# Another Pc Question



## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

While ago I had a demo PC maintainance program - Norton Utilities I think it was. It was easy to use, though I don't know how effective it was. My system has been slow/freezing last few days. What do you all think of these programs? Are they worth the money? It must be something in my registry or similar. Done a disk cleanup. PC says I don't need a defrag.


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## ESL (Jan 27, 2004)

What OS are you running Paul? XP?


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

ESL said:


> What OS are you running Paul? XP?
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Yes George XP.


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## ESL (Jan 27, 2004)

Normally slow or "hanging" systems can be a result of lots of programmes loading at startup, or unnecessary services running at startup. I can't give you chapter and verse right now as I'm at work on a Win 2000 Pro OS, but:

Try running Programs/Accessories/System tools/System Info

If you cant find it, try Start/Run and then run "sysinfo.exe" or sysinfo32.exe" (whechever one works).

That should give you a System Information "console"

On the left, there should be a Tree folder: look for Software Environment (or similar) and click it, then Startup Programmes. This is NOT the same as looking at the Startup Folder on the main Start Menu. This is where programmes such as Norton, run special bits of code they don't want you to be able to easily turn off.

You should now have a list of everything that gets loaded or started when XP boots. Some you will know about, some you may be unsure about, some may well be bits of Norton or other programs you thought you had completely removed.

Now: somewhere there is also a startup troubleshooter. If you do a search for it in Windows Help, it should tell you how to temporarily disable stuff at startup to see if it's that causing the problem.

If you can't resolve it that way, then you may have to look at Windows Services, which is a whole new ball game.

Hope this made sense, if not, I'm sure someone else will jump in.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Cheers G - I'll give it a go.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Do I need to leave RUNDLL32.exe files activated in startup?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Mrcrowley said:


> Do I need to leave RUNDLL32.exe files activated in startup?
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Probably, as that file is an essential part of the Windows Operating System, although it can sometimes be subverted by certain malware programs









To answer your original question, the likes of Norton Utilities used to be essential back in the days of DOS and Win9x but nowadays most of the functionality of those programs has been included in the Windows OS itself as standard or is available in various command line tools that can be downloaded from Microsoft in the various Resource Kits and other downloadable tools. So, IMHO, no, I don't think they're worth the money any more.

Try a scan for spyware/adware using the currently free Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

rhaythorne said:


> Mrcrowley said:
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> 
> > Do I need to leave RUNDLL32.exe files activated in startup?
> ...


Cheers Rich.

No point buying the utilities then?


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

I have to echo what Rich says Paul. Most people running WinXP just need to add good firewall and anti-virus software, it's possible to get good ones free such as Zone Alarm and Antivir. And a good anti-spyware package is sensible.

I'm not keen on those fix things that aren't really broken packages, they have been known to cause more damage than they are worth.

Just a few tips, don't install software just because it's free and sounds good, check it out first. Update Windows as updates become available (Micro$oft gets things wrong as much as anyone else, even the updates







).

The less you install and uninstall untested programmes the longer you can go without doing a complete operating system re-install.

Make backups of all important data and your logon and password details.

A computer is not the average consumer item that most sellers try to make out.









Now, where _is_ the slot for the bread in this sodding thing?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Mr.C said:



> No point buying the utilities then?


I'd go along with what Stan says.

A few current utilities that I have thought are worth paying money for as opposed to using a free alternative are:

Eset NOD32 antivirus which also now has antispyware buit in

Agnitum Outpost Pro Firewall

TDS-3  (Trojan Defence Suite) which is a bit technical but you don't have to use all the advanced features if you don't want to

WinTasks Pro which is a kind of advanced version of Windows Task Manager that tells you in plain English what all the processes are and what dll's are loaded among some other very useful things

Beyond that, I can't think of any do-it-all system "optimizer" type programs that are really worth the money these days. Just my opinion of course


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

I have Microsoft Antispyware.

Also EZ Antivirus & Black Ice firewall. 'Rented' from BT so updated every time I log on.

Just speed etc, knowing my system is OK my main worry. Remember few weeks ago you helped me delete stuff from registry? I would not have done that myself. I would have left it to one of those progs to tell me, but you say they can be more harm than good?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Sometimes they can do more harm than good, yes.

