Get Paid Version of AnVir Task Manager for Free

AnVir Task Manager is a program that monitors and analyzes your processes, services and startup programs. In addition to doing all the typical tasks accomplished by Windows task manager (i.e. close a service/process, monitor computer resource usage, etc.), AnVir tells you how much of a "security risk" each process, service or startup program is.

AnVir also includes a Windows XP/Vista tweaker which lets you tweak many Windows settings. Here is a short description by the developer on what AnVir Task Manager can do:

AnVir Task Manager gives full information about process, services, TCP/UPD connections, drivers, DLLs. It has descriptions for 70 000+ startup programs and services. It detects new and unknown Trojans using security analysis and alerts on new startups. It can speed up boot time (Delayed Startup), balance CPU usage, optimize memory. Tray icons shows status of disk, network, memory, CPU. Tray menu keeps last launched programs and folders. Also users can hide windows to system tray, set windows ‘always on top’, and change windows transparency.

Monitor your system and replace Windows Task Manager

• Information about processes, startup programs, services, internet connections, drivers
• Integrated database with Descriptions for 70 000+ startup programs, Internet Explorer toolbars and services
• Icons in the tray that indicate CPU, disk, network, memory and battery

Get rid of viruses, Trojans and spyware that your antivirus missed

• Security risk rating for each active process and startup program
• Get notification when any program tries to add itself to startup

Enhance and tune up XP or Vista

• Tweaker that gives access to hundreds of XP / Vista settings
• Click on the title of any application to minimize window to system tray
• List of recently used folders in Open / Save dialogs
• Drive’s free space as a colored horizontal bar in Windows ‘My Computer’

Speed up your PC and Windows startup

• “Delayed Startup” lets you set up any startup program to run few minutes later after Windows startup
• Run startup programs minimized to system tray, or as a floating icon
• Balance CPU usage

You can grab the full shareware version of AnVir Task Manager for free from here.

Enjoy!

Ashraf, http://dottech.org/

Moderators comments

This offer looks to be 100% legit though be aware that during installation this program asks whether you want to use Yahoo as your default search engine and whether you want to install the Dealio toolbar.  I opted out of both and I suspect most users would want to opt out as well.

I tried the program and it works pretty much as advertised though I did get quite high security risk ratings for several legitimate programs including Everything Search and Commodo Firewall. These should be regarded as false positives.

This program communicates a lot with the vendor's website, presumably to check running processes against a database. However I saw nothing to cause undue concern.

I didn't try any of the tune-up and tweaking functions. IMHO these are best left to specialist utilities.

As a Task Manager this program falls well short of products like SysInternal's Process Explorer. However by drawing attention to the risk level of what's running on your PC it serves a useful adjunct role to your security software. You should however, take the product's security risk ratings more as a guide than definitive.

Gizmo

Note: Freeware version of AnVir Task Manager reviewed here