Keeping computer in good shape

Good evening everyone. I would like to get some opinions on this, how to keep my PC in top shape? Several months ago, I had a browser hijacker on my PC called Ueep, and that was extremely difficult to remove. It remained on my PC for 3 months and I managed to get rid of it last January. It took 12 hours to remove using several programs. I am so glad that it is gone now, but I would like to know, does it really make sense to install programs such as Iobit's Advanced System care on my computer and Iobit's Smart Defrag on the computer or is it best to use the free utilities that come with the windows operating system (Windows Defragment and Disk Cleanup)? I am just afraid, if I begin experimenting with different programs, would I run the risk of bringing back that browser hijacker or any other problems that was so difficult to get rid of. Right now, my PC is running fast and fine, but I would just like to know, is it really worth downloading those 3rd party programs or are the built in programs for Windows fine for keeping my computer clean and optimized?

Get plenty of sleep, exercise regularly, wear sunblock, and get outside and jog or play ball ... and stay off the dang PC !

Keep it cool in an air conditioned room..

Soda bottle plastic caps glued to the laptop feet give it added cooling airflow

Use a chill pad cooler fan

A desktop fan, or window fan, also helps keep cool air flowing

Vaaccuumm your PC vents daily

Re-apply Arctic Silver heat sink compound at least every other year to the CPU, and video card, chips

Smoking in the house, and pet hair clumps, can quickly clog laptop heat vent pipe ducts, and clog a desktop up

Defrag frequently

Clean up temporary files, cookies, passwords, history, site auto complete form data ... etc ... daily ... and optimize the PC disc weekly

Make sure your disc is not filling up

Run FREE Malwarebytes antivirus at least twice a week, as well as MS Security Essentuials antivirus

Buy Norton 360 antivirus (if you have money to throw away to the wind), and select: "ASK User For Deleting" stuff

Unplug you power cord and eithernet cable during electrical storms, or power outages, as a restart of current can surge a PC

First of all get yourself a good antivirus package other than McAfee, AVG and Norton. Vipre from Sunbelt Software used to be good. Malware Bytes is also top-notch as well. AVG has had some issues lately, although their free one is much better than the purchased one, and Symantec has gotten worse, and of course our dear friend McAfee isn't worth the money we pay for it.

Secondly, get a good cleaner such as CC-Cleaner. There is a free version and a pay version. http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner. Advanced System Care from IO Bit is excellent and I've used this one for years. I don't run anything automatically though on a schedule other than me running stuff once a week when it comes to stuff like this. IO Bit also has a fairly decent malware cleaner as well.

Defragging and disk clean up can also be accomplished with Advanced System Care. IOBit has their Smart Defrag and there are the disk clean up tools from them as well.

Regarding keeping laptops cool. Belkin, Targus, and others make laptop coolers. They are merely fans inside of a pad that you place under your laptop. I got a large one that works well with my Alienware machine at BestBuy. It cost about $25 more, or less a couple of years ago.

Cleaning out the physical dirt can be a bit of a bear. With desktops, remove the side and put a straw or thin stick into the fans as you blow out the dust with canned air. Never use a household vacuum cleaner due to static electricity discharges. The stick or straw in the fan prevents the fan from spinning too quickly and ruining the spindle. Laptops are bit more complicated as they don't always have fans that are easily accessible. The same importance is there regarding the spinning fan so use a stirrer or small stick to stop the fans you can get at and are usually located on the bottom of the machine where the most dirt can get in. For those fans on the CPU and GPU, it's nearly impossible to get to them without disassembling the laptop. For this you may need to consult with a repair shop.

By keeping your machines clean, you should get at least a few years out of them without issues.

John

I now use Iobit Advanced System care ultimate and for me that works fine with windows 8.1 but there are some others that are just as good, I personally found that what comes with windows was not all it was cracked up to be.

Be careful though their are lot's of frauds out their claiming that you have loads of problems on your computer, when their are none to be found.

I would agree with much of what has been said except 1) BUY Malwarebytes full version, not just the free one. 2) Don't buy Norton (based on my experience) 3) When you install software get it from the actual site rather than a 3rd party site such as Cnet. 4) When you install software choose "Custom Installation" rather than "Express" and watch out in case any boxes are ticked to install Search Bars. 5) Stay away from Google images as it is a major source of malware.

My Norton 360 is approaching it's expiration ... should I decide to uninstall Norton 360, I will back-up my Trainz files, as well as all my other important programs, videos and pictures on an external HD ... Just in case the Norton 360 un-instalation decides to take everything with it into cyberspace.

So Norton and McAfee, are pretty much junk ?

I have never seen Norton do an actual quarantine ... all it does is optimize, block, and warn.

Is Malwarebytes Premium worth the $24.99 ... 1 year/3 PC's ?

Are there added Malwarebytes payware versions/features that cost more in addition to Malwarebytes Premium (is Malwarebytes Premium enough coverage) ? I have seen the many tools ... and I presently have the freeware Malwarebytes version.

