Tools, tips and tricks

[Ghosth]

Dawned on me after talking Bison through his first adaware scan that perhaps we needed a post in here where dogs can get a hand when things start getting wonky.

Get Ad Aware SE here
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

This will take care of 90% or better of the spyware you run across.
BTW if you get infected, chances are your antivirus is NOT going to work.
So until you can run adaware and come up clean leave the AV in the box.

Get Firefox 2 here (web browser, like Internet Explorer only MUCH better. PS download the email application also.It screens junk mail, called thunderbird)
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

If you need help with firefox settings by all means email, phone, or otherwise contact me.


More anti spyware goodies here.
Incuding hijackthis, and startuplist for finding programs set to autoload.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

Hijackthis is AWESOME for malware that is popping up IE windows at odd times.
It really grabs em where they live, disables them. Makes it possible to clean up.
I'm just starting to play with the "startup list" its simple to run. Yet brings up a HUGE list of stuff.
Takes a bit of knowing whats normal, whats not right, what to worry about and what to leave be.
But it is wonderful for telling you whats happening behind the scenes in your computer.


Call me if you need help. Its not like I don't have time to kill.

FYI With a bit of work you should be able to get processes down to low 20's in most cases.
Personally I run at 18 before starting AH. But then I'm a control freak. 

I'm sure some of you other guys have some other great tools, tips etc. Feel free to jump in here.


Ghosth

[d0gma]

I like Hijackthis and
Spybot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
However, Hijack this is geared more towards advanced users and is not a click-and-fix solution.

BE VERY CAUTIOUS when getting Spyware removers.  There are a LOT of them that are actually spyware themselves.  A good rule of thumb is, if it's advertised and you've never heard of it, it's bogus.

Agreed on Firefox, I only use IE anymore for certain internal websites at work I need to work on (sharepoint).  Other than that I use FF exclusively.

A great program for stopping services and programs before running the game is FSAutoStart http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/FSAutoStart.shtml

I have 1G of RAM and like to have the processes and all down to about 150Mb when running the game. Also I stop ALL unwanted services before running the game.  I have found that the Apple Quicktime tray agent (qttask.exe) causes A LOT of problems with a lot of things, especially games.

I'll post more when I can think clearly. Just sat in rain and traffic for 2 hours.

[forHIM]

I found the IE plugin for FF great.  That way I can view the sites I need to in IE from a FF tab. 

[daddog]

At work all our systems have addaware and spybot. Those are what I use at home to.

I will make this into a sticky.

[Simaril]

I've been using Avast as antivirus and spyblocker. It's free to home users; apparently its a primarily corporate program, but the company believes that home machines are the primary propagators of malware, and figures that distribution of the software helps their corporate business. I've not had anything sneak through, as judged by scans with other software.

[Ghosth]

Did a full reformat & reinstall last night. Started at 4:00 with Western Digital Utilities, cleared existing partition, created 3 new ones. 30 g Boot, 140 g NTFS for XP and another 30 g Fat32 for alternate OS install.

Reinstalled Windows, Motherboard drivers, video, sound card drivers. Then remembered I had better luck last time with the Omega drivers. So cleaned the video back out and got the omega drivers. Rebooted, everything works, clean board, no problems. Started installing applications and utilities. By 10:00 last night I was finishing up by installing Aces High and STalker. Firefox bookmarks inported, thunderbird email address's imported.

6 hours of concentrated effort and I once again have a lean mean gaming machine ready to rock & roll.

Key points, backup backup backup. I had previously burned 6 dvd's of games, data, personal stuff (bookmarks, pictures, etc).
Make sure you have the drivers you need before you do it.
Start with Motherboard drivers, then Video, Sound, network, mouse etc.
Don't shortcut, stick with working on drivers until device manager shows a clean board. And everything works as its supposed to.
If you see a yellow exclaimation mark you have a problem.

Remember how fast that computer was when you first got it?
You can get it back again with a bit of work. 

[TCE2506]

Well Ghosth, sounds like I'm going to have to give you a call! Would love to go through and clean out this old machine and start fresh. I'm going to get a DVD drive this weekend to do some backup. Once that's done, I may be calling for some help.

TCE

[daddog]

Give him a call TCE.

Your not getting a new system?

[TCE2506]

It doesn't look good for the new system right now DD. Both of my girls need Braces and with this crappy insurance we have, it's going to be quite expensive. On the good side though, my wife and I have decided to quit smoking to help with the extra cash for the munchkins' teeth!

