alternative to Norton Systemworks

[gino_76ph]

so, you mean i need not worry with Vista as regards registry, internet cookies, etc.?

[Funkstar]

exactly

[GoNz0]

stay well away from messing with the registry, as for cookies and the likes empty the temp internet folder once a week and do the odd spybot/adaware scan..

all these bloody programs play on the end users paranoia to some extent to get the money out your pocket..

then in reality unless your sniffing round illegal websites, all that spybot and adaware will pull up is the odd tracking cookie, no point removing that as it will come back the next time you go on google, msn etc..

[gino_76ph]

so, which one would yopu recommend most: Spybot or Adaware?

[Agent]

use both

[Howard]

Don't use Adaware, Spybot is far better

[Agent]

I've seen cases where one picks up something the other doesn't. There really is no reason why you can't use both.

[sitalchauhan]

I use both because sometimes one picks something up that the other doesnt.
Spybot scans my computer much faster than Adaware, but I find that Adaware generally finds more spyware than Syybot.

[Funkstar]

Agreed. It's not like they run in the background hogging resources, they run when they are told to.

[Bazzlad]

Erm this is my prefered:

AV: Avast.
Anti Spyware: A squared. Backed up by spybot and ad aware.
Cleaner: CC cleaner
Norton esque reg cleaning program: TUNE UP UTILITIES.

That'll do the job mate.

[Zak33]

My old man SWORE by Norton System works....he used it weekly and it always came up with millions of registry problems that he may have suffered horrific personal injury if he'd left them unattended

Then I got him a new hdd, installed XP on it, and refused to let him have Norton on it, and kept his old HDD for him so he could have it all back whenever he wanted.

3 weeks later, with a PC running 4 times as fast without Norton constantly bugging the hell outta him, he asked me to format his old disk and he used it for extra storage.

Norton really IS marketing superhype. It has a special skill of making you feel you need it when you don't.

Lastly...with the exception of a Router with a firewall, it is totally feasible to have NO OTHER protection.

I don't open emails from people I dont know. I use Housecall every month (online free scanner) and have only been infected once in 6 years.

However....that DID need a reinstall. Which I do every 6 months anyway

[GoNz0]

im with agent on this, they both have there good points.

[ACiD303]

Antivirus: Nod32
Spyware: AdAware And Spybot
Defrag: Diskeeper
General Cleanup: CCleaner

This is exactly what I use, and I've not seen any evidence to change my mind for a while - i.e. it works and does the job fine. Not had to reinstall Windows XP on this machine for almost 4 years...

I do use the registry cleaner in CCleaner, gets rid of redundant items, not that I really notice the difference in performance to be honest.

[iranu]

I also find Hijackthis handy for looking at all those running processes when I'm not sure about one. Simply run Hijackthis and go here