Top 14 Free Spam Filters for Windows

December 17, 2009 — PC Serve
Filtering spam is not a nice job. Fortunately, there’s smart software that can rid your Inbox of all the junk mail efficiently and easily. Would you be surprised if some of the best anti-spam tools for Windows were free?

1. POPFile – Free Spam Filter

POPFile - Spam Filter
POPFile is a powerful and flexible email classification POP and NNTP proxy that you can use to filter spam efficiently and categorize good mail automatically. Unfortunately, POPFile can grow a bit heavy on memory and cpu load if you have trained on lots of mail.

2. eXpurgate – Free Spam Filter

eXpurgate - Free Spam Filtering Service
eXpurgate is an effortless but highly effective spam (and virus) filtering service. Its only real shortcoming is that eXpurgate relies on forwarding and requires two different email accounts.

3. Spamihilator – Free Spam Filter

Spamihilator - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
Spamihilator is a pretty, easy to use anti-spam tool that works with any email client and, thanks to Bayesian filters, has a good detection rate. You cannot remotely administer or teach Spamihilator, however.

4. Spamato – Free Spam Filter

Spamato - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
Spamato filters POP and IMAP accounts for spam with the potential for high precision and plug-ins that make it easy to use in Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. Unfortunately, Spamato can be a bit overwhelming with its multitude of options and little help.

5. SpamBayes – Free Spam Filter

SpamBayes - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
SpamBayes employs sophisticated analysis using Bayesian statistics to rid your email Inbox of junk mail precisely and in an effortless manner.

6. SpamPal – Free Spam Filter

SpamPal - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
SpamPal makes it easy to use spam blacklists with any email account. Bayesian and scoring filters add further spam protection. Unfortunately, many lists aren’t as well-maintained as they should be.

7. SpamExperts Desktop – Free Spam Filter

SpamExperts Desktop - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
SpamExperts Desktop identifies and eliminates spam precisely and, thanks to its plugging right into the email transport, works without configuration with any email program and just about any email account. It’s a pity SpamExperts Desktop is slow to process mail (though that can be countered by having it download mail periodically), and the process that lets you correct the filter’s errors could be improved.

8. K9 – Free Spam Filter

K9 - Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
K9 is a wonderfully precise, easy to use and fast learning Bayesian spam filtering tool. It’s a pity this gem only works with POP accounts and lacks remote administration.

9. Cactus Spam Filter – Free Spam Filter

Cactus Spam Filter - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
Cactus Spam Filter is a really easy to use and pretty precise spam filter. It’s a pity it only works with POP accounts and does not leverage its power for further pre-sorting the good mail.

10. SpamRIP – Free Spam Filter

SpamRIP - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
SpamRIP is a highly precise spam filter for any POP email account. A separate program, it lets you preview and delete junk before it reaches your default inbox. Unfortunately, SpamRIP does not work with IMAP accounts, is a tad clumsy to use and may crash now and then.

11. BullGuard Spamfilter – Free Spam Filter

BullGuard Spamfilter - Free Spam FilterHeinz Tschabitscher
BullGuard Spamfilter plugs into Outlook, Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird to filter spam quite effectively and without much effort on your part.
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PC Preventive Maintenance Tips

December 2, 2009 — niche
pc-preventive-maintenance-tips

There is nothing more upsetting for a PC user than when there is a problem with their machine. This upset can turn quickly to frustration when the problem seems to be impossible to solve, or even to understand.

Preventive maintenance is one of the most ignored aspects of PC ownership, in my opinion. Most people seem to think that the PC doesn’t need preventive maintenance, and so you should just use it until it breaks, and then repair or replace it. These people generally find themselves repairing or replacing much sooner than those that take definite steps to avoid difficulties in the first place.

Here are some reasons why you should develop a preventive maintenance plan for your Computer:

Preventive Maintenance Saves Money: I’m sure we’ve all heard the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. It’s trite, but it is also true. Avoiding problems with your PC will save you money in the long run, compared with laying out cash for new components or repair jobs.

Preventive Maintenance Saves Time: Saves time? How can taking two hours a month or whatever to perform maintenance save time? Simple: because it saves you the much bigger hassles of dealing with system failures and data loss. Most preventive maintenance procedures are quite simple compared to troubleshooting and repair procedures–now those can really eat up your time at a fantastic rate.

Preventive Maintenance Helps Safeguard Your Data: For most people, the data on the hard disk is more important than the hardware that houses it. Taking steps to protect this data therefore makes sense, and that is what PM is all about.
Preventive Maintenance Improves Performance: Some parts of your system will actually degrade in performance over time, and preventive maintenance will help to improve the speed of your system in these respects.

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