[forHIM]

Feel for you TCE.  Oldest is getting his braces removed next month and the next one is due for them.  As are almost all of them, but we're waiting until they get to be at least 12 before getting them.  We also just started looking at AA degree programs for our oldest.  My next computer upgrade should come in 2030     Not that I'm complaining. 

[Twolf]

Anybody got any suggestions when your running Vista?

[Morfiend]

Zip,if you goto HTC forum skuzzy has a thread dealing with vista,it's in the tech support forum.Skuzzy seems to have freed up alot of the strangle hold vista has on systems,well worth the read

[d0gma]

Anybody got any suggestions when your running Vista?

Uninstall it and install XP?   

[Twolf]

Anybody got any suggestions when your running Vista?

Uninstall it and install XP?   

I have not had the horror stories others have had with Vista. I bought a game optimized system from Alienware just before Dell ruined them. I just waiting for the programs to catch up with the OS.

This is my system:
Processor(s)

Processor 1
Name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6700 @ 2.66GHz
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Caption: x64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6
Version: Model 15, Stepping 6
Processor Id: BFEBFBFF000006F6
Current Clock Speed: 2666MHz
Address Width: 32Bits
Data Width: 64Bits
Socket Designation: Socket 775
Verified Hardware Device against Order: CPU-2.67C2DE6700
Verify Correct Processor Frequency

Case Color: New Background


System Memory

Memory Module 1
Capacity: 1024MB
Bank Label: DIMM #1
Mem_Type: DDR2
Mem_Frequency: 11794102.0 MHz
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MEM-DDR21GBP64AW108
Memory Module 2
Capacity: 1024MB
Bank Label: DIMM #2
Mem_Type: DDR2
Mem_Frequency: 11794102.0 MHz
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MEM-DDR21GBP64AW108

BIOS Information

Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Version: 6.00 PG
Version: ALWARE - 42302e31

Motherboard Information

Manufacturer: alienware
Product: alienware
Serial Number: 1
Version: 2
Verified Hardware Device against Order: MB-EVGA122CKNF68BR
Verify correct motherboard
Audio settings for DVD playback set to 4 Speakers
Power settings optimized

Video Adapter

Caption: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Adapter RAM: 768MB
DriverVersion: 7.15.11.0059
Verified Hardware Device against Order: VID-EVG8800GTX768PCI
Connect Power Cable
Test Video Card

Hard Drive(s)

ST325082 0AS SCSI Disk Device
Model: ST325082 0AS SCSI Disk Device
Size: 250GB
Total Heads: 255
Total Cylinders: 30401
Total Tracks: 7752255
Tracks Per Cylinder: 255
Verified Hardware Device against Order: HD-SEA250GBSATA3GR1
Verify Correct Hard Drive Size

Optical Drives / Other Storage

Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A ATA Device

Operating System: MS Vista Home Premium


DirectX Version: 10


Assembler Initials: RR


Tester Initials: AI


Test Date: 03/02/2007 08:52 AM

III. Burn-In/Benchmarks


Doom 3

Doom 3: 170.5 fps

3DMark 2006

Customer Information:
3DMark Score: 10,975.00 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 5,130.00
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 5,482.00
CPU Score: 2,219.00
Game Score: 0.00 Points
SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon: 42.67 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest: 42.82 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.69 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 1.14 FPS
HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR1 - Canyon Flight: 52.43 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze: 57.22 FPS

[d0gma]

My question to you is, if you had a Ferrari, why would you drive around with ten bags of cement in the trunk?
 

[Twolf]

Game optiminized means the fluff in Vista was turned off already. I went through Skuzzy's list and it was pretty much preset for Alienware. What I'm looking for is a btter why to deal with adware and spyware on Vista.

[daddog]

I have no answer for that, but you guys are smarter than I when it comes to this computer "stuff".

[Ghosth]

New tool, Glary utilities.

Just got it from download.com (one of my fav trusted sites for good apps)

http://www.download.com/Glary-Utilities/3000-2094_4-10508531.html?tag=mncol;pop&cdlPid=10886562

What I really loved about it, lets you see whats starting with windows.
If unsure, a right click let you "google it" opens a page on the glary site. Tells you about the entry, gives opinions on if its good, bad, or somewhere inbetween. So it educates you as you go, which is awesome for anyone learning.

This baby has it all, 1 click autoscan and default fix, or you can go in manually, fix reg entrys, decide what starts with windows, fixes missing or bad shortcuts, the list goes on, and on, and on.

If you want a clean lean running machine without having to format and start from scratch, grab this.

BTW basic version is FREE!
No limited time BS.