Ten Windows XP Performance Tweaks - Maintenance Programs
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Spybot: Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's Adaware SE are two programs that I most often use for ongoing maintenance on my system and for troubleshooting many issues. Spybot: Search and Destroy has been a leading provider of anti-spyware solutions for a number of years and its immunizing function is incredibly useful. However, it is not its ability to hunt down and remove spyware that I most recommend this program for. It's the advanced tools it also contains.
To see these "hidden" tools in Spybot you need to switch your Mode from Default to Advanced. This will add three more choices at the bottom of the side navigation bar of the program. One of these choices is "Tools;" this is where all the goodies are kept. There are three great tools in here: System Internals, IE Tweaks, and Resident.
System Internals will scan your system for registry entries that use incorrect file names or use non-existent paths and help you remove them. This will help to streamline your registry, especially if you happen to install and uninstall lots of programs. The IE Hosts section provides you with the ability to implement three miscellaneous locks to apply to your browser and system. These are especially effective in order to either remove browser hijack infections or to act as a proactive method of preventing these attacks. Lastly, the Resident section provides you with the ability to protect Internet Explorer from bad downloads with the SDHelper utility, but it's the TeaTimer that excites me the most.
TeaTimer allows you to protect your system settings from change without your explicit approval. For example, if you make any changes to the system registry through the MSCONFIG utility it will prompt you to either accept or deny this change. You can also tell the program to remember your decision. The real power of this background application running is that if a viral infection ends up on your system and tries to make changes to the registry, this program will detect it and prompt you to allow or deny this change. You prevent infections as they are happening rather than dealing with them once you're already infected.
Lavasoft's Adaware SE is one of many programs out there that provides you with the ability to remove adware from your system. Why do I recommend Adaware over other programs out there? Well, there are a number of reasons: 1) it's fast and does a good job at what it does and 2) most importantly it is from a very reputable company: Lavasoft. The program has expanded over the years to ignore most cookies on your system and does a good job of removing the source of your annoying pop-up ads, rather than just the ad itself, as most pop-up blockers do.
CCleaner is another great utility program that is exceptionally fast and efficient at removing unwanted temporary files from your computer (most often in under a second!). What makes this program so great is that during the installation you can choose not to have a listing made for it under Program Files in your Start menu and not to create a shortcut on your desktop. So how do you use the program then? Well, you can choose to have it added to your Recycle Bin. That's right, when you right click on your Recycle Bin in order to empty it you can choose instead to either Run or Open CCleaner. For the first time you should open it and customize its cleaning options to remove only the temporary files you want to have removed. Personally, I want to keep my cookies so I choose to not have it clean that folder. However, it still cleans my temp folders, my recycle bin, my history and all sorts of places on my hard drive in less than one second! The first time is the longest but if you can remember to run this program before you shut down every day it will do its cleaning in the blink of an eye and let you computer boot up feeling as close to as fresh as a daisy as a mass of silicon parts can feel.
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