Malwarebytes Anti-Malware                  Somewhat of a newcomer in the anti-spyware market, but delivers excellent results!

http://www.malwarebytes.org/ (home page)

                                                            http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php  (free download or paid version)

                                                            http://www.malwarebytes.org/contact.php (support forums)

 

TrueCrypt disk encryption (open source)            Awesome disk encryption that is unbeatable for the price (free)!  However, may not be for novices.

http://www.truecrypt.org/ (home page)

                                                                        http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php (free download)

                                                                        http://www.truecrypt.org/faq.php (FAQ)

 

Comodo personal firewall                      Great firewall, can be placed in “learning mode” to help minimize aggravating prompting of the user to allow or block

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/  (both free version and 30-day trial of Pro paid version)

 

 

Belarc Advisor PC Audit tool                Web-based tool allows you to scan a PC to get detailed info on installed hardware, software, patch levels, etc.

                                                            http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html (free download)

 

BartPE Live bootable CD                      Build a valuable boot CD to help with diagnostics/maintenance on Windows PCs (needs valid OS install media to build)

                                                            http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

Sysinternals tools                                Variety of very useful Windows-based tools, either individually installed or rolled up into a single suite.

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

                                                            http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/0e18b180-9b7a-4c49-8120-c47c5a693683.aspx

 

Ubuntu Linux CD  You can either boot a live CD or install it to the local drive. It has a fairly decent DB of drivers, so you most likely won’t have major issues with graphics or NIC drivers, etc. It can be loaded as a dual boot on a machine with Windows based OS, even on a single partition. Whether you boot the live CD or load the OS to disk, it comes bundled with Firefox, OpenOffice, text editors, games and many system tools. The entire package can be downloaded as an ISO and fits on a single CD.  http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download