been threatening to put this up for a while now and I guess ratman's predicament has added the final boost. Nobody should have to rely on Norton for antivirus protection.

Antivirus/ Anti-malware Programs & Links

Best antivirus = Avg free (yes it's even better than their commercial version)
http://free.avg.com/gb-en/download.prd-afh#tba1
Download the large complete file for your operating system.
32bit for most xp and vista, 64bit for most windows 7 and some vista and a very few winxp.
If you don't know whether you have 32bit or 64 bit. Right click the MY COMPUTER icon and select Properties. It tells you there
Ignore the first link on this page and just use the 2 larger downloads.

After downloading, uninstall your current antivirus prog and then reboot and install avg.
I personally don't install the toolbar - you can if you want.
I personally like to set it up for totally automatic operation.
Note in avg 2013 you need to click on the options and select advanced settings before you can switch off the notifications, switch On the regular system scans and untick the 'do not remove automatically' box.

Once it's loaded double click the icon (by the clock). Click TOOLS heading and select advanced.
On the APPEARANCE options I untick them all.
Then on the RESIDENT SHIELD options make sure AUTO HEAL is ticked.

Best Anti spyware
Spybot - hands down will clean and remove more malware than just about any other program on the net.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
I usually download it from one of the safer networking servers.
This is a manual scan utility, doesn't slow your computer down and doesn't work in the background.
During the install process I generally UNTICK the teatimer  utility as it just bugs the hell out of you. Again it's optional.
Once installed you just click the icon to run the program. make sure you update, immunise and run a scan at least once a month.

Best Anti-malware

Malwarebytes is a brilliant program and falls somewhere between the previous programs.
It has the advantage of a very fast scan and a malware database that's updated about a dozen times a day.
It's a full manual scan utility - so again won't slow your pc down or mess with any other programs.
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?par...
Download and install. It'll automatically update itself first time round.
In future to use it. click the icon. go to the update tab and check for updates then run a quick scan.
I'd recommend using this at LEAST once a week.

Some really useful opensource or free utilities


Photogadget Resize

http://www.xemico.com/photogadget/photogadget.exe
Brilliant little program. Once installed all you do to resize a photo is Right Click it, select photogadget reseize. Pick the size you want  - 800x600 or 1024x768 work best for emailing and posting on forums - and then just click OK.
It will generate a new proportional file with the size tagged on the end of the file name. You can select as many pictures as you like and resize in one go.

Winff - for video conversions and editing.
http://winff.googlecode.com/files/winff-1.3.1-setup.exe

Unit Conversion utility.
Converts pretty much any measurement into units of differing name in the same area.
ie: inches to millimetres, pounds to kilos etc.
http://wscope.com/download/convert.exe

Photoresizer
zip file attached to this post.
unzip and install - works for all versions of windows 32&64 bit. Adds a right mouse click option to resize photo.
Small is best for posting on the forum.
So once installed you simply select one or more photo's, then right click and select photo resize. Select small and ok and it will resize the pictures and generate some new - smaller images.

That'll do for now. If you have any utilities you think might be useful to members - pm me with the link and if I agree I'll post it here.
Also if anyone is looking for a particular program or utility let me know as I probably know where to get it. Opensource of course