

Dr TCP over at broadbandreports.com
Dr Ping as well

Motherboard Monitor 5 (goes great with CoolMon)

AIDA32 - no longer being udpdated, but I like it better that SiSoft SANDRA
These are excellent for getting the kind of info you would have to find screenprinted on your motherboard etc. All the details neccessary for getting the correct drivers or setting details.

If you get those annoying windows messaging popups and don't want to have to figure out how to turn off Windows Messaging (not MSN IM, but the OS messaging program), check out www.grc.com for free utils like shootthemessenger.exe

TrayIt! is for being able to minimize open windows to system tray, instead of taking up space on your task bar.

Updated with BHODemon, cool little tool

what about trojanhunter? trojanhunter.com

I think its a great program. I've been using it for about 1 year now

Have you ever used Trojan Remover or TDS-3. I would think TDS-3 is comparable or better than this prog, but I haven't ever used trojanhunter. Trojan Remover is also very good too, but it sounds like TrojanHunter offers features similar to TDS-3.

The reason I think TDS-3 is comparable or better is because of how long its been around and how good of a reputation it has.

Killbox

Winsock Fix Tool

Find hidden dll files

Host file reader

I'll look them over tomorrow and add them, I'm too tired right now.

Thanks

Thanks steinmto, some great tools, will be very useful

PowerArchiver is a great file compression utility too, but I've had some problems with RAR files, so keep winrar handy.

some more:

WinXP PowerToys

BootDisk.com - when you need to boot from a floppy

Windows Ultimate Boot CD - like Ultimate Boot CD, but for Windows

eh...I forget what else...but I'll update when I'm back on my home machine

Cool thanks, I am really busy this week so I may not have it updated until next week.

Keep 'um coming. Can never have too many good util's. By the time we all share our little secret utils we won't have to do anything manually anymore!

I'll be adding SpywareGuard soon:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html

IESpyAd:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm
http://www.windowsforum.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=6640

ZoneAlarm
very nice software firewall.
Free Download for personal use.

I dont know if it belongs to here or not.. but thought I will post.

Great list. I'd recommend three others:

IrfanView - Fast image viewer
WallCal - Shareware, superimposes an updatable calendar on desktop images of your choice. I've been using it for years, and like it, but it appears the developer has abandoned it.
dBpowerAMP Music Converter and dBpowerAMP Audio Player - what their title suggest.

Agitator, JTest, JProbe, Webtrends, MSSQL, Eclipse, Tomcat, Visio, EA.

Don't forget Trend Micro's HouseCall Online virus scanner.

Ok, I added some of yours and some more of my own. I think I'm going to add some more sections and divide the things up better. Like usefu utils for virus/spwyare removal, and then a general useful utils, and then a section for coding utils, etc.

So keep adding!

For email server admins.

After 60 days this turns into a limited freeware(one scanning engine instead of 4) email virus and content checker.

http://www.gfi.com/mailsecurity/msecfreeware.htm

Putty a good telnet/SSH client

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
Microsoft SUS Server

http://www.microsoft.com/sus
For network admins to push out MS Updates

Check out http://www.susserver.com for tools to go along with it.

Freebies:

Avast antivirus

Sygate firewall

pcpitstop.com & run the full tests (anonymously if you'd like)- they also provide a free fix for the security settings in IE,

Everest Home- to replace AIDA32

Diskeeper Lite- the true FREE version- still available on the web. Not pest-related other than the PITA of a fragmented drive otherwise...

Not free but...
PestPatrol- always, always finds more "baddies" than any other program ($40)

Mom ;^)

I think Adobe Reader Speedup from that Acrobat thread should be added to this list even though it doesn't really have anything to do with virus/trojan/spyware removal. It's made my Acrobat load fast.

http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/prods/misc/index.php

Filemon AND Regmon

Thanks everyone for the additions. By the end of October I will have this all formatted nice, keep adding.

Here is the B$ thread notifying Spybot S&D Updates:
(thanks WingsOverVA)
http://www.bargainshare.com/index.php?act=ST&f=22&t=23598

Here is some info from TellyTubby on free system security software. Some of the info is duplicate, so you guys might want to work together on this so it gets a sticky:
http://www.bargainshare.com/index.php?showtopic=42556&hl=

I personally started using Avast as free anti-virus software. AVG was getting too bloated, and the updates were lousy. However, AVG is coming out with a new version of their free software soon. They will completely stop providing updates for the old version, so you MUST upgrade.

Protowall

Protowall is a lightweight program that runs in the background, taking up little CPU and memory, while blocking thousands of bad IP addresses.

And Blocklist Manager

The Blocklist Manager is an application that downloads blacklists from various sources and exports them to applications such as: Protowall PeerGuardian ZoneAlarm Sygate Blockpost Kazaa Lite K++ eMule And many other popular P2P apps & firewalls

I'll be updating more and more, thanks for all the additions.

Any suggestions on how to divide it up or colors are welcome. I tried adding colors so it's not so blah, but it might not look that great...

Being the dork that I am, I never even scrolled down the page far enough to see this forum. Thanks for all of your hard work on this!

I didn't see SpywareGuard in there so here is the link:
SpywareGuard

Another on would be GSpot.
Excellent program to determine what Audio and Video codec's you need.
GSpot

Great site for drivers.
DriverGuide
Login Info:
username: drivers
password: all

SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.

Can read on at SpeedFan

Download: SpeedFan

Prime 95 for testing stability when overclocking:
Prime95
Memory Testing utility:
Memtest86

Free Audio editing, mixing, processing program:
Audacity

Wow, I have to say that this thread is truly impressive. I havn't seen a thread like this one(atleast not a good one) on ANY other forum!

NICE JOB GUYS!

I was looking for a good, basic download manager, and came across wackget, which in turn linked me to tinyapps.org, which lists many numerous small utilities. I for one really like minimalist apps that don't need to add stuff to the registry or change settings all over your system, so I'm sure I'll find plenty of good stuff here

found another one:

foxit pdf viewer - small, standalone PDF viewer. less than 1mb download, much faster than adobe's reader! it doesn't have quite as many features as acrobat, but it's much less bloated. I've always had problems with viewing PDFs in firefox (the acrobat exe lingers after I close the pdf, or freezes firefox outright), but you can instead have firefox open pdf files externally with this program, much quicker than loading acrobat

anyone else use jv16 power tools, has a nice registry cleaner and was able to locate every registry key and value for a virus that wouldn't go away on a co-workers computer

worked out well for me

Yep I've used it before, handy little utility, and FREE IIRC....

I can't believe I didn't see your post until now.

I use an online PDF reader for when I don't want to open up Acrobat Reader but sometimes it doesn't work. FoxIt would probably be even faster than using Adobe + Adobe Reader Speedup... I'll have to check it out.

Thanks for the post, qwex!

EDIT: Works great! So much faster!

Found a GREAT software for searching for duplicate files on your computer - DoubleKiller. I tried it and it works great!