New Laptop: Essential Software Recommendations

Hi,

I just purchased a new laptop and was wondering what the best sotware to add to it.
I am interested in recommendations for Anti-Virus, Anti Malware, and system monitoring to make sure that the system is running at it's best.

Also need to know the best way to transfer existing files from Vista to Win7.

Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Read this link: How to protect yourself from malware: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525

Then there is this link: http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

Personally I have Avast Free A/V, and MBAM and SAS on demand. Also SpywareBlaster.

 

I think gloozit posted a good list. However, I use avast! Free Antivirus with my Win 7 system. I used Spybot with Win XP but stopped using it quite a long time ago and chose Malwarbyte's (free version). I also have CCleaner installed on my Windows 7 machine.

I am using the Windows defragmentation tool that comes with Windows for defragging.

Regarding transfer of files from Vista to Win 7, if you mean files in Documents, you could just use a flash drive to transfer files. Or, if you will still be using your Vista computer and have both computers networked via a router, you could enable file sharing and transfer that way.

 

To add: I don't use any registry cleaners except CCleaner. I run analyze first. CCleaner has a very safe registry cleaner that prompts you to back up the ones that you select to remove. So far never needed to merge the created backup registries using CCleaner. This software does a lot of other things like removing temp files etc.

Got bitten once using another registry cleaner prior to using CCleaner. Forgot which one as that was many years ago. Luckily I had created a restore point prior to running it.

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

 

Remind me to NOT download anything when updating Fresh Windows. (49 upgrades.... )

Great picks and what I was looking for today. :major