Why should I buy the Malwarebytes Premium, what does it offer over the freeware version ?

How should I go about uninstalling the freeware Malwarebytes ... should I decide to buy the Malwarebytes Premium ?

I am afraid of CC Cleaner, as I have heard it does as much harm, as it does help, as it removes important stuff, that should be left alone, on your PC.

Malwarebytes is one of the good ones I have used in the past, and it found some malware that Norton did not find, I was really disgusted with Norton, they used to be the best computer managers in the business, but now I think there one of the worst and far too pricy, compered to all the others.
Yes I would say that, Norton and McAfee, are pretty much junk, I found them both to be a pain with ordinary software and pretty unreliable.
Two others I found to be very good was Spybot, and C clean,
but the best for me has got to be most of what IOBit offer, they even have a new version of the windows start button for Windows 8.1 and it's fully programmable, I like it better than classic start

Just to be different I'd suggest Windows update and Windows defender both free. Chrome seems to be the defensive browser of choice at the moment although I still prefer Firefox and no script.

Cheerio John

cascaderailroad said:

My Norton 360 is approaching it's expiration ... should I decide to uninstall Norton 360, I will back-up my Trainz files, as well as all my other important programs, videos and pictures on an external HD ... Just in case the Norton 360 un-instalation decides to take everything with it into cyberspace.

So Norton and McAfee, are pretty much junk ?

I have never seen Norton do an actual quarantine ... all it does is optimize, block, and warn.

Is Malwarebytes Premium worth the $24.99 ... 1 year/3 PC's ?

Are there added Malwarebytes payware versions/features that cost more in addition to Malwarebytes Premium (is Malwarebytes Premium enough coverage) ? I have seen the many tools ... and I presently have the freeware Malwarebytes version.

Why should I buy the Malwarebytes Premium, what does it offer over the freeware version ?

How should I go about uninstalling the freeware Malwarebytes ... should I decide to buy the Malwarebytes Premium ?

I am afraid of CC Cleaner, as I have heard it does as much harm, as it does help, as it removes important stuff, that should be left alone, on your PC.

Click to expand...

Malwarebytes Premium gives realtime protection against malware etc. I tried to visit a site recently (not one of THOSE sites!) and it said it was a "serious threat" and blocked it. I also somehow got an unwanted Searchbar and it removed it with no fuss. likewise when I had a Homepage Hijacker.
With the free version you can scan, quarantine and remove but not real time.When you buy Malwarebytes they just send you a license key which unlocks the free version to the full version.
As for Norton, I got it bundled with a former PC and when it came to renewal time the online renewal didn't work so I ended up on the phone to the usual Indian call centre; the lady there repeated my name and address back in the phonetic alphabet but not the real one, instead one she just made up. She then asked "York....which country is that in?". Finally she told me the price in US Dollars and when I asked "why on Earth would I want the price in US Dollars when I live in the UK?????" she replied "I will have to get a colleague to convert the price". The phone call had lasted 30 minutes so I slammed the phone down then broke both Norton discs and threw them in the bin.
I tried McAfee but I seem to remember it was useless and Kaspersky crashed my PC due to a conflict between it and my ISP.

Thank you everyone for the information. I am going to give it a try.

The programs that comes with windows is just fine for keeping a PC clean. I try not to download too much 3rd party stuff as far as things to "Keep the PC clean". You have to be very aware of the nasty stuff that sometimes comes with it... I've seen some rouge anti-virus software before (In case you don't know what that is, it's much like you're hijacker browser, only its a fake anti-virus program to get into your windows files and kill the OS, almost had it happen one time before). I would heavily consider Norton Anti-Virus as thats what I use... It even contains software that will clean out your computer's registry (You'll find that a lot of errors take place right here) and defrag and clean your HDD. I know a lot of people think it's a lot, but you learn after a while that regardless of what AV program you use, viruses can and will find a way around. Always remember, YOU are the best anti-virus program available. When you avoid places that could contain viruses, you won't have any... NEVER EVER EVER click on ad's on a webpage, chances are they do contain viruses, and will harm you're computer. You should defrag your HDD at least once a month... I usually don't do mine until I start getting Blue screens and constant errors. Then I do defrags on my HDD. Registry should be cleaned out according to your PC usage. More you use it, the more often you should clean the registry. Always open up the PC case and clean the dust out every 3-6 months (Could be more depending upon how dusty your house is). This will keep valuable PC components from overheating and costing you a lot of money to replace them. Trust me, I've seen computers that last 7-8 years with just this routine maintenance and the only issues that arise is when they haven't had that done to them in a long time.

A mcafee trial came with my laptop, but it expired. It had some useful tools as it would monitor other pc's on the network. My dad had some problems with mcafee though, as it used to cause one of our desktops to shut down every 15 minutes. I personally use Windows defender, Microsoft security essentials, or the free AVG. Remember, never have more then one anti-virus installed at a time! They treat each other like virus's and eventually neither works.

gary6204 said:

Remember, never have more then one anti-virus installed at a time! They treat each other like virus's and eventually neither works.

