Submitted by Maks

AnVir Task Manager Free provides full set of Windows enhancements that help in every-day work.

Security & Performance

• Full information about processes, services, Internet connections, drivers, DLLs
• Detects Trojans with security analysis and get alerts on new startups
• Speed up boot time (Delayed Startup), balance CPU usage, optimize memory
• Run programs as services on Windows startup before user login

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

• For German speaking readers: My pro Vista article has been published at Computerwoche #
• Windows Installer 4.5 versions: http://snurl.com/2ee5m #
• Be careful with RODCs under Server 2008. The fact that there is a compatibilty pack isn’t a good sign if you ask me. http://snurl.com/2ee68 #
• Microsoft Forefront Integration Kit for Network Access Protection (NAP). Sounds interesting. http://snurl.com/2ee6k #
• Didn’t know that Vista and Server 2008 allow you to resize a disk. Could be useful when you clone an installation. http://snurl.com/2ee84 #
• Microsoft Security Assessment Tool 3.5. I must admit I only used this tool once. I guess I prefer to read on the Web. http://snurl.com/2ee8j #

Submitted by Jan Ivar Beddari

Secunia has some tools similar to Belarc Advisor which you might want to take a look at.

There’s a personal edition of Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) which is free and a business edition with network scanning features. The company is quite well known around EU for their website and security bulletins so I thought I should mention them ..

This util is quite new. I like it better than Belarc

From the publisher’s site

The Secunia PSI is the FREE security tool that is designed with the sole purpose of helping you secure your computer from software vulnerabilities. Software vulnerabilities affect all applications installed on your computer, from the Operating System down to your email client, office application, instant messaging, and so on.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

Submitted by David Pope

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private no your PC and is not sent to any web server.

• Operating Systems: Runs on Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95.
• Browsers: Requires IE 3 or Netscape 3, and higher versions. Also runs on Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox.
• File size: 1642 KB.
• License: The license associated with this product allows for free personal use only. Use on multiple PCs in a corporate, educational, military or government installation is prohibited. See the license agreement for details.

Belarc Advisor

Rate this tool: (3 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

One of the first things I usually do when I install a new Windows Server in a test environment, is to turn off IE Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC). I am talking about this little prompts that get on your nerves whenever you open a website in Internet Explorer on a Windows Server. I described how to disable IE ESC in Windows Server 2003 a while back. Since it is one of the popular articles here on 4syosps and because the procedure is different on Windows Server 2008, I decided to post a follow-up to save you from this constant security prompts.

(more…)

Submitted by Jeff Botts

(The website is in German but has a translation link at the top.)

This is a great tool allowing users with standard rights to run programs with local admin privileges. It is based on SuDown and integrated in the Windows shell. Just right click on the icon of the program you want to run as admin and the context menu will give you the option to “Start as Administrator”. The current stable version doesn’t support global groups, so it won’t work on computers in a Windows domain. There is a beta that the developer put out on 02/24/2008 that is very stable and it works with global groups, too.

SuRun

Rate this tool: (5 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

Microsoft published a new guide about the security settings in Windows Server 2008. This Technet article gives an overview and the guide itself can be downloaded here. What makes this guide so useful is not only the 214 page security guide (plus a 76 page appendix about security related Group Policy settings). Most interesting are the Excel files that come with the guide.

(more…)