For quite some time I have been recommending avast! Antivirus to Friends, Family and Colleagues to protect their personal computers. It’s simple, covers all bases and easy to maintain but most of all it’s free!

I was glad to find out recently that they’ve just released their latest major version of their free Antivirus product version 5. They’ve made it easier to use and it looks so much better.

Changes I’m glad to see:

• Simplfied layout in program window
  The previous layout was far to confusing, I had trouble every time I launched it…
• Easy access to Boot-time Scan under ‘Scan Computer’
  My must suggested fix for viruses on a computer, as it scans your disk for viruses before Windows starts making it possible to delete them.
• Gaming mode
  Supresses notifications when a full screen application is launched
• Easy to see protection status
  Nice big letters and colour right up the top so you know everything is running and up to date

If you’re not running antivirus or your currently paying for virus protection I’d strongly recommend avast! 5. Download it here: http://www.avast.com

For those of you in the East Australian states, you’ve already switched to Daylight Savings for the 08-09 Summer. We over here in the West were due to switch to Daylight Savings on the 25th of October, but as we’re all pertrified of change it was rejected in a referendum in May earlier this year.

One small problem, your Windows based computer is still set to go forward an hour on the 25th. Microsoft were so confident that WA would vote DST in they configured Windows to switch not just for the 3 year trial but for every year.

Not to worry, Microsoft have kindly put together a website to help you undo Daylight Savings for your version of Windows. Head over to the Microsoft Daylight Savings page and follow the instructions. It’s also a good idea to print out your calendars for Home or Work before the 25th, just in case they get screwed up with preprogrammed Daylight Savings changes.

ViStart : Change Your XP Start Menu Like Windows Vista. The one good thing I like about Vista and can’t live without, their improved start menu with quick search. Vistart add this functionality to XP, w00t! digg story