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I have never had any problems with Norton 360 aside from it saying it wants to uninstall MS Security Essentials (as a conflicting program) I tell Norton 360: Do not uninstall, inform and warn user only !

I have Norton 360, MS security Essentials, as well as Free Malwarebytes ... and they all get along very well together in my PC ... and they all continue to work properly.

cascaderailroad said:

I have never had any problems with Norton 360 aside from it saying it wants to uninstall MS Security Essentials (as a conflicting program) I tell Norton 360: Do not uninstall, inform and warn user only !

I have Norton 360, MS security Essentials, as well as Free Malwarebytes ... and they all get along very well together in my PC ... and they all continue to work properly.

Click to expand...

I have MSE and Malwarebytes Premium. As I said earlier I wouldn't have Norton if it fell off the back of a lorry. If a company wants to get and keep my business I demand that they employ people on their phones who speak adequate English and have at least entry level geography. I don't expect to be asked which country York is in. If I was employed to answer a phone I would expect to deliver the same level of service to someone in another country.
Rant over.

Enzo1 said:

I've seen some rouge anti-virus software before (In case you don't know what that is, it's much like you're hijacker browser, only its a fake anti-virus program to get into your windows files and kill the OS, almost had it happen one time before).

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Not only that, but it's RED!

lewisner said:

I have MSE and Malwarebytes Premium. As I said earlier I wouldn't have Norton if it fell off the back of a lorry. If a company wants to get and keep my business I demand that they employ people on their phones who speak adequate English and have at least entry level geography. I don't expect to be asked which country York is in. If I was employed to answer a phone I would expect to deliver the same level of service to someone in another country.

Click to expand...

Norton sells to both the US and UK, both have Yorks. Could be more elsewhere.

simulatortrain said:

Not only that, but it's RED!




Norton sells to both the US and UK, both have Yorks. Could be more elsewhere.

Click to expand...

That's true but Norton is actually based in Ireland and outsources it's calls to India. I would expect that when the call comes in they have an identifier where it originates from so my dialling code would indicate UK. I have a regional accent which is utterly unlike any American accent and anyone who had a basic knowledge of speech patterns would recognise this.

I have just spent over four hours "cleaning" a laptop belonging to an elderly friend after someone had installed iObit anti malware and PC booster type programs. They were obviously downloaded from a mirror site like CNet because several malware/adware/tracking programs were also installed.
Whilst Windows Program Manager uninstalled most of them, they popped up again on rebooting.
It took hours of fiddling with CMD Line debugging software to fully restore the laptop to its original condition.
Be very careful if installing ANY freeware anti virus/malware/tracking type software.


BOB(CRO)

CRO said:

I have just spent over four hours "cleaning" a laptop belonging to an elderly friend after someone had installed iObit anti malware and PC booster type programs. They were obviously downloaded from a mirror site like CNet because several malware/adware/tracking programs were also installed.
Whilst Windows Program Manager uninstalled most of them, they popped up again on rebooting.
It took hours of fiddling with CMD Line debugging software to fully restore the laptop to its original condition.
Be very careful if installing ANY freeware anti virus/malware/tracking type software.


BOB(CRO)

Click to expand...

That sounds like it was a lovely mess to deal with, Bob. I've had machines that have been "teenagered" and had the joy of cleaning those up too. The kids had downloaded everything and anything that popped up for them to download and then the machine was infected. Using multiple tools, I removed close to 250 different infections before it was stable enough to run a CD-burning program to save the documents so the machine could be reimaged. With that many infected files, I was afraid there were still things that I couldn't clean or find. The machine was so bad, I was afraid of connecting it to my own network. Once the data was copied off, I called up the owner and told him to watch his kids.

There was one machine I worked on that had never, ever, ever, ever, been defragmented or dusted out. The vents were so clogged that the lint and dog fur could be used to stuff a couch. There were even bugs in side the case (dead ants). Ah there are computer bugs! After cleaning out the dust and dirt, the machine stopped shutting down and then I could defrag the drive. This process took overnight and the machine didn't operate too badly afterwards. It was quite a spiffy machine even for its age.

I agree on watching where third-party software is downloaded from. That's the problem lately with popular applications such as IOBit's stuff, AVG, and whatnot. The fake versions are nothing more than a screen that has a faked interface. The fake application then locks the machine and forces the user to purchase the fake program to unlock the machine. Sadly, only thing that's purchased is someone stealing the credit card number. For this reason, I always download directly from the application site and not from a web link in a search window or mirror.

John

simulatortrain said:

Not only that, but it's RED!

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And let me tell you there's nothing fun about them. For those of whom who have had such an attack, they often download more rouge-software to make their removal nearly impossible......... Worse off, if a user doesn't know that it is a fake, then they give the program access to the files at which it kills making the unsuspecting victim's life on the computer very very miserable.

I use Norton 360 as it comes free for having Comcast service. It seems to do a good enough job. No signs of issues.