Before I go on, I should probably explain why I don’t use one of the big AV scanners.  I use freeware anti-virus scanners at home because I’m cheap.  I used to load AVG on every computer I owned, but somehow AVG determined that I was using more copies than was legal(you can load a copy on one non-commercial computer) and they popped up a window telling me that I was breaking the law.  Now, it could have just been a scare tactic, but it made me go out and read AVG’s free license options very carefully.  And since there were other freeware options, I just diversified.

I run AVG on my most important system because it is a real-time scanner so it can prevent me from goofing up.  On the rest of the computers I run Clamwin which is nice, but will not prevent me from goofing up.  I am considering trying Avast anti-virus, but that’s for another post.

Now, I recently upgraded to AVG8.  But it has a new feature that isn’t very zippy in it’s performance.  The Link Scanner option really slows down browsing on computers, especially when you execute a google search and you get 10-50 options and the Link Scanner is checking each web page for it’s nastiness level.  Now, you can disable the option, but then you get a red exclamation point in the systray and I don’t like red things in my systray.  Red to me means bad, and I like mostly green things in my systray so that I know the system is healthy.

Claus, remember Claus?  I mentioned him at the beginning of the post, experienced this same problem and blogged about it.  Some nice, anonymous person read about his pain and sent him a command line hack to fix this problem.  It’s so awesome.  Download the binary from AVG via this link.  Save the binary to somewhere, then run it from the commandline with these two flags:

avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch

then accept all the default options, accept licenses, etc until you get to the add/remove components, repair, and some third option.  Select the add/remove components and then continue all the way through and whammo, you will have AVG8 sans Link Scanner.  You will probably have to update your virus definitions, but that’s no biggy.

Big Kudos to Claus for so thoroughly reviewing this product and to the anonymous poster who helped relieve this pain!

• GTDTiddlyWiki
  • This is a neat tool. A wiki is a tool that people use to collaborate on projects or ideas. This one is handy as it uses the Getting Things Done action management system. It’s handy for organizing your chores, projects, life, etc.
    
• ClamWinPortable
  • It’s a free virus scanner.
• xmplay
  • A really lightweight MP3 player.
    
• 7-zip
  • It’s a freeware winzip replacement.
    
• AutoHotkey
  • It’s a scripting tool for windows. Handy for handling monotonous tasks.
    
• Contig
  • It’s a file defragmenter. You know how you can defrag entire hard drives? Well this will defrag just one file. It’s a windows command line tool. Useful when you’re having problems burning an ISO.
• cpu-z
  • This is a tool that analyzes your windows hardware configuration. It will tell you what motherboard you have, what firmware it’s loaded on, what speed your memory is running on. And you don’t have to install it. Very useful.
    
• jdiskreport
  • It analyzes your disk utilization. Handy for finding out where your hard drive space is going to. Remember kids, any hard drive filled more than 80% full will take forever to defragment.
    
• Kar Kare
  • A palm program that keeps a record of my vehicle maintenance. It also keeps track of your gas mileage and then reminds you when new maintenance is due. Very useful, dirt cheap, and the programmer is really nice. He’s shipped me the executable like 4 times when I’ve lost it. Hence the reason I now carry it on my palm and also on my thumbdrive.
    
• Portaputty
  • When accessing systems remotely you need to do it securely so crooks don’t steal your data. Putty is a free version of SSH that lets you get onto boxes and do work remotely. Remember kids, telnet is bad. It’s so bad that it would rape your grandma if it only had legs.
    
• UnxUtils.zip
  • Cygwin is awesome. But you have to install it, so it’s not very portable. UnxUtils offers many of the command line tools you’re used to in unix but they’re compiled for windows.
    
• QuickPar
  • Par files are used to ensure you actually got the information that was intended to be sent to you. They can also be used to rebuild files that are damaged if you have enough of them. This is a free solution for that. Useful for newsgroup lovers.
    
• ImgBurn
  • Useful for burning ISOs.
    
• TightVNC
  • Useful for securely, remotely, accessing GUIs.
    
• PortableApps
  • An office replacement. Not as powerful, but free and portable.
• pscp/psftp
  • A part of the putty suite. It’s a free secure copy binary. Let’s you securely copy files from one machine to another via a network.
• cwRsync
  • Remote sync is used to compare data from two different locations. You can set it up to pull data from one place to another or use it for backups or all kinds of stuff.
    
• Documents
  Some scripts I’ve worked on – because reusing code is smart.
  Some PDFs
  
• A little music
  • Because lifes too short to not rock.

Thanks,

Daniel J. Doughty

Here’s the particular thumbdrive I’m using at the moment. By putting it on my keychain, I don’t end up leaving it in my pants. Which is handy, because I’ve nuked a few by washing and drying them. They’re ok the first few times you do that, but after a while they croak.