“As part of an article TechRepublic published on removing malware, we asked members what applications should be on a recovery/utility CD-ROM. This question has become increasingly important as malicious attacks against networks, e-mail servers, and Web sites have become evermore common. For the network administrator or IT professional, the applications included on this disk serve as the arsenal they use to defend against and, when that fails, recover from these attacks.

“Once again, the TechRepublic membership came through with a fantastic set of responses that named hundreds of applications as potential candidates for a state-of-the-art recovery/utility CD. All of the applications mentioned met a specific requirement, but for some, the number of times they were mentioned in the discussion thread did not reach the level of a consensus. These applications were superseded by others that performed the same or similar function, but were more popular overall with TechRepublic members. That being said, no application was without merit, and your personal preference will, and should, take precedence in some cases.”