WinXP performance, diagnostic and optimization software

[Pete B]

I am looking for some really good software applications that are useful for
maintaining my PC running WinXP Pro SP2. There are literally hundreds of
programs out there that offer some utility in doing this, and currently I am
using Acronis True Image 11 for backups, Acronis Disk Director Suite for HDD
management (a really superb, but scary, util), Uniblue's SpeedUpMyPC and
RegBooster for performance, maintenance and registry issues, as well as my
recently acquired RegFix program which does a superb cleanup of registry
problems, WinPatrol, WinTasks, and AddRemove Pro for other help and info. I
also run AdAware Pro and AVG Pro, I love those programs and they do their
thing superbly, no issues there AFA spam or virus/firewall stuff. And
naturally I have the Windows stuff itself like msconfig.

All of these are the full registered versions versions, so I am not looking
necessarily for free stuff. But for example on the MS Marketplace they are
all mostly specialized software, confined to one or two particular areas of
Windows operation. What I seek is a more general all-purpose util of wide
versatility for both software and hardware maintenance. For example, I have
two registry utils that find and repair reg references to unused DLLs, but I
do not have anything that will actually do the obverse, i.e. go out and look
at all of the thousands of DLLs and tell me which ones are totally wasting
space, perhaps leftovers from deleted apps and so on. Actually I have one
such util but I do not trust it; it finds supposed unused DLLs but it
always "qualifies" whether it can actually be removed or not, and I usually
just end up not taking the chance; I want something that is unambiguous
about it; if I sit through an hour or two scan, I don't want it to come
back and suggest "maybes", I want "do it".

Or for another, something that can really do a good job of recovering lost
emails, or examining email archives. Then there are all of the PC hardware
issues that could be helped, such as finding out more about devices than
Windows provides and so on, optimizing network connections etc. The Uniblue
optimizer does some of this type of stuff but it is sort of vague on what it
is doing (or going to do which is even worse) or else it just says here is
what you have, what should be changed to optimize RAM usage and so on (how
the hell do I know). I also have several utils that display the running
devices, applets, and such, and even what order they load; I can even
activate and deactivate them individually, but nothing really says "this
works best if it is loaded first, or before this other one". Which is the
info I really need.

Perhaps what I seek does not exist, or is so expensive that I would not be
interested (above $50-$100 perhaps). I am not looking for a "burn-in" type
of util, rather something like a tune-up, maintenance and performance
optimizer all rolled in to one; the kind of thing a PC repair service might
use to put a customer's PC back in top notch shape after repair. And I
would kill for a really good easy-to-use BIOS util, one that really works
and does backups and is not so scary to use that it ends up as simply taking
up space.

So do you all have any suggestions, any great apps that you use for stuff
like this? Or am I just on my own, out of luck, or as good as it gets?

Appreciate your input and recommendations.

 

[Gerry]

Pete

One you are using which should be dumped!
Uniblue's SpeedUpMyPC and
RegBooster for performance, maintenance and registry issues
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Xandros]

You are asking for a piece of software that will scan your system and make
all necessary registry fixes and corrections without your approval. That is
a sure way to end up with a lot of problems. I suggest that you are already
using too many "tools". It is likely your desire to have an all-in-one tool
stems from spending too much time running these "diagnostic" tools. All that
you should need is decent AV, decent anti-spyware, decent defrag and run the
built in XP tools like Disk Cleanup. If space is the issue then upgrade your
hardware to a bigger hard drive.

Xandros

 

[Pete B]

Those are two separate utils. I read the entire thread you posted and did
not see any mention of these particular packages from Uniblue, but I sure
saw a whole lot of negativity about OneCare, which was my experience as
well.

In any case, I have used both of the mentioned utils for years with no
problems and with good results. The reg cleaner backs up and restores and
cleans the registry fine, very simple to use. They work well for what they
do, I have seen both help my pC performance, so I think I will keep them.
RegFix is even better, though, and it also has worked fine for me.

What I want though is something more comprehensive in this tupe of util,
something beyond registry care.

 

[Pete B]

Well, that is certainly one approach. I use all of those you mention from
time to time. But with almost 500,000 files on my PC right now, I would
like something that goes beyond what I have.

