WinXP System Utilities OTHER THAN Norton.....

[Strings2k2]

I was wondering if anyone out there knew of any WinXP system utility programs other than the Norton stuff that work very well. I am planning on getting a new standalone DAW sometime in the spring/summer, and although Norton stuff does not seem to be problematic now, I have read several reports in these and other forums that were very much to the contrary. Any suggestions for alternatives to the Norton stuff? Thanks in advance! http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[toonerama]

Great defrag here : http://www.vopt.com/

[+Erik.+]

to be frank, all norton stuff is total junk.

from their firewall to antivirus to cleaning utilities, it's all rubbish.

45mb + for an antivirus!!! come on dudes.

all you need for your pc are along the lines of.......

Diskeeper or O&O Defrag
Regcleaner - free registry cleaning util
Registry Compressor Pro

kaspersky antivirus

maybe get...

system mechanic -
memturbo 2.1 - excellent ram defrag and memory freer
tweak xp
cpu idle

these tools are nice to take a look at too.

maybe i'll get flames from the norton junkies but i doubt there's too many around http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif antivirus is a reasonale product but it's too damn large to do something so mediocre. the only thing ever any good in norton utilities was speed disk. there firewall didn't score too high on many tests i had see for it. so i keep away from anything they do these days. Not to say all their stuff takes huge installations! Even without mammoth hard discs i don't see this as a good thing.


[This message has been edited by +Erik.+ (edited 12-10-2002).]

[Strings2k2]

Does anyone have any ideas for utility programs *OTHER* than Norton? I have looked at Fix-It and System Mechanic, but I am unsure of both of them in some way or other. I have also seen VoptXP, but have not played around with that one yet.

Also, is there one suite in particular that can be safely installed on a DAW *without* interfering with it? I.E., it won't have any agents running in the background, just utilities that can be run on demand, and that's it. TIA for any recommendations! http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[Zenith]

Ace utilities is a great program, you can download a 30 day demo from www.download.com. (http://www.download.com.) it has reg clean and a buch of other great things. If your DAW is going to be on the net, you can go to housecall.trendmicro.com for a free online virus scan at any time. sure it wont stop viruses the second you get them, but you can always boot into safemode with networking and get on the net to remove the virus, then you dont have anything on your harddrive.

[TimZ]

I too would like to dump Norton as an Antivirus program, but I am concerned about the alternatives. How quick are they to update their virus definitions? Do they have a similar "live update" feature?

I only use Norton for virus protection. Like Erik, I use Diskeeper and RegCleaner, both work very well. Also, Magix support told me that WinOptimizer is a good tool as well.

T

[Zenith]

well trendmicro has a great program i used to use which updated its deffenitions very often. They have a excelent corporate version that gets used alot, but their consumer version is great. its called pc cillin and go to www.trendmicro.com (http://www.trendmicro.com) and check it out.

[fetaost]

Good and free: www.free-av.com/ (http://www.free-av.com/)

[maggotcontrol]

For viruses, I've been using AVG Free by Grisoft. I find it to provide adequate protection without totally hogging up system resources. Virus definitions are updated quite frequently as well.

Yoshi
www.studiokobari.com (http://www.studiokobari.com)

[TeleCarlos]

1 downloaded the gr1soft free AV & got the l1censce et al. One quest1on:

Do you leave 1t on all the t1me or do you sw1tch 1t off when you do DAW work?

[130dB]

TeleCarlos: I use the same AV and have it disabled during DAW work. I have a separate hardware profile and user account set up for DAW. Since my network connection is disabled in this hardware profile, there is no need for AV or firewalls... every ounce of RAM and CPU power helps.

[renoman]

I use regcleaner,[free] avast antivirus, [free] but the best one of all is Powerquest drive image 7 which coppies your hard drive so when all hell breaks loose, you simply reload your known good system. I keep a copy on my storage drive and also on my USB external. Best $70.oo I ever spent.

[renoman]

I use regcleaner,[free] avast antivirus, [free] but the best one of all is Powerquest drive image 7 which coppies your hard drive so when all hell breaks loose, you simply reload your known good system. I keep a copy on my storage drive and also on my USB external. Best $70.oo I ever spent.