I used to use several years ago a product called system mechanic (an early Version) when I was using win xp. I thought it worked well, then I purchased a newer version 3 or 4 years ago and they had changed it a great deal and I didnt think it worked as well, in fact I came to the conclusion it was telling me I had problems when I didnt.

I now have win 7, having been using it over a year now and I have read from microsoft engineers that you should never use products like these. They say win 7 doesnt need any aftermarket system tools to keep the system running topnotch. I am curious what your guys experiences have been and if you think these things are a good idea?

Quote - They say win 7 doesnt need any aftermarket system tools to keep the system running topnotch.

it doesnt.

while there may be a couple of system tools out there that may bring some minor benefit, the vast majority of them only bring the potential for adware/malware/spam, corrupting your registry, or screwing up your OS in some other way.

if you want to tweak your windows 7 OS, then read up on what services can be disabled, clean your temp files regularly, defrag regularly, tweak your security settings, and turn off indexing and/or back up large amounts of small files (like image galleries, etc) off your OS drive onto external storage, DVD/BD media or cloud storage.

just as i tell people who add $30 gadgets to a $60,000 car like an Audi to 'increase fuel mileage by up to 50%' -- a team of professional engineers spent years designing the product (in the case of an OS, they are continually working on it). if a $30 piece of plastic increased fuel mileage by up to 50%, then it would have been engineered on there from the factory.  same goes for some adware-infested 'registry cleaner'.

Well I for one use IYogi for all my computer problems..They know their stuff and have their own PC Diagnostics program they run for me...Love it. They gain access to your comp or if not will speak to you on the phone...

http://www.iyogi.net/reviews

Quote - They gain access to your comp ...

^you lost me right there

Thanks, appreciate the input

Quote - > Quote - They gain access to your comp ...

^you lost me right there

Well you call them. They will give you an addy. This give them right to gain access to your computer. From there on in they check everything..Have used them for 2 years now. Winxp and Win7...Two separate contracts though...But well worth it!!! Especially for the noob that is good at messing their own comps up..(Like me)

The only tools I use with Win 7 are a sledgehammer and a bottle of whiskey.

I often wonder why Win7 was ever made...Nothing but unnecessary problems.

...and here, Windows 7 has been stable as a rock, even with the piles of crap I've thrown at it, a dying C drive and clone to a smaller drive, a dying Graphics card...and yet it just keeps on running.

only had 2 programs (Mechcommander and Mechwarrior 3 - so no surprise) fail to run and 1 bit of hardware (a Soundblaster Live! - way outta date) have issues with it... but those were no surprise at all.

it's basically the best windows to date in the opinion of a lot of users...

Quote - I often wonder why Win7 was ever made...Nothing but unnecessary problems.

what? its a great OS!  probably one of the best MS has put out after XP (in its time. it is now obsolete, despite many people clinging to it like some sortof technological life-preserver).

i have had absolutely no problems at all. i have a remote windows 7 server that is under a constant load and the uptime is over 400 days.  a tweaked windows 7 runs better on even low-spec laptops and netbooks than XP does, with better battery life.

i can upgrade to windows 8 for only $14 but i think ill pass, since all windows 8 seems to bring is BS 'media enhancement' fluff that i can do without. i already have a smartphone and tablet -- i dont want a flashy but gimped tablet-like experience on my desktop as well.

Yeah, I've had ZERO problems with Windows7. In fact, it's the most rock-solid OS I've ever used. It's awesome ;). I never get viruses, or system glitches and I can customize the hell out of it. One just has to take the time to get to know the technology they use. If they aren't willing, then they can surely expect problems to crop up because they can't maintain their own machine.

Laurie

I agree windows 7 is awesome, the original pupose of my question was to make sure I keep that way. I have pretty much zero problems

^don't fix what ain't broke :)

I just run MS Security Essentials (free) and Comodo Firewall (free edtion) on a constant basis, and run Malwarebytes and CCLeaner once a week (both free and respected applications) and Dr Web Cureit (free edition) once a month to make sure I'm clean.

so far this has worked nicely for me.

