Resources


Click on a folder icon to collapse/expand that section.

  • Anti-Malware/Anti-Virus
  • Name
  • Description
  • Link
  • AV-Test.org
  • A good listing of Anti-virus software comparisons. 
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  • Bit Defender Free
  • A good, high detection rate anti-virus software. Occasionally has some wonky issues but overall a good anti-virus software. 
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  • Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
  • A great anti-malware utility that is reactive (at least the free version) and helps you remove malicious software post-infection. On Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • Microsoft Security Essentials
  • Microsoft's free to use anti-virus software. It's lightweight, has some advanced features, and free. Not as high of a detection rate as Bit Defender, but I've rarely seen an issue with it. 
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  • Spybot Search & Destroy
  • A great anti-malware utility that offers some proactive protection against malware. 
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  • TDSSKiller
  • A great utility to remove common Rootkits, removes some recently annoying ones that MalwareBytes and Spybot both fail to remove at the time of this posting. 
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  • Windows Defender Offline
  • A nice utility that downloads the most recent anti-virus updates and lets you make a bootable CD/DVD/USB Flash Drive and run Microsoft Security Essentials offline. If you hang on to the EXE all you have to do is run it again and point it to an existing flash drive to update definitions. 
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  • Audio/Video Links
  • Name
  • Description
  • Link
  • AC3 Filter
  • A good consistently functioning plugin so your system can recognize AC3 audio files, really helps with Windows Media Center playback of .MKV files. 
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  • Combined Community Codec Pack
  • My go-to codec pack I install on virtually every system. Can be updated or installed from ninite. This, however did not help me play .MKV files in Windows Media Center. 
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  • Freemake Video Converter
  • This is my go to easy converter that is like a swiss army knife video conversion utility. It converts to a ton of formats. Watch out for toolbars and other crap during the installation! 
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  • Shark007 Codec Pack
  • Shark's codec pack is one of the only codec packs that actually got .MKV files to play within Windows Media Center. A word of caution: He started bundling crapware inside his installer so be sure to read what you are installing very carefully and deny the toolbar and other garbage! 
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  • VirtualDub
  • A nice free software for editing and re-encoding video files. Mostly to cut scenes, convert formats, etc. Has a lot of advanced features but is fairly complicated to use when compared against some of the drag & drop utilities out there. 
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  • Helpful Utilities
  • Name
  • Description
  • Link
  • AppDeploy Repackager
  • A helpful utility that lets you repackage software installations into MSI files so you can silently deploy them. Doesn't work well with large or complex installations, but works pretty good for those older or smaller software titles. 
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  • BlueScreenView
  • A good tracer utility that parses dump logs and tells you which drivers caused a BSOD. Included on Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • CCleaner
  • A good utility that reliably cleans the junk (not viruses, just temp files and other crap) off your computer, repairs registry errors, and allows you to uninstall software all in one place. Included on Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • D7 Toolkit
  • A very detailed technician toolkit that can do all sorts of things, including rare functions like breaking NTFS Junction Points. 
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  • Defraggler
  • A good free defrag utility (do not use on a solid state hard drive). Included on Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • Hiren's Boot CD
  • A great but not recently updated toolkit every technician should have which includes a Mini Windows XP environment with a plethora of tools. 
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  • LiLi USB Creator
  • A cool utility that will automatically download whatever version of linux you specify, and put the ISO onto a bootable USB flash drive - can also give it extra space to give it "Live Mode" which allows you to save changes to your environment instead of losing settings/installed applications after every reboot. 
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  • Memtest86
  • A free memory testing utility, also included on Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • MHDD
  • My go-to hard drive testing utility. Low level DOS based, can remap or re-write bad sectors and give you a clear picture if anything's wrong with your hard drive. Included on Hiren's Boot CD. 
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  • Ninite
  • A useful application that will let you automatically update almost any plugin/additional software with a simple click of the file. No longer supports Flash updates. 
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  • Universal Silent Switch Finder
  • A great little utility that will allow you to find the silent installation switch for installs. Doesn't work on everything but works for some things. 
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  • Windows Offline Updates
  • You can use this to pre-download and stage all current updates for Windows 7 so you can run it on a freshly imaged or installed machine without having to constantly re-download all of the updates from Windows Update. 
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  • Windows Update Repair Tool
  • Works for XP/Vista/7, not sure about 8. Does a good and consistent job of repairing Windows Update even when the Microsoft Fix It Tool fails. 
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  • Useful Links
  • Name
  • Description
  • Link
  • Hiren's Bootable USB Flash Drive
  • A link with detailed descriptions on how to make a bootable USB flash drive of Hiren's boot CD. 
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  • Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool
  • This allows you to convert any Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 ISO file to a bootable USB flash drive. 
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  • MSI Error Codes
  • A List of MSI Error codes to use as a point of reference. 
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  • Silent Install Switches
  • This site has a list of how to use most of the common installation wrappers to create silent installs. 
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  • Windows 7 ISO Downloads
  • You can download Windows 7 ISOs at this location. You still require a legal, valid Windows 7 license to use these ISO files. 
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  • Windows 7 Service Configurations
  • Black Viper has a detailed listing of what services are set to run by default, what each service is, as well as additional configuration settings that have been tested. 
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  • Windows Vista ISO Downloads
  • A location to download legit x86 or x64 Windows Vista images, this takes a little more effort to make into an ISO than the Windows 7 ones. Requires legitimate key code to use these disks. 
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