India Broadband Forum

pothi

Here are my suggestions...

• Forget Windows.
• Install A Linux Distribution.
• Learn Linux, OpenOffice, GIMP, Pidgin, Thunderbird, etc...

Good Luck!

~ Pothi.

just4kix

Much as I love Unix (and Linux), I am afraid that there is very little alternative to Windows right now. Open Office is good but cannot compare with MS-Office (yet).

Windows is for the masses, unix/linux is for the classes.

itsmemad

I take following steps to maintain my personal computer-

1. Use an anti-virus with its firewall feature turned off. In my opinion Kaspersky is best. Right now I'm using EScan cuz of three reasons. (a) Its using Kaspersky as its Engine. (b) It has not let me down yet. (c) Its Indian.
I advise to stick with your own anti-virus unless it doesn't perform well.

2. Though anti-virus suites provide anti-spyware, I still use 1 anti-spyware along with it. I use Spybot Search & Destroy with its tea-timer feature on to serve this purpose.

3. Windows firewall is sufficient for me(home use). Besides Router's firewall is on too.

4. For general browsing history, temp folder etc. cleaning purpose I use CCLEANER.

5. For maintaining registry, I use UNIBLUE REGISTRY BOOSTER(something clicked Eddy? lol..) and yes this defrags registry too. Registry cleaning is important to delete the traces of ur uninstalled program. Tip- Always take a back-up of your registry before cleaning it.(full version torrent available)

6. Most important software which helps to run my computer faster is Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier. It is the best defragmenting tool I've used. It uses the funda of set it and forget it. It runs automatically in the background when my computer is ideal(in between 2-8 generally), therefore it does not use resources when I'm playing or surfing. There is an option to manually defragment too. But I never need to use it. I downloaded cracked version from torrent sites. There are quite other features also. But I never bother about them. Just turn everything to automatic, except auto-update. (As its cracked version)

7. I use a s/w burstcopy(again torrent) for Windows. It optimizes the cut, copy and paste procedure by using maximum resources which normal Windows procedure can't do. Besides, it has a skip file feature which comes in handy, if u r copying from a cd/dvd and due to some reasons the file can't be copied, then u can just skip that file and burstcopy will just resume copying other files. Without it windows just terminate the copy process.

8. Windows search speed is another pain in a**. I use a s/w called AVA Find (Full version) to search my files or folders. Its like khul-ja-simsim. I type the name of file/folder in its search-box, and the file/folder just pops up in its explorer window in fraction of seconds. And it doesn't really bogs down my system. Its using just 6 MB of memory right now.

9. My windows update is set to Notify me but don't download automatically and install them. This way I save my limited(2.5GB/month) day bandwidth. And I only install security, reliability and critical updates concerned to windows only. Other crap related to Office, Internet explorer(I use FireFox), Outlook, Visual Studio etc. are conveniently ignored.

10. Windows defender is there to plug the security loopholes which only Microsoft knows..lol.. It really helped me once to remove a type of vundu trojan cleanly from my system when all other security softwares just detected the trojan but failed to remove.

11. I keep the system restore feature on. Besides automatic restore points I make it sure to have a couple of manual restore points. Just in case...

12. I use WinPatrol s/w to decrease the boot time and keep a tab on my startup items. It enables the feature of delayed start. i.e., When I boot my PC, all the startup items don't start popping up at once... cuz all of them have been assigned different time intervals after windows login.

13. I keep my security softwares updated.

Note- I use specialized softwares only. I mean not to trust a single software to do all the work it promises. For example, Anti-virus suites with aniti-spywares r just not enough. One should use atleast 1 good anti-spyware too.

P.S.- I have shared almost all the softwares I use (tried n tested... except EScan) and steps I take to maintain smooth running of my system. I deliberately avoided comparisons between other alternate softwares which I used but ignored and the ones I'm currently using, just to avoid any confusion. You are free to use the softwares you trust. Comments and queries are welcome. If you liked my post, please give me some repo points.

ShAdOwCoN

Impressive .....

Yeah tat was Uniblue Reg cleaner

Y not use both like me ?

AmitTeli

Where can i get it??
Is this a free source software from Microsoft corp or a third party thing??
Can a user without Genuine Windows too can use this??

Archer

itsmemad

Windows launched its own security suite "Windows Live OneCare" sometime back... I haven't given it a try yet... So, can't comment on its performance...

If you wanna give it a try... U can download the trial version(90 days) from this link...

Downloads - Windows Live OneCare safety scanner

beat_root

Yes, There are Data Recovery Houses(you give your PC's hard disk to them), which employ softwares programmed in low-level languages like C. These softwares typically look for particular patterns of data.
For eg. the s/w will scan the disk for a BOF(beginning of file) and a consecutive EOF(End of file). Whatever data is found in between is memory-dumped(using functions like memcopy()
This is just one example, there are much advanced algorithms and techniques, but the base is the same
But there is no way for the software to assume that the data(content of the bitstream read) has remained unchanged since the event the file was deleted or the drive had crashed or any sort of disaster had occurred.
That is why no recovery software can guarantee that it will recover 100% of the data and be consistent with its pre-disaster state.

itsmemad

Talking about recovery s/w... 1 of my friend used R-studio... and he found files since he purchsased that hdd... they were from 3 yrs old to that day... but yes, it coudn't find some of the recently lost files too... so in a way, not 100%...eh...

ShAdOwCoN

No i have given it a try ....Microsoft is nt too good at security .....Its 'Ok'

Its free

Its a complete suite like Nortan security Suite

It does a "Genuine windows validation check" before Installation

Both XP and Vista compatible

Data recovery

I use Power Data recovery S/W....

Its a very good recovery S/W....

Its commercial not free...

I have recovered a year old 800 mb movie and many softwares....intact

It also works beautifully on portable hard disks and flash drives ....

check Power Data Recovery is an easy-to-use data recovery software for Windows. for more details

pothi

It is possible to recover data using Ubuntu Live CD from your broken Windows.

Here is how...

Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer :: the How-To Geek

I hope you are aware, Ubuntu Live CD is available free of cost.

The only thing one has to know is how to use it.

~ Pothi.

benlalro

1. Regularly defragment.
2. Clear cookies.
3. Scan you pc with good antivirus software (in case there is virus)

itsmemad

Good 1... As precise as it cud be...

kamalian

Well thats pretty simple and practical points. Before getting into the topic I thought there would be some special tips and infos on making our system run faster

Anyhow, I once made a big mistake in cleaning my hard drive space. Misplaced some files from C drive since it had bad sector and frm that date till now, I can never read any online eBook without downloading. Be careful while cleaning your drives.

mwaraitch

What do you think is minimum suggested RAM for decent running of Vista.

Archer

Check this link: Get Windows Vista: System requirements.

itsmemad

Atleast 2 GB... for hassle-free use...

Mr.Tooth Fairy

yes for basic 512 is ok but ultimate 1gb minimum.. itsmemad is right.. 2gb will be nice.. hassel free.. though i m running ultimate vrsion of vista on 1gb.. not much problem for me!

smoothvibes

vista can not work good on 512 or 1Gb RAM
512 is the minimum requirement to run OS but for smooth functioning you need atleast 2GB coz infact on 1Gb you may face slowness and latency

SEOBOT

the essentials to make pc run faster - advance system optimizer