Amen, I liked your analogy regarding engineering R&D

Did you ever try the remap you and I talked about? Also I uploaded my project last Sunday, its still in review!

^congrats!

no, have not tried yet because i am just too busy working on other projects :(

you know you spend too much time working when you lean back in your kayak, look up at the sky, and the first thing you start thinking about is how you can recreate it with shader nodes.

but i will, soon :)

Dont drop your paddle!

...when you lean back in your kayak, look up at the sky, and the first thing you start thinking about is...

......what the hell am I doing in this, I can't swim, Mummy, oh gods I'm gonna die...

but thats just me...

My only complaint with Windows 7 here is that (IMHO) the current windows explorer shell blows, which affects open/save dialogs and the file manager.  But even that isn't too difficult to work around as there are some great utilities out there.

But as far as stability, compatibility and the whole thing not coming down when there's an issue (BSOD), I think Windows 7 is really awesome.

Okay... another thing... UAC is NOT awesome but easily tamed to be less intrusive or you can turn it completely off if you are skilled enough to get yourself out of problems :)

But back to the topic at hand.  CCleaner is very safe at the default settings at cleaning out temporary files if you don't feel like hunting all over the place for them.  I'd also suggest defragging from time to time but for most users that's on a schedule witht he built-in defrag anyways.  I use auslogics Disk Defrag.

Defragging was a must in XP, but not really necessary in Windows 7 ;). Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt. LOL.

Laurie

and if you have an SSD, do not defrag. ever. you'll foul the drive up

It depends on how much you install and uninstall things, the type of drive you have and how it's configured and whatnot but it also doesn't hurt to use a defragmentation tool to optimize how your files are placed.  shrug

Yeah, I was just reading that on SSD.  Good point :)

Quote - I often wonder why Win7 was ever made...Nothing but unnecessary problems.

Win7 is the most stable OS I've ever used. Whenever I run into an issue it's always user error. Once I figure out what I've done wrong, everything works just fine. I don't think that my old XP install ever reached an uptime of over two months like Win7 has. :)

Quote - Defragging was a must in XP, but not really necessary in Windows 7 ;). Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt. LOL.

Laurie

This was news to me (not necessary) so I started to look for how this is done in Win 7 (if at all) since I didn't ever recall doing it.

I found that my machine has been defragging itself every Wednesday at 1 AM since the day I got it. Surprise - built into Win 7.

I just rebooted to install some new updates, but mine was awake for 7 months.

anyone here planning to upgrade to win8?

i can get the upgrade for $14, but.. tbh i really dont think ill bother.

the start menu has been replaced with the super-annoying Metro menu, and it boots up a couple seconds faster (why is boot time such a major selling factor to people? my desktop or laptop boot maybe once or twice a month, so who gives a flying #%@$ if it takes 38 seconds or 52 seconds?).  i dont really see anything worth getting excited about.

it has its version of the Play Store (and apparently MS is being pretty profiteering/draconian about getting games approved for it) and smartphone-styled Metro UI: its very clear that desktop OSes are heading in the direction of phone/tablet OSes and not vice-versa.  TBH this trend of dumbing down our desktop OSes is a bit frightening. if i just wanted to use my PC for media consumption/gaming i would save myself a lot of money and inconvenience and just use a tablet and/or console instead. a PC is a productivity tool. i am not liking where things are headed.

i really dont understand why they didnt just have Metro as an option that can be enabled for those that want it, and those that dont can continue to use the traditional start menu.  sure the Metro UI has its place - there are many 'all-in-one' PCs shipping these days with a touchscreen and im sure the number will increase with the Win8 launch - but M$ should not be forcing a tablet UI down PC users throats.

Yeah, I find that as each edition of Windows comes out there are less options and more of a reliance on 3rd party applications if you do want things to be a little different than one-size fits all.

Linux is sounding pretty good as something to look into, IMO, at least in the not-so-distant future.  I just am having a bit of a struggle sacrificing so many windows applications and dealing with dual boot this or that.

