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  This is a consolidation of the "Best of the Best" links found on G4TechTV's Tech Support message boards. There's been many contributers to this post and many of them have given these links out countless times. These links have proven themselves time and time again. It's my sincere hope that these links will solve your computer problem. And if you don't have any outstanding computer issues to address, then feel free to explore the fruit of the research of many technitions and computer enthusiasts. And if you have a problem that this page does not address, then feel free to read up on How to Post on the Tech Support message board, and then post your question.
All of the software found here is free. There are upgrade versions available for many of them, and better programs available, but software is most likely to be used when it's free. If you have any concern about the quality of the software listed here, rest assured that it's been painstakingly tested by many people and has proven itself to be either equal or almost equal to any software you can buy.  The shareware and other programs that expire within a set period of time can be installed, used, and then uninstalled without having to worry about it undoing the changes you made.  However, remember that some software, such as  registry cleaners, make backups of the registry changes they make.  Therefore, if you delete a bunch of registry entries and then uninstall the program, you lose the ability to restore those changes if you find out you needed them.

Startup Utilities: Startup managers are programs that help you control the way your operating system starts up. With these programs you can enable or disable programs and services that automatically run each time you start your computer. You can control what runs on startup for better performance, more features, or just to see what something does. I need to warn you though, making changes to the startups that are too radical can get you into trouble. I personally have had to boot into safe mode and restore my setting back a day because I made significant changes to my startups and XP refused to restart properly. Also heed the warning about MSConfig. Especially if you have an older version of Windows.

Hardware and Software Utilities: Need to find out something about your computers hardware or software? These utilities will provide information, benchmarks, speed tests, find problems, check for outdated drivers, and tell you your computers operating temperature.

Internet Security: Keeping your computer secure is your first line of defence against hackers, viruses, trojans, hijackers, spammers, and adware. These programs and sites will help you make the job a little bit easier. They will also educate you about the threat and your computer, and is one of the most important parts of computer maintenance you can do.

Computer Security: Keeping your computer safe is not limited to the internet. You also need to keep it secure when you are not on the internet. Opening files of dubious origin always involves risk of infection or hijacking, but you never know about the ones that your friend brings . Often it's someone else using your computer that infects it unwittingly. Peer to Peer file sharing is also a major source of infection.


Web Sites with Useful information
These web sites have information that can help people diagnose many common problems on their computers. They also have information that people commonly ask about.
A0.. Doxdesk.com/parasite lists information about software parasites and automatically scans your computer for parasites. However, the scan seems to lock up the latest version of Slimbrowser so be careful if you use Sb to view this page.
A1.. SpywareGuide.com lists information about spyware.
A2.. Spywareinfo.com also lists information about spyware
A3.. Answersthatwork.com lists common tasks that are running on your machine.
A4.. BlackViper.com gives information about Windows Services.
A5.. BIOS Power On Self Test (POST) Beep Codes
A6.. Fdisk Radified gives information on how to use the Fdisk utility.
A7.. Annoyances.org has a lot of information and tip on many subjects.
A8.. Password Recovery for Windows XP, 2000, NT. Make sure you read the FAQ Before you do anything
A9.. Vmyths.com is a web site with the latest news about Virus Hoaxes and Myths.
AA.. Hoaxbusters.ciac.org is an Email hoax site. Learn why you should not believe everything you read.
AB.. Internet Explorer errors are easily resolved with the help of one of Henri Leboeuf's Web pages.
AC.. Windows Fatal Eception errors are also more easy to troubleshoot with the help of Henri Leboeuf's Web site.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
These articles by Microsoft resolve issues that we often see on this board.
B0.. 319585 Windows "Software Update incomplete, This Software Update Did Not Update Successfully" Error Message When You Visit the Windows Update Site
B1.. 281679 You Cannot Open New Internet Explorer Window or Nothing Happens After You Click a Link
B2.. 306615 The Computer Always Starts in Safe Mode
B3.. 308421 How To Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
B4.. 148919 Windows Restarts Continuously
B5.. 311806 Windows Restarts When You Try to Shut Down Your Computer
B6.. 314057 NTLDR Is Missing Error Message When You Upgrade or Install Windows XP Over Windows 95, Windows 98, Or Windows Millenium
B7.. 321305 How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password or Your PassWord Expires
B8.. 302089 How to Prevent Windows Messenger From Running on a Windows XP Based Computer

Windows Installation Helpful How To Sites
These sites offer good information on how to install and repair Microsoft Windows.
C0.. XP Clean Install
C1.. How To Repair XP gives how to use the installation disk to repair Windows XP.
C2.. 221829 How to Install Windows 98 on a Computer With No Operating System
C3.. 255867 How to Use the Fdisk and Format Tools to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk

Registry Cleaners, file shredders, and file recovery
Securely deleting files, recovering deleted files, and cleaning the registry are common issues many people have asked about.  I do not recommend blindly deleting registry entries even if you have 800 of them and they are all listed as bad entries.  Too often a program will not run, or the OS becomes unstable because a valid entry was deleted.  Go over each of them carefully to make sure they are not valid entries.
D0.. Regseeker is a registry cleaner
D1.. Eraser is the most recommended file shredder
D2.. AnalogX Supershredder
D3.. Ultrawipe
D4.. AbsoluteShield Internet Eraser Lite is more of an internet privacy utility
D5.. MRUBlaster cleans up Most Recently Used entries for privacy on public computers
D6.. Active@Killdisk hard drive eraser will wipe the entire hard drive completely
D7.. PC Inspector emaxx will wipe a hard drive well enough for the defence department.
D8.. PC Inspector File Recovery
D9.. Restoration - File Undelete Utility will recover files after they were removed from the recycle bin.
D10. ISO Buster will allow you to recover lost data or files from CD's or DVD's.
D11..Autoclave wipes the entire hard drive clean
D12..Disk Cleener cleans out the temp directory and the internet temporary files. Works with Opera and IE.

Audio and Video conversion and editing
These websites give excellent information about converting video and making DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs.
E0.. DVDRhelp.com has information on making DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs.
E1.. DVDRhelp convert has information on converting files into DVD, VCD, and SVCD formats.
E2.. TmpGenc video conversion program.
E3.. Irfanview will display pictures and video in most formats.
E4.. VirtualDub is geared toward processing AVI files. It can read (but not write) MPEG-1
E5.. Audacity edits audio files.

Other, Uncategorized Links
F0.. www.dllfiles.com find missing dll files here.
F1.. missingfiles has many of those files that your computer may be missing.
F3.. Winzip compresses and decompresses most file formats.
F4.. What is a Troll? answers the question "why is this guy insulting, and what can I do about it".

Tweak Sites & Software
G0.. Kelly's Korner has so much information for solving so many computer problems that it's actually had to find specific information here.
G1.. PurePerformance.com provides plenty of tweaks for improving your computers performance.
G2.. Overclockers.com
G3.. PC Pitstop can test your computers performance.
G4.. Xteq Xsetup has lots of tweaks. Don't forget to get the extra plugins.
G5.. Jv16 utilities has many tweaks available for your system. Note:  JV16 is now SHAREWARE & expires after 30 days.  It can be purchased for $29.95 USD.
G6.. TweakUI also has many tweaks for Windows.