I currently have Avast Premier, Malwarebytes Premium and Mozilla Firefox on my newly installed system. I would like to ask other forum members (especially the experts) what other useful software for security, maintanence or optimisation of a Windows system you would recommend and for a few tips on how to use the software I already have and the software you recommend . I know there is a lot of software out there for whatever purpose you want and you can just Google for them, but as a security conscious user, I don’t really know which companies to trust. I would also like to know everyone’s opinions of the free office suites and which one you think is best.
Thank you for your time and expertise.
For office software I use kingsoft writer http://ksosoft.com/downloads/windows
For stopping unwanted additions to software (i.e. toolbars) I use Unchecky http://unchecky.com/
For windows optimisation nothing 
Although I sometimes use Xbootmgr http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/140262-how-to-speed-up-boot-process-under-windows-vista-or-windows-7/ to speed up the boot time
IE11 is my browser of choice, although it is a personal preference
MCShield on standby if I use USB drives http://www.mcshield.net
Sumatra for PDF reader http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html
For disc image backup Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/
And they are all nice and cheap (free)
Thanks for the advice, essexboy. I think this thread my turn out to be quite useful and informative if a few more experts like yourself offer their recommendations.
I just wanted to ask you: do you suggest I continue to use the software you recommended in the other thread, SlimDrivers? And what about ‘SlimCleaner’ from the same company, SlimWare Utilities? What attracts me to this company is how it says it is “Microsoft Certified”.
I have uninstalled Avast for now to try Emsisoft Antimalware, if Avast gets it back together I will return.
I use Chrome with Bitdefender Trafficlight, Ghostery and AdBlock Plus, I believe all are available for Firefox.
You could try Malwarebytes Anti Exploit if you don’t mind using a beta, I’ve been using for months now and it is very stable.
I also use Ccleaner for maintenance, has never done me wrong and Sumo for software updates.
In my tool arsenal I have: SystemLook, Snapshot, AdwCleaner, autoruns, Belarc Advisor, Blue Screen View, cports, Geek Uninstaller, Last Activity View, Process Explorer and Reg Scanner. You may or may not want to use any of these depending on what exactly you are wanting to do and/or your computer experience.
SlimDriver yes, SlimCleaner no. Use CCleaner instead.
Bob, is it OK to use the registry cleaner in CCleaner? As far as knew from reading on here in the past it was, until I read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2563254 from this thread: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=147685.0
CCleaners registry cleaning doesn’t go very deep and has been quite safe in all the years I have used it, make sure to review anything that is displayed before deleting though but again I’ve never had an issue with it.
If you’re asking me, the answer is NO. Even though some haven’t had any problems. I know of other that have had a problem.
The time saving feature of cleaning your registry amounts Milliseconds. IMHO not worth taking a chance not to reboot the system at all.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.”
I clean my registry several times a week with Ccleaner, being doing it for years with no problems.
The complaint never comes till there’s a problem.
I suggest you do a search of the forum. All of these products have been discussed several times.
I’ve had problems with Open Office, it has not been very stable imo but Libre is very good.
I nearly installed Kingsoft on my Fathers system last year but there was some shady goings on with them harvesting information from clients computers, cant remember where I read that topic but Libre ended up being installed on his system as well and he’s very happy with it.
I dumped Open Office due to some untimely crashes. Been using Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2013 and have no issues to report.
So far I prefer Kingsoft over the others. FYI both Open Office and Libre Office require Java Runtime Environment to function.
I use LibreOffice, and am quite happy with it. It only needs Java for a few functions. If you don’t need those particular functions, you can get along quite nicely without Java being installed. Most of us will never miss the extra functions.
Libre works fine here and there’s no Java installed, for the few functions that do require Java if needed! then Java can also be disabled from web access.
I forgot to add the one downside of Kingsoft, it can’t save in either odf or odt formats.
If I remember right JRE is included in both Open Office and Libre Office. It’s in the software.
At least it was in OO v4.0.
Java is not included in LibreOffice. Java must be downloaded separately and installed. None of the installs nor updates of LibreOffice that I have downloaded has ever included Java.
I “was” sure it was included. Not sure now. :-[
Mine must of been there since I updated from 3.0 through 4.0 via the OpenOffice GUI.