Oh no Win8?? I still can't handle Win7...Guess I am a WinXP so simple to work with die hard...Sorry all Win7 users..Just don't have the patience to learn a new system..Ya old school and old body lol

How exactly does one "handle" Win7???

I try not to use it....Yes old school, old age and old body...Hard to change...I do use it when I want to torture myself...64 bit does elimiate alot of crashes...(Daz3) unless I have the patience to reboot, try again...reboot..try again..And yes eventually it works...Have no clue why..

I am another one very happy with Win 7, which I purchased when I was building a computer to run Poser and wanted to run 64bit.  Hated the look of Windows mobile 7 on the Nokia phones and Win 8 looks similar and just as awful.  So no update to Win 8 for me.  I am looking to build another PC in a the early part of 2013, again for Poser (2012) and it will be using Win 7 again.

If they don't include a way to use the classic desktop they'll regret it. Apparently it was possible in the preview but was later removed. Hopefully wiser heads will ,prevail. Through XP SP1, even the old Win 3.x program manager was still available so who knows. Worst case, there'll no doubt be several desktop replascement apps within weeks, some probably free. Having said that, I only switched from Win2K to WinXP when programs that I needed/wanted would only run on that OS. My migration from XP will be the same. I use a computer for the applications, not the operating system.

Yah, I don't think a lot of previous desktop users will be too keen on the Start Screen.

I have been using a launcher for a long time (Launchy) and it's more intuitive for me to type "pro" if I want Poser Pro 2012 or whatnot.  Yes, the regular start has a search box that can do this but Launchy allows me to create my own keywords and I mapped the Launchy Box to my windows key.  (I mapped the right-click menu key to windows key in the event that I might ever use it).

I'm too old for the everything in the cloud, in a browser, check FaceBook to see what program your friends are running brave new world. I've toyed with the idea of voice activation, but I'll stick with my 36 desktop icons whose locations I know by heart :-)

With hardware accelerated video etc. I'm surprised that they havent revived Microsoft Bob. You could have a whole virtual reality home or office - click on the TV to watch video, carry the trash out to the curb to delete files, have Vicky yell at you for watching pr0n … , well maybe not such a good idea.

I have been running Windows Server 2008 R2 since it came out. But have only just gotten round to Windows 7 (over XP).

I reckon Windows 7 is much better, on the whole, it has to be said. Still, in terms of continuing to run with XP... the adage "if it aint broke don't fix it" could be applied here too, I guess.

Course, with any form of continuing support from Microsoft, for XP, ending on April 8th 2014... and any kind of software supplier (AV, browser, 3d CG, etc) likely ceasing to support it too... it will "break", in due course.

Win 8... hmmm. At the moment I feel similarly, about this, to how I feel about a lot of what's apparently in Apple's Mountain Lion OS X... or what that seems to be about from the marketing soundbites, at least.

It feels like they're trying to turn the desktop computer into a giant sized equivalent to my mobile phone... on which I can predominantly focus on servicing the advertising revenue account of Mr Mark Zuckerberg and "friends"... and frankly this isn't what I really want... I don't think.

It feels, to me, like the "dumming down" of the desktop OS is well and truly upon us...

Quote - Oh no Win8?? I still can't handle Win7...Guess I am a WinXP so simple to work with die hard...Sorry all Win7 users..Just don't have the patience to learn a new system..Ya old school and old body lol

Sadly, MS will srtop providing updates in April, 2014...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle?T1=winxp

I personally think they should have just made a 64-bit version of Windows 2000, which I think is the best Microsoft operating system ever.  Windows 7 works well for me, but its resource requirements are HUGE.  Windows 2000 ran quite happily in a 10 GB OS partition with 256 MB RAM...

Agree with you WandW.  I personally think they should have a "production/workstation" OS similar to 2000 and a "you-tuber/facebook/etc" media center type OS for casual users ;)

For the longest time, I turned off the themes in windows, particularly the bubblegum look in XP, and even now I use very minimal slick looking themes, no glass if possible.

