When Poser starts slowing down on me, about once a month I run Norton System Works 2005 (Find and Fix) to fix problems with my computer, which does make poser run a little better.

Is there anything better then Norton System Works that will do a better job, I have tried a couple of program on trial, that found a lot more errors than Norton found, but I was reluctant to fix the problems these trials found incase it really screwed my computer and Poser up.

Any help would really be great

Thank You
Steve

i would advise you to totally get rid of norton if i were you, every time i have read that someone has a problem with their machine, and they have norton, removing of norton cures it, i don't think i have ever heard one good word said for norton!!! personally i would never instal norton software from what i have read!!

i am currently on Mcafee antivirus but they are about to cease or something soon, or not compatible with something, can't remember, but they have a freescan service that is very good at their site, i would recommend that you try that after getting rid of as much of the norton software as you can, as i would guess that any bits norton leaves behind may very well be tidied up with that Mcafee freescan.

Attached Link: freescan link

second one down on the list

Attached Link: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Yep, I'd second what Vince says about Norton, really screwed my 'puter up on a number of occasions. I use **Ccleaner** for all registry type issues and fixes, it's free [link attached] I also run Windows defender every week and  a Virus scan using AVG professional.

Norton anything is evil incarnate and it's a right sod to get rid of too.  I dread to think of the number of perfectly good computers that heap of Sh*t software has ruined

All I do is:

Weekly virus scan with CA Antivirus
Weekly defrag
Daily Ad-Aware by Lavasoft
CC Cleaner a couple times per week.
Dr. Web's "Cureit"  once or twice a month

I also empty my firewall cache a couple times per week, as well as my browser cache.

I also have "Start Up Manager" which is a free program that allows me to turn off programs running in the background.  I don't know how to access the start up manager in XP Pro, so this little program works well for me.

I also snagged the "Cleanse Uninstall" that was a freebie download at "Giveaway of the day". It allows you to uninstall programs and it searches not only the hard drive but also the registry and removes all files related to that program you are uninstalling, including registry entries.

where do you find "firewall cache" acadia please as i have never noticed one of them?

or is that your "quarantine" folder?

Acadia: You also have programmes doing the same thing there, for instance you say you have "start up manager". You can get rid of that off your system because Ccleaner which you also have has a start up manager as part of it's make up!
Free up some space, no need to duplicate proggy's!!

Attached Link: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.mspx

I found that the performance of my page file was critical to Poser. If you can, put your paging file on a physically different disk to the one where Windows lives - or at least create a new partition to hold the paging file and nothing else. It's also helpful to defragment the page file: PageDefrag does this, and also several other Windows sytem files that aren't touched by a normal defragmentation run. I'm not sure if XP needs it though; I run Poser on Windows 2000 at home, and whenever I've tried PageDefrag on an XP machine it's told me there was no fragmentation.

With my IT wonk hat on, my advice is: do not install Norton. If it's already there, get rid of it.

I use a modest combination of AVG Free (http://www.grisoft.com/) and Spybot (http://www.spybot.info/). These don't mess things up on your system and (so far) have dealt with every potential nasty I've encountered.

Raxco PerfectDisk (http://www.raxco.com/)  is my choice for a defragger - this will improve disk performance.

Finally, TuneUp Utilities (http://www.tune-up.com/) is worth checking out.

A second endorsement of SysInternals. I found these before MS bought them out, when I was trying to revive a blown out computer, suspected of housing a rootkit. They are a bit technical for the average user, but some of what they do is invisible and extremely valuable.

I also use a purchased AVG (Grisoft) on my main machine, plus Spybot and AdAware, and things are just fine, technically. I purchased AVG w/firewall, but I couldn't get a satisfactory configuration (beyond my tech knowledge and patience), so I went back to free ZoneAlarm.

M

Thank you all for the replys
I have never tried Ccleaner, but it does sound interesting.
I checked out SysInternals and downloaded it
TuneUp Utilities is one of the demos I tried and it found several hundered more errors than Norton found (as did some of the the other utilities I tried, which is why I was nervous on using any of them)
I do have the free version of AdAware that I run about every 3 months.
I will get rid of Norton and try AVG and some of the others.
Thank you very much for you comments
Steve

Ok, I've used AVG Free,which isn't free anymore according to their website when I checked it a couple of weeks ago, and I've used MacAfee and I'm currently using Norton Antivirus.  I've not had any problems with Norton in the year plus I've had this laptop.  I spoke with the IT folks here at the university where I teach and there were as many opinions as there were techies but they all agreed on Ccleaner, AdAware, and that with the XPPro version of Windows if you had Norton when you bought the system it should work OK.

I found out the hard way that installing Norton AFTER the fact was a nightmare and ended up just buying a new hard drive.

A major problem I have is that I never have enough free space on the hard drive to run the defrag program that's built into Windows.  I didn't realize you have to give up 20%+ of your drive space if you want to keep it fresh and minty clean.

