Other Tech support: The must-have software thread

Autoruns is really good. Is a program made by sysinternals, who i believe where bought by microsoft?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Autoruns is a bit like an advanced msconfig - in that it shows you all the services\drivers etc that happen on start up and allow you to stop services. This is good because it doesnt have any exceptions and shows everything - is usefull in stopping malware services for easier removal etc. - technicians at work definately using this one alot more now.

Sysinternals make alot of really good admin apps, all can be found here

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062

the process explorer app is good also and i use it alot at work.

Software always on my support stick:

-CCleaner
-Malwarebytes
-Super anti spyware
-Hijack this
-CWShredder (only because, 9 times out of 10 - if people have infected machines, cool web search will almost definately be among their problems!)
-Latest microsoft malicious software removal tool (usefull for getting rid of conficker.B etc - loads of people still have this virus and with the nature it spreads, i dont think its ever going to fully go away)
-rkill - really good script that is constantly updated. used to stop all known malware processes and allow easier removal of the programs.

combination of above can remove nearly all malicious threats. good resources for removal help is bleepingcomputer - loads of usefull info and there and helpful people - especially good for really hard to remove malware advise.

Ninite - really good resource for making custom zero input installation packages - speeds up setting up a computer for repair.

 

inSSIDer 2.0 is useful when setting up wireless networks, to see what channels are already in use, strength etc.

 

Nomachine. Remote desktop for Linux boxes.

 

Double Driver Alows you to back up (and restore) all the drivers on your system great for when you need to do a re install so you don't forget that random webcam driver that you'll never find the disk for, or spend ages fining the network card driver to get it to connect back up to the web to download all the other drivers from windows update.

 

just found norton power eraser

was quite good at cleaning up some weird hosts file redirect.

 

erunt

I like erunt, how many times does system restore let you down this works everytime. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ just delete ntregopt if you dont want a registry checker.

 

rKill, malwarebytes, avast and ccleaner are the main stay on my installer folder.
Nice to read and know what others are using.

 

extremely usefull. What about nodepad++?

 

CoreTemp for me!

 

Thank you guys!!

I just came to this section to make a new thread asking:

"I am using my spare PC parts to build a troubleshooting, network monitoring, drive scanning, backup making, support PC and I wonder if you can recommend software to put on it?"

I'm looking forward to grabbing a few of these suggestions and checking them out. Thanks again!

(Dear mod, please will you let my post sit in the thread for a few days so people get their thanks? And maybe it might prod a few more people to throw in some more ideas of useful software to troubleshoot with.)