For Windows based machines, I used to recommend AVG. Its free, does a decent job, and isn’t too horribly invasive like some software I could mention (*cough* McAfee and Norton *cough*).

…and then Microsoft came out with their own “Security Essentials” free anti-virus. I was dubious at first. If its Microsoft I expected it to be behind the times, bloated, and generally a “hanger on” in the Anti-virus game.

I was wrong. Security Essentials works, is lightweight, stays out of the way, has developed a good track record, and has the single best feature I’ve seen in any antivirus software in years: it automatically updates its definitions before it scans. Wow, brilliant, and nobody else does it.

So if you are using Windows, do yourself a favor and get Security Essentials (from here: www.microsoft.com/security_essentials) instead of any of the others.

Tags: anti-virus, antivirus, software, What I Use, windows

On a not infrequent basis, as an IT professional, I’m asked for recommendations of software, services, and hardware.

I have some very technical friends who tend to buy things I recommend purely on my recommendation. Their thought process, they explained, was that I was thorough in my evaluations and they trusted my opinion, so if I recommended it, there really wasn’t much reason to put huge amounts of effort into doing the same, as they’d more than likely reach the same conclusions.

Recently, I recommended a couple of products to a new coworker. He came in this morning and asked for a comprehensive list of everything I use and recommend, because I clearly thought the same as he did and it would save him time, money, and effort if he just chose the same ones.

This gelled with an idea I’ve been having for a while to have a place I can send people to see my recommendations (and occasionally condemnations). I’ll tag all the blog posts with at minimum the “What I use” category for easy searching later.

Tags: recommendations, What I Use