Keep it clean

When asked, I always recommend AVG, spybot and crapcleaner... Never pay, and never use shareware, oh and get rid of pretty much anything provided by Microsoft!

In this ever changing and updating world of technology, and with our business needing our systems in top quality performance, what do others use to help keep their computers clean and fast and running smooth....?

I use Antivir, Zonealarm, Adaware, dclean and diskeeper. I also regularly remove all but the most recent restore point. I also turn off all processes that I consider are not needed and so far I have not had any issues.


Paul

wasp said:

When asked, I always recommend AVG, spybot and crapcleaner... Never pay, and never use shareware, oh and get rid of pretty much anything provided by Microsoft!

In this ever changing and updating world of technology, and with our business needing our systems in top quality performance, what do others use to help keep their computers clean and fast and running smooth....?

Click to expand...

AVG free antivirus + spyware + rootkit. Zone Alarm free firewall. MS Defender (free). Free firewall on router(s). Free firewall on ISP (Metronet).
I do scans regularly. Always scan any downloaded material before open / install. No problems with Shareware / Freeware / Open source if treated sensibly (some very good free stuff available on trusted sites). Never had any problems with home network multi-user setup over, must be 6 or 7 years now.

Appreciate that you do get some extra bells & whistles with paid-for kit but the free stuff covers the essentials of what I need.

(PC performance is a different issue and I do regular maintenance.) I use only stable and well tested hardware - no fancy stuff. This gives me rock-solid reliability which is what you want for trading.

PS - also use Firefox browser and allow cookies from known / trusted / desirable sites ONLY.

ccleaner is really good. The cleaner will basically allow you to do a disk clean-up without needing to look in my computer, right click c drive etc. The registry part will enable you to remove left-over entries from the registry, that remain from un-installed applications.
Very user friendly freeware .


I also use AVG, zone alarm (instead of the inbuilt windows XP firewall), and spybot search & destroy. All are freeware.

AVG free, Spybot, ccleaner (cheers Jtrader), magical defrag, spyware blaster and comodo firewall - which replaced Zonealarm after the latest update crashed.

All free and I've never had any problems that I know of, which is quite a statement from a computer illiterate such as me.

UTB

Only install what you really need.

Next to using Firefox, I've installed this very neat "add-on" (it's basically a proxy) called Privoxy.

It's free, it's small, it hardly takes up any system resources and it filters out all the junk adds, pop-ups, banners, Javascript annoyances, etc. You can customize it to fit your own needs/wants (for example if you insists on surfing to those you-know-what-I-mean sites).

Since I've used it, I've never had to use any spyware filter or cleaner anymore.

Ofcourse, that could be related to the fact that I only surf to educational/scientific/news websites

Looks interesting FW... Do you use the firefox adblock add-on? Is it similar or better or ...?

wasp said:

Looks interesting FW... Do you use the firefox adblock add-on? Is it similar or better or ...?

Click to expand...

Yes, that one is enabled too. But the Privoxy tool blocks adds before loading basically, while Firefox usually blocks them after caching.

The downside is that I have some "blanks" frequently on webpages where there used to be adds. Next to that, Firefox is usually pretty good at blocking pop-ups but doesn't get rid of pop-unders and those irritating hover-ads I occasionally used to run into. The new beta version 3 might do so though...haven't checked to be honest.

Privoxy is no miracle, but for the time I've been using it (couple of months), it really works as a charm.

I've a question...

If you have a lap top or desktop with multiple user accounts, do you need to install spyware removal applications + ccleaner in each user account in order to use them?

I'm guessing yes, as otherwise the program only appears in the main user account (account it was installed in - administrator)?

Cheers.

Not necessarily, you should be able to specify when installing whether it installs for use by any user or just you.


Paul

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com

a great freeware site with reviews

rainman2 said:

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com

a great freeware site with reviews

Click to expand...

Rainman,

Very useful link - thanks.

used to use AVG but switched to AntiVir, however last week I was hit by a virus that
attacked the .exe of programs and rendered AntiVir useless; unfortunately since I
didn't know what was attacking me I backed-up some data, reformatted then copied
infected files back onto the drive. AV couldn't install so after a search for free avs
decided on PCTools; it installed ok and immediately infection/quarantine messages
were popping up; a complete scan found nearly 500 infections ! with the virus name
identified a google found infection often occured via a cd - duh! so reformatted again;
while the PCT av could clear the infections it couldn't 're-set' the .exe files hence the
reformat and re-install to a clean machine
could it have prevented the virus installing ?
(the same disabling/install failure happens with AVG and probably other avs too)
at present I've a dialogue going with AV and have re-installed it but may switch to
PCT's av once AV have answered
PC Tools - Download Free AntiVirus, Spyware Removal, Internet Security and Utility Software

tests of some avs: AV-Comparatives also click: selection

the other part of 'keep it clean' is firewalls
I'm guilty of using an old Sygate fw but find new fws a bit too sophisticated plus
I should be using a router. I always had broker trouble using ZoneAlarm and won't
use that; tried PCT's fw but . . .

Leak-tests results - matousec.com

note that in the test results at the above sites they hadn't tested the latest versions
of PCT's av or fw

also use the free/pay version of MailWasher: Mailwasher Spam Filter Software: The Reliable Free Spam Blocker | MailWasher

Trader333 said:

I use Antivir, Zonealarm, Adaware, dclean and diskeeper. I also regularly remove all but the most recent restore point. I also turn off all processes that I consider are not needed and so far I have not had any issues.


Paul

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Any easy way to know which programs can be turned off (or is it by hit and trial)?

Raj

startup inspector for windows - Freeware.

i use kaspersky which fast and good. what we need in today's tech world... i can say pay something to get something...

Use more than one puter

Have a KVM.
This way I can run different puters but yet only have selected stuff on each
example
puter 1 has the trading stuff. no junk no surfing no downloading etc
puter 2 has internet connection. download stuff, surf, etc
if it goes bad so what? my puter 1 does not get messed with

KVM = keyboard video mouse
I just tap the scroll key twice and boom the next puter is shown on the monitor. using the same mouse/keyboard/mouse to control more than one puter.

so I now bought a 4 port KVM
then a week later, on Craigslist
bought a 8 port KVM.
now to just get a few more puters!!
use ad aware, spybot, AVG , firefox, never use IE
try not to use anything from Mickey

JTrader said:

startup inspector for windows - Freeware.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jtrader.

Raj

Hello t2w members

Please advise, is it worth using mcafee? or shall i just uninstall it and go with avg instead?

Thnaks in advance
c88