Well here is a small list of software s, that you should consider installing on your newly installed Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system. You can take this as a to-do list for what to do  right after you have installed a brand new clean Operating System on your computer. The software s mentioned here will not only help you in making your interaction with your computer faster but at the same time will also ensure, all the essential safety and protection and the overall health of your computer is looked after. And this list is free! That is, all the software s mentioned here are free. Just install these, and you should probably have one of the best PC’s or laptop in town. And don’t worry we’ll be done in a jiffy!

I shall be mentioning about the virus scanner and firewall a little later. If you have those at hand in an external media such as a CD or a USB, it will be much better, rather than downloading them off the internet. Because, as of now your computer is unprotected. Except of course, for the Microsoft Windows Firewall that it has pre-installed and Windows Defender.

Google Chrome - It’s one of the most lightweight browsers out there! And the fastest. Follow this guide, resolving proxy delay in Google Chrome, and you should have the fastest browser around in town!
Download Google Chrome.

Avast Anti Virus - Well, now we can move on to protecting your PC! Let’s download Avast Anti virus Free Version for Home users. Why Avast? Avast has the best detection rate out there. The heuristic processing isn’t that good. Meaning it’s not able to very well detect a very brand new threat. But we shall cover that aspect as well. We only need the best detection right now, and Avast is giving it. We’ll talk about best heuristic protection just in a bit! We’ll get that too!

Download Avast Virus scanner only (Free Version)

Once you have installed the virus scanner, the sandbox mode has to be disabled. Leave that for now. We’ll do that a little later.

Comodo Firewall Only - Comodo has a free internet suite as well, with a built in virus scanner. While I was using that for almost 4 years, without any complaints, but the best combination is Avast Virus Scanner + Comodo Firewall only. I hadn’t installed these until now because of compatibility issues. But now they are compatible, and all issues have been sorted out.
Download Comodo Firewall only. Download the Firewall only version.

Comodo Firewall has an excellent reputation of being a good firewall. Excellent sand-boxing capabilities (better than that of Avast) make this a very good tool. The only place where the Comodo Internet Security Suite was lacking was Virus Detection. Comodo was not close to the top and Avast was, and now we have the best of both worlds! Isn’t that awesome!

MalwareBytes AntiMalware - MalwareBytes AntiMalware free version is really good tool to have. Though the free version lacks the live detection capability, it’s scan is very efficient and effective, and it can detect almost any root-kit or malware thrown at it. Download it, and scan using MalwareBytes once in a while.
Download the free version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware. Caution: There are a lot of fake versions of this program floating around. Download from a reliable source only. You can also always head to download.com a CNET website.

MyDefrag - Time to download a good defragging utility to keep your hard disk in top shape. MyDefrag is one of the most non fancy tools you’ll ever come across! It’s crisp and does best what it is supposed to do. Defrag your hard drive. First thing, it defrags and optimizes. Make sure to read the authors Tips and Tricks to do the best defrag of your hard disk ever. Read more about MyDefrag and why you should get it, over here.
Download MyDefrag. Don’t forget to say thanks to the person who made it free for you! and read the Tips and Tricks as well.

CCleaner - CCleaner is a disk cleanup like utility for your computer. It’s free of course, and does a very good cleanup. It has registry optimization etc, which I would suggest you use only after reading this article. Recommendation: Simply use it for clearing up junk from your PC, before using MyDefrag or every once in a while (once a week is good enough!)
Download CCleaner.

Important actions required on Avast Anti virus

These actions are important, since you should have only one sandbox running on your computer. Comodo Sandbox is better, and so we are disabling the Avast sandbox. Note that only once you have rebooted your computer, will these options be available in Avast.

1. Head on to avast anti-virus and click on Additional Protection on the left bar.
2. You’ll have a window called Auto Sandbox. Now click on the settings button at the lower right.
3. Un-check the box next to Enable auto-sandbox and hit OK.
4. All steps done!

Comodo Sandbox and Firewall (the best free firewall and sandbox out there!) should now work peacefully with Avast Anti virus (the best anti-virus out there!)

Congratulations, you now have a well secured computer. For the first few days Comodo Firewall may give a bit of pop-ups It would be only prudent, if you read them carefully and make the decisions to allow an application or incoming / outgoing connection or not. Comodo Firewall has improved a lot over the years, so most of these settings happen automatically these days.

These are the basic software s that you need to keep your computer running! Now is the time to install some additional software s that will make it possible for you to do your work productively on your computer. Head on here >