I have broken this article into four parts to make it easier on both you, the reader, and me.  As I publish the other sections of this article, I will add a link to them.

• Part 1 – Communication/Business Tools
• Part 2 – Security/Performance Tools
• Part 3 – Media Tools
• Part 4 – Miscellaneous Tools

Avast! Antivirus

Replaces: Norton Antivirus, McAffee Antivirus
Alternatives: AVG, Avira
Pros: Unobtrusive, Lightweight, Fast

Avast! antivirus is powerful anti virus software, but, unlike its mainstream competitors, Norton and McAffee, you’ll barely be able to tell that it’s there.  Avast! is lightweight and unobtrusive, it wont bog down your system and barely bugs you unless it finds a virus or other malicious code.  The home edition of Avast! is free for 13 months if you register it, and when it expires, all you have to do is register again to get another 13 months of updates.

Download Avast! Antivirus: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Mirror: http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/

Windows Defender

Replaces: Ad-Aware
Alternatives: N/A
Pros: Unobtrusive, Lightweight, Fast

What’s that?  A product by Microsoft that isn’t a piece of crap?  And it’s free to anyone with Windows XP or Vista?!  It’s hard to believe, but it’s true, Windows Defender is actually a solid product, and free so long as you’re using XP or Vista.  Also, unlike it’s alternatives, Windows Defender never bugs you unless it finds some malicious software.  The one thing I will say that it has working against it though is that it uses Windows Update for maintaining its spyware list.

Download Windows Defender: http://tinyurl.com/dyvaw

Mirror: http://www.filehippo.com/download_microsoft_antispyware/

CCleaner

Replaces: N/A
Alternatives: N/A
Pros: Lightweight, Fast, Automation

From CCleaner.com:

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast

Download CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/download

Mirror: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Defraggler

Replaces: Windows Defrag Tool
Alternatives: N/A
Pros: Lightweight, Fast

Defraggler is a freeware hard drive defraging tool by Piriform, the same people who created CCleaner.  Defragglers differs from most defrag tools on the market, by allowing you to easily defrag individual files, without the need to defrag the whole drive.  All you ahve to do is run it, select the file(s) you would like to defrag and in seconds that file will be fully defragmented.  Of course you always have the option to defrag the whole drive.

Download Dfraggler: http://www.defraggler.com/download

Mirror: http://www.filehippo.com/download_defraggler/