Comments on: Best Software Tools for the Family Tech Support Guy

By: TechTraction » Friday Finds for 08/08/2008 - Tools for the Family Computer Expert

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:06:16 +0000

[...] Of course, it also doesn’t hurt to have access to some useful utilities, and you can find a nice list of such tools at KillerTechTips.com. The list might seem obvious to some, but I’m confident there is at least one item on this [...]

By: abhsihek

abhsihek — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:39:27 +0000

all these tools always helps…i would like to add one from my end i.e unlocker and i must say these tools always helps but some times the even small pc problems becomes so critical that these does not help….neways gud post.

By: ComputersConfuseMe

ComputersConfuseMe — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:25:29 +0000

This is a great list but I think you’re missing a few, the Microsoft Sysinternals tools are a must have for debugging windows issues: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Autoruns, Procmon (Filemon, Regmon), and Process Explorer, pskill and RootkitRevealer are probably the most important. Granted you have to be a bit technical to use some of these, but once you learn how they can make problems much much easier to solve.

By: Rajavanya

Rajavanya — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:22:31 +0000

Well.. I tried another one called Avira AntiVir, downloaded it after reading somewhere (sorry lost the link) on the web that its the best.

About gOS, does it have hardware drivers installed is the question. Many times I get stuck saying no network support, no display drivers so only VGA etc.. all due to drivers !

By: Tal

Tal — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:17:25 +0000

You should probably give Faronics Deep Freeze a look. It freezes a hard drive partition into a “baseline” configuration that the computer will reset to after every reboot, effectively making it impervious to even the most willful end-user stupidity.

I put Deep Freeze on my parents’ computer, and after explaining how it worked and that they should save their work on an external drive, we haven’t had computer problems since.

By: Delicious Links - 20 links - programming, community, development, twitter, lisp « // Internet Duct Tape

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:29:25 +0000

[...] [SOFTWARE] Best Software Tools for the Family Tech Support Guy, killertechtips.com [...]

By: Shankar Ganesh

Shankar Ganesh — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:51:57 +0000

@Deroc: I haven’t tried Spyware Doctor so can’t comment on it, but still yet I’m guessing it should be good since it comes with the Google Pack
@g00ber: I’ll update the list with logmein.com as well.

By: g00ber

g00ber — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:37:13 +0000

You gotta be kidding me.
http://www.logmein.com is not here?
This is the ultimate tool if your the family tech support guy.
I’ve helped my parents, aunts, friends, all over the world with this.

By: Deroc

Deroc — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:24:56 +0000

What about spyware doctor that comes with the google pack?
Not the one from the site. I believe its a good anti-spyware compared to spybot (i was using spybot earlier).

And eusing registry cleaner?
What are your views?

By: ROFLface

ROFLface — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:30:28 +0000

@ spoonman - That’s just the epitome of irony. Bad luck.

Excellent compilation of tools. Especially with Avast! and its On-Access scanners. Auto-Updates perfectly straight out of the box, and catches damn near every virus, trojan, and even *compression bombs. On top of that, it has a free registration that lasts for 13 months. Glad to see Avast! getting the recognition it deserves.

With Hijack This, thanks for noting that you need to know what you are doing with it. Improper usage can be potentially fatal to your system, and no matter how many times I see Hijack This referenced, only a handful of people make sure to warn of it’s inherent danger when used without knowledge.

Driver Max has saved my butt a few times. On more than one occasion have I lost a driver for something, and for one reason or another, I have needed to reinstall the driver, but it’s the only driver I can’t locate. Driver Max definitely helped out there.

And most importantly are the boot disks. No matter what flavor of *nix system or what-have-you is on the disk, boot disks come in handy every 9 months when Windows crashes in a most spectacular fashion. Recovering data is a god send in those situations.

Note: Also /not/ usable at school to bypass pesky internet blocking software. You /cannot/ pop in a boot disk, load up Firefox, remote access your computer from home to act as a proxy, and browse the web. Remember, that just /not/ possible.