[Tools for] XP repair

Many years ago, before Windows, and before Windows and systems became so complex, I found that Norton did a fair job of curing the occasional ills that are bound to crop up. Now, with several dozens applications on my computer many of which are resident, along with several internal and external drives, a network card, a sata card, a firewire/usb2 card (yes it is an old motherboard), and an AGP video card, I often experience unexpected problems. Norton's system works seems weak, and although I have add blockers, and registry cleaners, and try to keep the cache clean, and perform full backups from time to time, I often find myself spending an hour or two having to do manual repairs on the registry and configuration settings.

I there a good all around program to run when a glitch shows up?

Thanks

Bob

 

Remember Bob that too many programs doing the same work can cause a slow down. I am using a program called AVG 8.[Do a 'search' on AVG 8. Get the 'free' prog. Seems to clean up better then a lot of the other 'selling' programs. Also, Nortons is a memory hog. If you use DSL sometime programs like MSN will provide a good prog for cleaning up the system against the rest of the stuff on the market today. I removed Nortons and will be removing Zone Alarm shortly.

 

hello charlibob. A good combo that works for me is Avira AntiVir,Comodo Firewall,SuperAntiSpyware, and MalwareBytes. Be sure (I know you are aware of this) and keep all updated regularly and set a schedule for scanning. You should have no problems. All together they won't use as many resources as Norton and are easier to remove if you decide to try something else.

 

Since the Osborne? You've got a little experience under your belt. Brings back memories from my "other life" - my marketing reserach director lost 6+ months of work re: statistical data on her Osborne during a brown out.

OK ..... You're right, once upon a time Norton was awesome. No more. It has become problematic bloatware in this author's opinion. Now, you are going to get all kinds of advice, recommendations and comments on this topic. Most is going to be very opinionated and based upon user familiarity. That doesn't necessarily make it good.

The biggest single factor from my perspective is to keep things "clean ". In other words, clearing your system of all the orphans after uninstalling an unwanted application, eliminating temp files that tend to build up over time and minimizing unnecessary programs running at startup. Of course this goes hand-in-hand with keeping malware off of your system.

You should first read the sticky over on the malware forum re: preventing infection. Geri and Dave put this togehter and I'd call it mandatory reading - its packed full of very good information. Personally, I use a variety of tools to clean things up and optimize my systems. I'm not going to go into too much detail here because some can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. Basically, I would suggest a good anti-virus program along the lines of Kaspersky or Nod32 but Avast and AVG offer good AV software that is free. Then you want something for general malware and two or more programs isn't going to hurt you as long as you don't run their resident scanners continuously. MalwareBytes MBAM and SpyBot Search & Destroy Version 1.6 makes for a good combination and I do not run the Tea Timer component of SpyBot S&D. Personally, I would stay away from AdAware at this point in time. (another one of those, used to be good, but .......) Then you need a good program for cleaning up temp files unless you know all of the locations where these files reside and how to remove them manually. My choices here are ATF Cleaner and Clean-Up! Lastly, among the basics, I like having a registry cleaning application to remove left-overs after an uninstall or to disable registry entries if I have to do a brute force removal. My pick here is RegSeeker but I also like JV 16 Power Tools.

Again, you'll probably get a lot of different opinions and unfortunately, there is no single software solution that I am aware of. Good Luck in your pursuits and keep that suitcase in the closet if you still have it.

Regards,

 

Thanks Rockster2U. Actually the suitcase is on a high shelf in the garage. It still displays the Osborne logo when it turns on, but the system disks are all shot. Plus, I cut a hole in the back and installed a fan. I checked and it isn't worth much.

Ouch! I have been using AdAware as in the resident Ad-Watch program. We are in agreement on RegSeeker, use it pretty regularly when strange things start happening. Since it is free with my Comcast service, I have been using the Macafee suite, but only the anti-virus part. I am liking it less and less as each new version comes out. Do you feel that the ones you mentioned are significancy better? I rely a lot on the firewall aspect of my Motorola router. I will try the mal ware programs. For what it is worth, I run the Macafee virus scan every couple of weeks, but it never turns up with anything. Once in a great while I run their program for cleaning up the cache and temp files. I thought PC Mags StartUp Cop pro was a good thing, but eventually it caused me problems, and I had to remove it. I miss the days when it was easier to control what loaded with Sys.ini.

Well, thanks for all the suggestions. I will certainly try them. It is probably time to format my primary drive and reload only what I use the most, and start out with a fresh, new registry, but that is such a hassle.

Thanks again

 

Macafee suite and Norton - to me - are in the same cat. Have you tried AVG 8. [and it is free for 30 days] - msconf is another prog to use [start > run > msconf] but use it carefully. Rmember, to many progs of the same nature only cause more problems. Happy trails.

 

hello johntheteacher. AVG8 may be free for 30 days, but why go to the bother. There are too many full time FREE programs that does a better job. Avira and Avast both run circles around AVG in the antivirus line. SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes does better at spyware detection. AVG8 may cover all bases, but for me, I'll take several programs that are dedicated to 1 certain thing rather than a suite that divides its attention anyday.

 

I have been meaning to get back to this post for days. Thanks again, Rockster2u. I looked at the sticky malware posting, and between those suggestions and yours, my computer is performing better than it has in a several years. Two of the big differences were brought about by using the comodo firewall, instead of Microsofts, and switching to Avast anti-virus instead of Mcafee. That alone probably made the biggest single difference in perfomance on the net.

Gracias!

 

Add 'ccleaner' to the list. Extrapolate a bit and you might just find the best combos.

 

Hello charlibob, try to be descriptive with your thread's title, see Posting Rule #3 for tips:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/rules.php
I will adjust it.

 

Glad to hear it charlibob ........