Tools

Suggested Tools

On this page you will find links to tools I have used for some time and have had good success with (I am not the author nor creator of any of these tools, I link to them here as a convenience).

Links open to new windows.

Computer Safety
Media Players
Other Tools
Speed Test

The "Computer Safety" video on my Portfolio page explains how to install and use free software and gives other tips for keeping your computer safe. The links in this section are shortcuts to getting the software I talk about in the video (plus more).

Basic Security: Windows Only

	AVG: Excellent Virus protection (and now some spyware protection as well). It is not recommended that you use more than one virus protection program.
	Glary Utilities: General Purpose "cleaner" - looks at the Registry, shortcuts, Startup items, Temp files, and more. It does offer to install the Ask.com toolbar during installation; I suggest you remove that checkmark as you install the utilities.

Advanced Security: Windows Only

	BeLarc Advisor: shows a detailed profile of hardware and software on your machine. Not dangerous, but not much value if you are not sure what you are looking at.
	Spybot S&D: Excellent spyware and adware removal tool, but also has a lot of other tools for finding "bad" startup items and otherwise helping to diagnose and fix computers.

These tools are needed to view many of the movies and other "rich" media on the web.

Media Players: Windows and Mac

	Acrobat Reader: Allows you to read PDF (Portable Document Format) documents. These are very common - Mac OS X has its own reader built in that works well.
	Flash Player: A common format for showing video and interactive web content.
	QuickTime: Allows you to be able to play many poplar audio and video formats found on the web. The download link also allows you to download iTunes if you like. My Portfolio page has a video on iTunes.
	Real Player: Another common format for online videos.

Media Players: Mac Only

There are a couple of Mac-only media players I suggest for Mac users. They allow you to view just about any media file you run across on the web, even if not designed to be "Mac-friendly".

	Flip4Mac: Allows for the viewing of most Windows Media Files.
	Perian: Allows for viewing of a very wide range of video formats; pretty much anything but Windows Media Files

Many Prescott Computer Guy customers use these programs - all are free and have served many people well.

Other Tools: Windows and Mac

	Chrome: Excellent web browser that can be used instead of Internet Explorer or Safari. Very simple interface and is fast.
	Firefox: Another excellent web browser that can be used instead of Internet Explorer or Safari. It is easy to use and fast, though maybe not quite as easy or fast as Chrome, but allows for more customization.
	FireFox Web Developer Extension: Adds many developer tools in a handy menu - absolutely essential to any web developer as far as I am concerned.
	OpenOffice: For many people a great and free alternative to Microsoft Office.
	Picasa: If you have a digital camera this is an excellent choice for finding, organizing, editing, and sharing your photos (Windows or Mac, but Macs come with a similar program called iPhoto - also excellent)

Other Tools: Windows Only

	CutePDF: Allows saving almost any file you can print as a PDF (a file that can be read on almost any computer). (Windows only but Macs have the capability built in)
	IE Tester: A handy tool to see how web pages look in IE5.5, IE6, IE7 and IE8. It is not the most stable of programs, but it comes in very handy. For Mac users, or to see how your site works in even more browsers, you can use browsershots.org or Adobe's Browser Lab.
	UltraVNC: A useful tool for allowing people to remotely see and control your computer - with your permission, of course!

Other Tools: Mac Only

DreamCatcher for OS X: A tool that allows the easy spell checking of an entire website. It is excellent, even if a little quirky (it sometimes reports half a word as a misspelled word). Still, an excellent tool.

If you think your Internet speed is slower than it should be, then this is a good way to be able to bring exact numbers to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). For best results, you should quit out of any other program that might use your Internet connection as you do this test, such as email programs.

Internet Speed Test: Windows and Mac

Either of the above sites should work to give you a good idea of your Internet speed.