--
Pete B

You are asking for a piece of software that will scan your system and make
all necessary registry fixes and corrections without your approval. That
is a sure way to end up with a lot of problems. I suggest that you are
already using too many "tools". It is likely your desire to have an
all-in-one tool stems from spending too much time running these
"diagnostic" tools. All that you should need is decent AV, decent
anti-spyware, decent defrag and run the built in XP tools like Disk
Cleanup. If space is the issue then upgrade your hardware to a bigger hard
drive.

Xandros

 

[3c273]

With all of those utilities, do you ever stop to use your computer or just
tune it to run the utilities faster? ;-)

 

[Pete B]

You don't know what I have on this PC. I use it for software development
and testing, running a business, and personal use. Like I said elsewhere it
is loaded: two versions of Vis Studio, both full and express, all the MS
Office Pro stuff, all the other MS software for home and business like MS
Publisher, a Linux partition, a Win VM running WinME, tons of accounting
apps, tons of Adobe and media apps, etc. 40 GB for the My Documents and
other data files alone, as well as an external 200 GB HDD. When I do a full
virus scan, it has to check about 750K or more individual files. So it
ain't exactly just for email and surfing.

Keeping all the gears meshing is a formidable task. But so far it has run
well, I just want to keep it that way.

--
Pete B

With all of those utilities, do you ever stop to use your computer or just
tune it to run the utilities faster? ;-)

 

[3c273]

Ah, I see, you need to keep it tuned to run all of those installers and
updaters.
(in case you missed it the first time -----> ;-) <----- )

You don't know what I have on this PC. I use it for software development
and testing, running a business, and personal use. Like I said elsewhere it
is loaded: two versions of Vis Studio, both full and express, all the MS
Office Pro stuff, all the other MS software for home and business like MS
Publisher, a Linux partition, a Win VM running WinME, tons of accounting
apps, tons of Adobe and media apps, etc. 40 GB for the My Documents and
other data files alone, as well as an external 200 GB HDD. When I do a full
virus scan, it has to check about 750K or more individual files. So it
ain't exactly just for email and surfing.

Keeping all the gears meshing is a formidable task. But so far it has run
well, I just want to keep it that way.

 

[Gerry]

Pete

Most of these type of utilities perform functions other than cleaning
registry much like Disk CleanUp. It is these functions which can help
performance not the act of removing redundant registry entries. You can
use cCleaner without the Scan for Issue function to get the same
performance improvement.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Pete B]

No, but if my system crashes or even runs poorly for any reason, I lose
boatloads of money. What I do in my business is, among other things, design
custom user and database apps that interface to commercial business software
applications such as, say, Peachtree. I also design standalone database
apps in VB and VC for totally custom needs, and as well I do many other
interface, graphics, publication and reporting apps. Many of these require
me to install and run the other apps to test my own work, and a lot of these
other apps are not on networks, since most of my business is with small
business owners who use standalone PCs. So I may have any number of non-MS
apps installed at any given time for test purposes.

It is not **my** mistakes I worry about, I almost always know what to do
when that happens, and because I do daily complete incremental system
backups I hardly ever have disasters anyway (especially thanks to WinXP Pro,
the best OS Microsoft ever released). It is how all these apps and systems
run together on the machine harmoniously and efficiently that concerns me.
That is why maintenance and operating efficiency are among my primary
concerns. I use VMs for some of this, nut VMs are limited so when I want to
deliver something to a customer that I know will work, I have to test it on
my PC in a state just like my6 customer runs it.

 

[Pete B]

Thanks Gerry. Yes I am always cautious about reg cleaners and IE and other
volatile stuff that may remove data that is not intended and so forth. I
will give this app a try, already downloaded it. I probably will never do
the reg util in it since RegFix does such a primo job and is very safe to
use.

 

[FrankFL]

You don't know what I have on this PC. I use it for software development
and testing, running a business, and personal use. Like I said elsewhere it
is loaded: two versions of Vis Studio, both full and express, all the MS
Office Pro stuff, all the other MS software for home and business like MS
Publisher, a Linux partition, a Win VM running WinME, tons of accounting
apps, tons of Adobe and media apps, etc. 40 GB for the My Documents and
other data files alone, as well as an external 200 GB HDD. When I do a full
virus scan, it has to check about 750K or more individual files. So it
ain't exactly just for email and surfing.

Keeping all the gears meshing is a formidable task. But so far it has run
well, I just want to keep it that way.

There is no way I would even try to use one (1) PC to do it all.
Especially testing.