It's not so bad when an antispyware program, for example, deletes some Registry entries that are absolutely _known_ to be associated with some spyware or adware process, but the utilities that are designed to "tweak" the Registry settings etc. to supposedly make the PC faster are best avoided in my opinion.

Yes, there are some Registry settings you can try changing which may improve performance in some areas, but if it was always a certainty then they'd be set that way in the first place. I've found in the past that some of these programs go charging through the Registry like a bull in a china shop and on one particular occasion I was left with a knackered system that I just couldn't get to work properly again until I re-installed the OS.

Back in the DOS/Win3.x/Win9x days it was different, and there were several tools included with the likes of Norton Utilities that you just couldn't get anywhere else. Nowadays, Windows is much better at looking after itself. Also, hardware is a lot quicker now and much more capable of running bloated software more quickly, so you really don't need to tweak the Registry.

I often find these days that a slow system is running loads of spyware/adware or some other udesirable services and generally a few runs through with MS-AntiSpyware, AdAware and/or Spybot S&D is usually all that's required to clean it up, although sometimes they need a bit of manual assistance to get rid of the nastier and stealthier offenders. It can be worse though! The "funniest" (to me at least and not the owner) one I've seen was a PC that had been hacked and turned into an FTP server. This guy's machine was running slowly because there were about 30 other people connected to it downloading porn







Other possiblities include the presence of a "bot" which can be controlled by a hacker to turn a PC into a "zombie" for use in a Distributed Denial of Service attack, or, that your PC is being used by a spammer to send out large quantities of junk mail. The latter two scenarios are unlikely, but it is possible.

A "tweak" utility will probably not help you to solve such problems, but decent antivirus, antispyware/adware and a firewall will help prevent such problems occurring in the first place.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

> This guy's machine was running slowly because there were about 30 other people connected to it downloading porn


Did he get to keep the porn?


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## Ron Jr (Sep 10, 2003)

jasonm said:


> > This guy's machine was running slowly because there were about 30 other people connected to it downloading porn
> 
> 
> Did he get to keep the porn?
> ...


I used work for a company in NYC we had a very large IT dept which is just the opposite of my current employer. Only the upper management had internet access, because it was felt that the lower ranks would abuse it. Anyway the computer maintenace staff was right across the hall from my office and I was pretty friendly with a couple of them (lunch time death match). Anyway one of my friends started laughing very loudly so I had to check it out. Seems one of the dept managers had gotten a new PC a few months before and complained that he couldn't save any documents. Standard procedure was to pull the PC and give him a loaner for the day while his was checked out. He had over 60 gig of porn downloaded on his machine. He was dismissed but took the company to court and won because there was no published internet usage policy and he didn't know it was wrong to save dirty pictures.


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Can anyone guide me to a free online * ENGLISH* spellchecker, one that knows how to spell for example`*colour`* and `*centre`* properly
















No offence meant but I`m not American


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Nope, I don't know of one









Dictionary.com is pretty good though and at least contains the proper English spellings and defintions of most words.

Does it have to be online? Can you not just add a proper English dictionary file to whichever application it is in which you wish to check the spellings?


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## Andy Mac (Jun 11, 2003)

MrCrowley, what you need is Ccleaner ( Crap Cleaner ) Freeware and works a treat.

Ccleaner

Gets rid of all the rubbish that gets installed in your OS over the years.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

And they cost a packet to repair


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## rsykes2000 (Dec 3, 2003)

Griff said:


> And they cost a packet to repair
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They certainly do. But of the 4 computers currently running in my (sole-occupancy) office at work, the Mac mini requires least effort to keep going and looks far more gorgeous than the rest







It's not as fast or powerful as the best of the others, but it is virtually silent and, as the adverts say, it just works. No fuss. But then work bought it for me - I didn't have to pay for it, and if I did, I would have just the one Windows PC as I do at home, spyware and virus problems regardless


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Potz said:



> No spyware, no crashes, no trojans or virii... It's nice to live on the sunny side


You've got some serious patching to do though










Mind you, there are supposedly 10 new patches coming out for Windoze next Tuesday


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

I kicked the old Amiga A1200 up last week, it's been boxed up for three years. If there was a good web browser for it I'd be tempted to put it back in service.









Amiga dos, now that was wicked.


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