I would also like to know more about this mysterious firewall cache thingie...please?

Attached Link: http://free.grisoft.com/

*Ok, I've used AVG Free,which isn't free anymore according to their website when I checked it a couple of weeks ago,

Wrong ;) = http://free.grisoft.com/*

Norton is the spawn of satan.  For some reason my idiot boss got Norton installed on all the work PCs after I left their employ only to return 10 months later (don't ask!) and on my first day back got handed a long list of problems with the PCs and asked if I could sort them to out to save paying for a tech to come in (I'm the Service Manager).  A good 90% of the reported problems disappeared when I nuked Norton of each and every PC.....the rest were down to idiots opening and evrything that plops into their Inbox sighs

Be careful when using anything that purports to clean your registry - they can completely nuke your machine if you aren't careful.

Ok, Khai...I sit corrected.  I wish I had kept the information they sent me, but, alas...it went the way of a hard drive crash.  Thanks for the update...I'll keep that information and share it.

I was a paying Norton customer.  i am now a user of Grisoft's AVG. 

I'll tell you why I was utterly disappointed with Norton.  I had a computer crash which required total re-install ( thanks Microsoft for your round of updates in April 2007 ).  My paid-for Norton subscription was not recognised by the re-installed Norton software, because it generates a random serial upon each installation, and my subscription was for the previous serial number.  How evil that sort of fix-up can get towards honest customers is just beyond me to swallow.

At one time, Norton Utilities used to be the best. But then they merged with MS, also Norton has taken the Utilities far more abuse on windows to greed than helping peoples systems, that people have to buy every year (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005......), Norton took advantage by going into making Anti-Virus software, because some other companies were doing so. Speedisk,  was the kewlest Utility Norton has made, then MS took the idea and made "Disk Defragmenter" which was made in DOS 5, DOS 6 and then Windows, later other companies started to follow on organzing files on the Hard Drive to speed up boots, programs file locations from/in Fat32, and now NTFS locations.  It was always the main utility everyone really recommended in the past. Norton really took advantage of that, then I started to see prices double on the products ($200.00 for Norton Utilites), and then later separating the utilites to make more of the buck, then others did same. Norton is a Hacker/Virus galore for hackers, and the virus's to slow down systems with Norton Utilities installed. I always now recommend other utilities, than Norton to everyone. I can say, most of the people here said it all. Norton was the thing in the past, now they are not. Be surprised if Norton changes their company name to keep in the bucks. I now use "System Mechanic 6", but their is a 7 now. I also use Mcafee AV. But I am now starting to be uncomfortable about MCafee. Hackers and Virus are now starting to reconize the company.

Yep, I've had horrors with Norton too. I now use Zone Alarm Pro.

I run Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy once a week. I also use CCleaner and, like Acadia, I run Cleanse Uninstaller to get rid of stray apps.

One thing I would advise is that if you're going to use a registry cleaner such as CCleaner, make a system restore point first. That way if anything does go wrong, you can reboot in safe mode and restore the system to back where it was.

Norton actually started out as one rather nice guy named Peter Norton. He had some hefty technical expertise staked out as his domain (like Steve Gibson today at grc.com) and produced a handful of cheap and excellent utilities. Symantec bought his name when he retired, and proceeded to crew up his products and pile a bunch of other utilities onto the brand, including their own antivirus software (which was state of the art then). I don't think Peter Norton ever actually had an antivirus product himself.

By the time Win98 came out, Symantec had messed up the Norton Utilities to the point that I installed, sighed, and deleted it as a "learning experience." I haven't used a "Norton" product since, much though I am tempted by a reputation that dates back nearly twenty years. Too bad, because in theory their stuff is very useful.

Gibson still makes the best HD recovery software around (SpinRite) and a handful of free utilities, such as Kill the Messenger, which turns off the @#*@#@ MS IM spam delivery applicance, and a neat little tool for fixing a bug in older Zip drives that saved my butt a couple of times.

Hmmm....to quote the Major "the horror...the horror..."  Ok, I'll probably let the sofware license expire for Norton and try something new.  Just hope I don't have to have a hard drive re-do to get rid of it.

I'll keep checking back to see what is the most recommended software, if that's ok with everyone.

Let me add my two cents...I use "Panda 2007 Internet Security" on my system.
It runs pretty smooth for me; and it's not a resource hog like Norton...
(Stay away from these type of programs)

For system defrag I use "Diskeeper Workstation", don’t get this confused with Windows Defragmenter, they look the same but they don’t work the same. The copycat Windows version is very slow and sloppy.

I use Avast!, Zone Alarm, and Spybot on all the PC's on my home network. I find they work great and are easy to setup and of course you can't beat the price. The Norton internet security must have been developed on another planet, what a nightmare to setup on a home network.