Recommendations for PC Utilities?

I've been using Norton Systemworks 2004 for routine PC maintenance (sniffing out and deleting dead-end shortcuts and registry entries, defragmenting the hard drive, etc.).

I haven't had any significant problems, but Norton SW is a resource hog.

It's time to purchase another annual subscription for $29.95, so I've been thinking of trying something else.

Are there any other comparable PC utility programs to tidy up the Windows gunk that inevitably accumulates, that won't slow down my computer as much as NSW?

And before you snarky Macheads tell me to get a Mac, I already hear plenty of that from the rest of my family (I'm the sole Wintel holdout).

What's wrong with the defragger that Microsoft supplies?

I don't dare mess with the bleepin' registry. I just got mine cleaned out because a hard drive had to be replaced so I re-installed XP. The old XP lasted for almost three years. It probably had a few thousand worthless entries, but it didn't seem to affect performance.

I can tell you one not to get and that is
System Mechanic 6 by iolo software.

It was released a few months ago and is
at update Q. It is much better since I updated
over the net, but I still would not give this
company my money if I had it to do over again.

Check out the reviews on amazon.com


I have been told that Windows TuneUp
is the best program. at tune-up.com

-Rebus

I've used FixIt Utilities with good results in terms of registry housekeeping and HD defragging. I've had less than stellar results with their emergency backup/restore discs though. That's why I bought Norton Ghost.

I agree that Norton's stuff is a resource hog, but then I've recently been fighting with McAfee-9 on a Win98se machine. Whenever McAfee was running it would bring the machine to it's knees, rendering it completely unusable.

I've been using McAfee for seven years and it never caused problems. I only use the antivirus though. I see no reason to install the other stuff.

I do notice that when SpyBot S&D is scanning, the McAfee is watching it's every move and sometimes uses more of the CPU than SpyBot. I guess I could disable McAfee when I run SpyBot if I wanted it to scan faster, but I'm in no rush.

I still wonder what's wrong with the defragger that comes with the OS. Why would I want to use something else?

IMHO - Not really much "Norton" left in Norton (Symantec) anymore. It's not like the old days with Norton Utilities or PCTools. When most of the tools included in the programs were actually useful and best-in-class.
You don't need most of stuff included in any of the bloated full blown utility programs. There are much better individual tools.
For example, here are my favorites:

Antivirus: TrendMicro, Avast

Antispyware: Ad-Aware, Hijackthis, SpyBot, Ewido

Defragmentation: PerfectDisk

Registry fixing: REGEDIT, Registry Mechanic, SysInternals (various freeware)

Disk checking/fixing: CHKDSK!

System Cleaning: CCleaner (free!)

File Compression: WinRAR

Imaging/Backup: Trueimage

File Manager: PowerDesk 5 (PD6 is unstable)

Data Recovery: SpinRite, BadCopy Pro, File Recover

System Information: Sisoft Sandra

Remote Control: Remote Admin

Web Utility: Adblock extension for Firefox

Tweaking: MS Powertoys

.

I have
Norton Utilities
McAfee VirusScan Pro Which has an excellent and fast QuickClean Lite
Ashampoo
CacheMan
And a bunch of other monitoring, identifying software plus a few spyware killers

But I have been using FixIT 4.0 as a great all-in-one for years. It has a LOT of stuff and once a week I run the All-in-One Wizard for a squeaky clean and pressed machine

Just one nice feature of many is that when it does a defrag of the drive it keeps a log of which programs where used most often and then moves that data to the center of the drive where it can get accessed quicker.

This one is absolutely essential!! Every computer user should have it or something similar.

Puppy Linux - wait! Don't run off yet - let me explain. . .

I know everyone is probably happy with Windows & I'm not trying to push linux on anyone but Puppy can run entirely from a CD-R. This makes it extremely useful if you need to get at your files without starting Windows.

For example, Windows may be corrupted & you may not be able to start or maybe you have a virus and starting Windows would let it rename all of your files - eeep!

Puppy Linux is less than a 60mb download & great to have just incase. It will detect most hardware so you'll be able to use Firefox (on it) to look up a solution to your problem, it has emial & irc clients for more possible help solutions as well as CD buring software & samba & FTP networking software shoulf you need to get your data off the problem machine.

this is a lot quicker than reinstalling Windows - Puppy boots up in about a minute & runs completely from CD / ram so your hard drive is safe

Puppy Linux

AVG anti-virus - its FREE for personal use - regualr updates - also free - can't get better than that.

Also, guys what file sytem are you using? I know Fat16 & Fat32 need defragmenting but I Windows XPs NTFS is a new file system & shouldn't need defragging - at least I assume that's the case since most modern file systems dont.

Windows XP has a built in "defrag" utility that will analyze and defrag your hard drive. Right click on the drive in "My Computer", select "Tools" tab and then click on "Defragment Now". You can also run "defrag" in a command line..

Regardless of whether the disk is FAT or NTFS, a highly fragmented drive will slow down the system...

the thing I was trying to get at is that modern file systems shouldn't get fragmented. Take for example Apple Macs HFS+ file system or any of the linux file systems all are clever enough to sort themselves out as they go & don't need defragging.

Fat is an old file system & was doign what was efficient when Windows computers were 16mhz but now they are powerful enough to sort out the filing logically on the fly, rather than dumping files in a best fit manner. NTFS is teh defualt new file system for Windows XP & being new I woudl assume it's not really affected by fragmentation(?)
link

Oh & for more great applications (all legally free) you might want to check out Sun's site - http://www.theopencd.org/

NTFS has been around a long time. I think it was used in NT 3.1 which was released in 1992.

Unfortunately it still gets fragmented, but for most people it probably doesn't need to be defragmented very often.