Every day, computer users are bombarded with “free” software offers which promise to make their systems more reliable, faster, and easier to operate. Our support team is often asked for advice on whether these utilities are safe and beneficial.

When the advice is sought by one of our active business customers, it’s quite straightforward to remind them that their PC is actively maintained by our engineers. This means that we’re already performing the necessary maintenance tasks across their infrastructure so that they don’t need to worry about installing and running any of these utilities.

The challenge comes when the advice is sought for a computer which we don’t maintain (a customer’s home computer, for instance). In this case, we have to look into the software and give our best recommendation on how to proceed.

Today, I was asked to look into a list of the “Top 10 Cool, Useful, Fun Freebies of 2010.” As I drafted my response, it seemed smart to share this with our customers and friends.

So…

Here’s my response to each of the 10 titles presented to me today:

1. Abine TACO. This utility claims to help protect a user’s browsing habits online and prevent unknown participation in Google’s “behavioral ad targeting” and other similar advertising methods from other advertisers. A quick search online reveals a number of users who are unhappy with Abine (the company who purchased TACO from its original author), and the software seems a bit bloated to me. Instead of TACO, my recommendation is that users download and install AdBlock Plus to remove unwanted advertising from their web experience.
2. SlimComputer. New consumer computers often come pre-loaded with a ton of unwanted software, which can slow down the system, annoy the user, and reduce the usability of the new computer. SlimComputer is similar to my personal choice in program removal, The PC Decrapifier, but SlimComputer also takes advantage of live feedback from other users. Whereas PC Decrapifier only knows about software that the authors of PC Decrapifier add to their database, SlimComputer relies on the combined community knowledge of all their users to understand which software is generally consider “unwanted”. Either program will likely do a fine job of cleaning up a new computer.
3. Microsoft Security Essentials. Anti-virus software has been around a long time, and there are many options to choose from. My personal favorite has always been Avast Home Edition, but Microsoft’s newly released Security Essentials seems promising. There is rarely a need for multiple anti-virus software applications on one system, so I’d recommend removing any competing products as soon as Security Essentials is installed, but I’d say that users should feel free to try this new title from Microsoft.
4. Identity Finder. Claiming to protect your identity by removing sensitive information from a computer, this software seems to cater to the paranoid user. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of protecting personal information, but shredding personal information stored on one’s own computer seems a bit much. For users who do want to keep their PC sanitized, this seems like a good choice of software. For me, I’ll stick with keeping my info on my computer but keeping my PC safe from exploits.
5. Hulu Desktop. Watch TV on your personal computer. Rad.
6. Microsoft Fix It Center. Nothing replaces the value of a knowledge person to correct problems on a PC, but Microsoft Fix It Center is a great start for the simpler problems faced by everyday users. Got a problem on your PC? This is a great place to start.
7. AVG Rescue CD. This downloadable CD image is a great tool for someone knowledgable in PC maintenance, but it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a great way to clean up a virus-ridden PC, but should be used with care by someone who knows what they’re doing.
8. Duplicate Cleaner. Searching an entire hard disk for files that are the same, this software will offer to remove anything it finds to be redundant. The biggest benefit for this software is disk-space savings. This is a good tool for a particular use-case, but it’s a bit unnecessary for regular day-to-day use of a computer. Use it to free up some space on a full hard disk. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste the time.
9. Speccy. From the makers of CCleaner (which I highly recommend), this tool will take an inventory of a system and share the details of the hardware. It’s a bit useless as an every day tool, but will prove indispensable when trying to identify hardware for some reason.
10. Secunia. Another tool for the technically minded, this tool will help to identify software which needs to be updated on your personal computer. Not a bad idea to run this one every month or two.

I’m quite surprised at the technical nature of most of these programs. Many of these are far from useful on an everyday basis, and a couple of them are more technical than many people will be comfortable using. That said, none of these (except maybe Abine TACO) seem to be inherently dangerous.

Install away!