The program is a self-contained executable you can launch from a USB drive. Handy for identifying running malware and other bad stuff.ĪdwCleaner: A tool that seeks out and destroys adware-those annoying toolbars and pop-up menus that tend to install themselves when unknowing users download free programs that are bundled with all kinds of mildly malicious advertising. Process Explorer: A tool that helps you identify running processes. Speccy: An easy way to quickly see all the technical specifications of a computer, including non-obvious stuff like the number of RAM DIMMs installed and the number of expansion slots used. Handy if you think the storage on a PC is failing. Make sure to update it periodically with the official freeware tool-instructions for creating your own USB rescue drive are at the link.ĬrystalDiskInfo: A tool for checking the health and longevity of hard drives. This one will require its own USB drive on your key ring. Best of all, it can also clean up those annoying leftover directories in places like the main programs folder and the startup menu.Īvira Rescue System: a self-booting drive tool that can clean viruses, malware, and other nasty stuff off of other operating systems. It has a few useful extras, like a “Hunter Mode” that can uninstall programs just by pointing at their window-great for that crapware you aren’t sure the name of. Revo Uninstaller: This tool is a fast method for uninstalling applications, like the bloatware that tends to cling around on new machines. Google Chrome Portable: Because you don’t want to use someone else’s browser, do you? The link above is a modified version of Chrome that launches from any folder, updated with the latest stable release from Google. For now, you can just download all these to your PC and then we’ll add them to your key ring in the next step. Here are the tools we recommend for your ultimate key ring, and what they do. At the time of writing, the 64GB version is a very reasonable $27 on Amazon, and lower capacities for the self-booting tools are nice and cheap as well. It comes with support for USB 3.0 ports for speedy operation on supported PCs, and its thick steel ring allows for the addition of multiple drives, so you just have one key ring to rule them all. We recommend Kingston’s DataTraveler SE9 series. The best approach is probably to have a big, fast primary drive with most of the self-contained programs (and which you can also use for your own personal files), and a handful of small, cheap drives for the self-booting utilities. You can fit most of the portable apps below on one single flash drive, though a few of the tools require a dedicated drive that you can boot from-this allows you to solve problems on computers that won’t even turn on. Any USB drive should work for this guide.
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