L. V. Bekeris said:
I don't know if this is the correct newsgroup to ask the following question.
Which of the software are duplicates, and I could eliminate.
Ad-Aware 2008
OK
Norton 360
OK, although there are better and less performance-bogging security
applications (most of them free) widely available. Personally, I don't
think any security "suite" is a good choice. Use smaller,
less-resource-draining stand-alone products.
I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all without
any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that. But it's
been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee products. Their
quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they were acquired by
Network Associates.
However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. Also, because Symantec only supports a product
version for a couple of years before trying to force customers to buy an
entirely new version, I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ) and the free
version of Sygate's Personal Firewall
(
http://smb.sygate.com/free/default.php ). Both have proven to be
easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I was
pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable improvement in
my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec product.
Of course, since then, Symantec has purchased Sygate and ended the
distribution of the free firewall. Fortunately, there's still
ZoneAlarm, Tiny, Kerio, et al.
A waste of money; Doesn't do anything that you can't do with Windows'
native tools. Once a useful utility suite, back in the days of MS-DOS,
when Peter Norton was more than a picture on the box, Norton Utilities
have been becoming increasingly useless and redundant over the years.
There's little offered by NU, regardless of its having been relabelled,
that WinXP cannot already do natively. And some of Systemworks's
features, like CrashGuard and CleanSweep (if they're still included)
cause far more problems then they prevent.
Registry Mechenic
Reg Cure
Remove them both. They're pure snake oil; either one will likely do
more harm than good. (To put it more precisely, there is a small but
very real chance that these two products can cause damage - sometimes
irreversible - to the registry, and a nearly 100% chance that they will
do nothing whatsoever useful.)
Why would you even think you'd ever need to clean your registry?
What specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some
program's bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be
fixed by using a registry "cleaner?"
If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would
be far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the
specific key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After
all, why use a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally,
the manually changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely
to have the dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make
multiple changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.
The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change.
Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using
automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to
maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.
More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry "cleaner," particularly by an untrained,
inexperienced computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's
certainly been no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use
of such products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's
performance or stability. Given the potential for harm, it's just not
worth the risk.
Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.
I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands
of an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a
useful time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make
any changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry "cleaners" that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.
A little further reading on the subject:
Why I don't use registry cleaners
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=643
AumHa Forums • View topic - AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry
Cleaner?
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099
Malwarebytes - Anti Malware
Spyware Anti-Malware
Spyware Anti-Malware
Spy Zook 2.5
While it's often a good idea to use two different anti-spyware
applications, to ensure wider coverage, 3 seems over-kill to me,
particularly in addition to Ad-Aware. And, of your 3, only MalwareBytes
has a decent reputation, that I've heard of. Perhaps some other
responder will have heard of, or have experience with, the other two.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
