A project of the Tulsa Area United Way Capacity Building Fund

ZoneAlarm from Zone Labs, Inc.

One-click download link for ZA


(note: clicking either link will begin the download)

Made by Zone Labs, it will render your computer invisible to hackers' probes. Hackers run scanning programs over the Internet, looking for computers with electronic openings, called ports. A good firewall such as ZoneAlarm makes your computer invisible to the scanners.

The goal of these intruders is to place a Trojan horse on your computer. The rogue program uses the open port previously identified by a scanner. However, ZoneAlarm blocks those transmissions. They can only go through if you agree. Always say no, unless you recognize the program.
Cost: Free for personal use

Ad-aware from Lavasoft

Click to go to the Ad-aware download page

Ad-aware is a user initiated scanning software that searches your computer for spy-ware or "ad-ware" that report on your browsing habits.  Spy-ware can be full blown program objects that report on all browser activity or simlpe tracking objects such as cookies that track your visits to websites that you have previously visited.
Cost: Free for personal use

Belarc Advisor from Belarc, Inc.

One-click download link
 
(note: clicking this link will begin the download)

This program will tell you exactly what you've got on your computer. It takes seconds to run and produces a window of easy-to-read information. Belarc displays information on hardware and software.
Cost: Free for personal use

WinDriversBackup from JerMar Software

http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm

WinDriversBackup identifies all of the hardware in your computer and the drivers associated with them. It saves all of your drivers in one folder for easy retrieval. This is especially useful if you ever have to reinstall a driver or your operating system.  Best practices would suggest saving your drivers as soon as you install them so if they get corrupted at a later time you have a good copy in your back-up driver file.

Requirements: Windows 95 and later
Cost: Free

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® - free software for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on all major hardware and operating system platforms. Acrobat Reader also lets you view Adobe Photoshop® Album slide shows and electronic cards. You can even take your Adobe PDF files with you and view them on the go with Acrobat Reader for mobile devices. For more information on Acrobat Reader, click here.
 
To Download click here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html 
 
The Macromedia Flash plug-in download
 
Over 497 million Internet users now use Macromedia Flash
Player to seamlessly view content created with Macromedia Flash, the solution for developing rich Internet content and applications.
  
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/
download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

Microsoft Product Automatic Update Services

The links below take you to Microsoft Web sites that scan your computer and recommend software updates that fix problems, add functionality, or provide the latest drivers. These sites do not collect any form of personal, identifying information from your computer.

Windows Update (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/)
Let Windows Update show you the latest updates available for your computer's operating system, software, and hardware. Windows Update brings you service packs, device drivers, and more for Microsoft Windows®.
Office Product

Updates http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx

Use automatic detection to find the latest updates for your Microsoft Office products. Note that you may need your original Office CD to complete the installation process.