Good Free Anti-Virus Software?

[Integral]

You can also get by without any office app's forever using ZoHo or Google Docs. But I'm sticking with Open Office

It would be cool to start a "software starter pack" thread. A lot of places online offer packs, but it would be interesting to find out everyone's custom pack

I also linked to a service for that in the Freeware thread.
http://ninite.com/

I think I will do this.

 

[Maniacal]

I have never reformatted my computer, absolutely no desire to go through all the effort of backing up all my pictures (because then I'd have to clean out and get rid of excess pictures that I don't want that have accumulated in my My Pictures folder over the last 4 years), back up a number of game saves and anything else I need to back up, and then finally have to reinstall literally DOZENS of games afterwards, many of which I'd have to re-download.

Just doesn't make sense to me to do that more than once a year if that. Although I am planning on doing that when if I get my hands on a cheap copy of Windows 7 (if Microsoft would ever bloody reply to my request for a student discount >_<).

Also I use AVAST!

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I have never reformatted my computer, absolutely no desire to go through all the effort of backing up all my pictures (because then I'd have to clean out and get rid of excess pictures that I don't want that have accumulated in my My Pictures folder over the last 4 years), back up a number of game saves and anything else I need to back up, and then finally have to reinstall literally DOZENS of games afterwards, many of which I'd have to re-download.

Just doesn't make sense to me to do that more than once a year if that. Although I am planning on doing that when if I get my hands on a cheap copy of Windows 7 (if Microsoft would ever bloody reply to my request for a student discount >_<).

Also I use AVAST!

If you have stuff properly set up, a windows reinstall is a 2-hour ordeal. Including installing stuff afterwards, and getting all your settings right.

Now if you dump everything onto one drive, dont have any regular backups, all your files are in disarray, well then yes, it will take a day or two.

 

[Cutlass]

I wipe about every four months: late December, early May, and mid-August (corresponding to the end of fall semester, end of spring semester, and end of summer break, respectively). I've found that the list of 'core necessary programs' is far smaller than I initially anticipated. Usually my reinstalls look like this:

- OS (Windows Server 2008 R2 with all the cruft switched off)
- Internet (firefox + adblock + noscript) [first download is always firefox. No exceptions]
- Utilities (foxit reader for PDFs, some rar extractor, etc)
- LaTeX maker (TeXnicCenter + MikTeX)
- Data analysis software (Stata 11 + stat/transfer for weird file formats)
- Text editor (notepad++ or crimson editor)
- Sync utility (Microsoft SyncToy)
- Music player (foobar2000, though I'm looking around for an alternative)
- Movie player (Media Player Classic + CCCP. Handles every format with grace. VLC is the devil)
- Office suite (MS Office 2002)

Which totals about 10-12 downloads. The whole process takes less than an afternoon. I've even gone for a few months without installing Office, relying on LaTeX for documents and Stata for spreadsheets.

All of my core files are backed up onto a 4GB flash drive that is synced to my computer; I run sync checks pretty much every time I use the flash drive, so it's never more than a few hours out of date. Stable files (music, etc) are all backed up to an external hard drive.


I have a standing policy not to let a Windows install survive for more than 6 months. Things tend to randomly break or not work.

I know. But for some reason the gods of computers haven't broken anything on me in a while. So I appease those gods by leaving things be.

But I won't lose anything when it does break. I don't keep files on the same hard drive Windows is on.

Back in the day I reinstalled more often. But then, for years I was running a 120 day evaluation copy of Windows.