Essentail Tools for Field PC Technician

[Harper]

I got certifed because I passed the exams. These exams are vendor neutral. The training materials provide little infomation about the software company names. I realize what type of software I need, I'm trying to find out which ones are the most effective. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Okay, that could be spending a lot of time listing them all. Will post later as I am in the middle of some work right now.

However to start off with, check out
24 Great Open Source Apps for Admins & Technicians

However my advise is try them out first before going out onsite.

 

[Harper]

I got certifed because I passed the exams. These exams are vendor neutral. The training materials provide little infomation about the software company names. I realize what type of software I need, I'm trying to find out which ones are the most effective. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

One problem that you will have is that different techs like different software and software vendors. At the end of the day, it's best to try them out yourself and find what ones you like

SiS Sanda - All purpose burn in utility for PC
CPUz - Good program to get a summery of the system you are looking at
SpeedFan - Monitors your computer temps
Ontrack Data Recovery - Rather powerful tool for recovering deleted files
CyberScrub - Great tool for erasing hard drives so that no one can access your files. Also great for clearing out your cache.
Hard drive utilities - Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, Hitachi (the list goes on)
Partition Magic - re-sizes your partitions. does not work on vista.
Norton's Ghost - hard drive imaging and cloning tool. The earlier version are better than the current one.
Angry IP Scanner - Scans your network for IP Addresses
Anti Virus - your choice. Although I use AVG Free, it's products like McAffee that actually puts money in my pocket. And it does not hurt to have a copy of Nortons for all those plebs that just don't know better and refuse to trust AVG.
HiJack This - Do not leave this program on your clients computer as it's a little too good on cleaning out your system.
Adware or Spybot S&D - Excellent spyware removal programs
Magical Jelly Bean Software - Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0.1
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor both on CD Rom and Floppy Disk
Windows 98 & DOS Boot Disk

CD Wallet with the following CDs
- Windows 98se/Me/2k/Xp/Vista
- Windows Service Packs
- Various version of Office 2000/Xp/2003
- MS Office 2007 OEM OPK Kit (this will allow you to install just about any office 2007 except enterprise edition)

 

[veg1992]

Ultimate PC Technician's Toolkit - Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com

 

[Kharn]

The OP of that thread vern made the theam I use on my personal blog.

 

[Yami]

CD Wallet with the following CDs
- Windows 98se/Me/2k/Xp/Vista

Out of curiosity, how often would one need to use the first in that list, nowadays?

 

[Kharn]

2K quite often, I see at least 1 per week.
**** I can take you to a place on wavertree tech park that is still using OS2 warp.

 

[Yami]

2K quite often, I see at least 1 per week.
**** I can take you to a place on wavertree tech park that is still using OS2 warp.

Wow that's quite often considering it's almost 12 years old

And 0S2 warp is so old I don't know what it is

 

[veg1992]

The OP of that thread vern made the theam I use on my personal blog.

Wow very cool... tell him I said thanks for that list!

I use it in work for IS Helpdesk and it helps plenty!!

My only addition to it though would be Intel burn test

 

[Kharn]

He has it for download on the WPtheams site, prity nice stuff he has some seriously cool ideas.

One thing I didn't notice on his list is PuTTy, I use that thing god damned daily.

 

[Harper]

Out of curiosity, how often would one need to use the first in that list, nowadays?

My business is currently listed on the Senior Citizen Card listing as I offer discounted rates to any one with a Senoirs Card. There are quite a few of the old folks out there where the old computers and the old folk's don't throw anything out mentality.
I hardly get any call for Windows Me. However I still get the occassional Win 98 box. It's been about 6 weeks since my last windows 98 box. It's been a few years since I last saw Windows Me. More Me users have either moved to 2000/Xp or rolled back to 98.
It was only 2 years ago since i had a Windows 3.11 box come in. Have not seen windows 95 since 2001. USB connectivity saw to that.