Software Solutions You Cant Live Without

There are thousands of software programs available for computers from utilities to applications of just about any variety you can think of. While many of these are a matter of choice, there are some software programs that, in this day and age, you can’t operate without.

An example would be anti-virus: there are not-so-well-intentioned programmers working day in and day out to come up with the latest way to foul up everyone’s computing experience, and computers need to be protected against them. Another would be anti-malware which goes beyond anti-virus solutions to stop harmful programs such as worms. Yet another would be adware and spyware solutions, so that computers can’t be invaded and be robbed of private information or have their performance crippled out out-of-control pop-ups. And yet another would be a defragmenter so that file fragmentation won’t slow or stop performance, which it will do if not addressed.

To this list should be added data protection programs. Such programs exist to constantly protect data in real-time in case of accidental file deletions or losses, and can be crucial when it comes to days, weeks or months of work that suddenly goes missing.

Unfortunately, some organizations don’t think of such a solution until a problem occurs and they discover what a predicament this can actually be. A user accidentally deletes a file and frantically calls the help desk. The help desk person tells the user to check the Windows Recycle Bin. The user does, and finds the file is not there because it was saved to the server (the Windows Recycle Bin is only useful if the file was resident on the local machine). The only solution then is for IT personnel to get involved and pull the last version from backup. If the file was created since the last backup, it is completely lost and has to be reconstructed from scratch. At best, the backed-up version is older and work has to be done to once again bring the file to its current version. Such crises can range from simply annoying and time-consuming to complete catastrophe.

There are emergency recovery programs available which can retrieve a deleted file from a hard drive if the data has not been over-written. But by the time someone goes looking for one of those, it may already be too late.

An advanced data protection solution is one that replaces the Windows Recycle Bin with its own, and allows deleted files to be recovered even across a network with a simple click of the mouse. Time-consuming help desk calls as well as IT hours spent combing through backups are eliminated–as well as the time it will take to reconstruct the file or bring it back to the state it was in when deleted.

An added benefit to such programs is the retrieval of earlier versions of other file types which normally cannot be recovered in any circumstances, such as earlier, over-written versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

So to the list of other vital software solutions that an organization can’t live without should be added an advanced data protection program–before it’s too late.