I’m kinda shocked that you’d pick Microsoft’s beta security over a proven program like AVG, Avira or Avast (side note: what’s up with free security programs and the letter A?). Also surprised by your choice of Sunbelt’s firewall instead of Comodo, SoftPerfect or the old standard, ZoneAlarm.

I would also add an 11th program to your list: Revo Uninstaller. Removes all the orphaned files and registry entries that Windows’ uninstaller leaves behind.

Matousec”s latest comparative tests give Sunbelt a 5% rating:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php .

If my child came home from school with a 5% on a report card, I would be furious, to say the least.

Perhaps you should reconsider your recommendation. Five percent says to me that I would be getting a false sense of security. I, for one, would be very reluctant to recommend an app like Sunbelt, which gives such poor performance.

Nevertheless, thanks for a stellar job in your blog!

Your list is good, but I prefer the following freewares in place of your recommendations.

File Compression : I prefer IZARC or 7-zip and there are portable versions available for these.

Instant Messaging : I know trillian is good, but I prefer pidgin these days. Pidgin can connect to lot more networks than trillian. Also note that trillian does not support gtalk.

Download Tool: Orbit is the best. It is fast, free and can download streaming videos from most of the websites like youtube, dailymotion etc.

Disc Burning: The interface of Ashampoo Burning studio is very good, but I have had problems with this. When I try to erase a DVD-RW, it performs the erase operation, but when I look the DVD-RW in windows explorer, I could see the files are there. It did not erase, but it mentioned that it did. I am using a Lite-ON DVD writer, and it could be an issue with the writer also. I am using Free CD/DVD burner and it works great. The interface is little quirky, but it does what it says.

Thanks,
Balaji.