I was reading about the "ribbon" toolbar in the file manager on 8 and my reaction was "UGH...".  I pretty much skip anything that takes up huge chunks of screen space.

Quote - I personally think they should have just made a 64-bit version of Windows 2000, which I think is the best Microsoft operating system ever.  Windows 7 works well for me, but its resource requirements are HUGE.  Windows 2000 ran quite happily in a 10 GB OS partition with 256 MB RAM...

Yup, NT5 was pretty good. Although I do recall whingeing about it at the time, in comparing certains aspects of it to NT4... can't now recall exactly what those aspects were though, tbh, he he...

"… Windows 2000, which I think is the best Microsoft operating system ever."

I always felt that way, though I finally gave that title to XP, mostly for System Restore and a few other niceties. I reset the bubblegum interface to classic on every install. Other than launching programs and looking at files in Explorer, I 'interact' with the OS very little. I use Everything for search rather than Windows indexing , Flash Renamer, Revo Uninstaller, Process Explorer etc. Microsoft has gradually added useful functionality but I often find the 3rd party utilities more useful. The basic OS functions of managing the file system and executing applications seem pretty much good enough for me.

I can understand the appeal of an integrated multi-device, access anything anywhere vision for many folks, but it's not something I feel a need for. Of course, if I could actually afford all those gadgets, I might feel differently.

On the original topic, if you feel that those mechanic tools actually improve anything, go for it. I haven't seen it. Fixing all the 'problems' they found felt good but that was about it. I only rarely even run defrag and I rarely, if ever perceive that it's yielded a significant performance boost - at least on my old, small drives. I run CCleaner and back up the registry periodically, that's about it; along with AV & FW of course. Microsoft already has a pretty solid desktop OS, but the traditional desktop PC may well go the way of the public phone booth and dead tree newspapers, so they have to try to keep up. Things like 3D, video editing will trail but I suppose with enough bandwidth and mobile horsepower, those will migrate to the 'cloud' as well. No country for old men :-)

I have to say I'm with Blackhearted on this one. I shudder at the thought of Windows 8.

However, I do have a laptop that is still running Vista. I don't use it much and I'll most likely install Win 8 on it at some point because, well, despite its probable faults, it's still likely to be an upgrade.

I can't see myself enjoying using an interface designed for a touchscreen, though, when I'm accustomed to working on a 24 inch monitor more than arm's length away.

Who thought touchscreens were a good idea for desktop production work anyway? Have the designers actually used one for 8 hours straight? Don't their arms get dead tired having to lift their hands off their desks all the time? I know that when I was a teaching assistant at uni that it took me months before I could write for more than a few minutes at a time on a chalkboard. I mean, the mouse is not exactly an ergonomic wonder -- it's bloody dreadful. It's amazing how quickly a mild case of carpal tunnel can go into remission when a person learns to use keyboard shortcuts. But touchscreens?! Yikes. Not for desktops. Please no.

It's been the norm for Microsoft to piss it's users off ever other OS release.  Win 8 is right on schedule. It's today's version of Windows ME (which, thankfully I skipped, but I knew the piece of crap that was Vista) LOL. I won't be getting 8 either and they better support 7 for at least as long as they supported XP.

I happen to use Rainmeter and I don't mind things on my desktop - like it in fact - but it'll be what I want, not what Microsoft deems I should have. Windows 7 for me for the forseeable future.

Laurie

Quote - Agree with you WandW.  I personally think they should have a "production/workstation" OS similar to 2000 and a "you-tuber/facebook/etc" media center type OS for casual users ;)

For the longest time, I turned off the themes in windows, particularly the bubblegum look in XP, and even now I use very minimal slick looking themes, no glass if possible.

I was reading about the "ribbon" toolbar in the file manager on 8 and my reaction was "UGH...".  I pretty much skip anything that takes up huge chunks of screen space.

I had to turn off indexing and Aero on my Vista machine or it just wasn't running anything except indexing and Aero. LOLOL. Basically, I had to knock it back to XP ;).

Laurie

Isn't Win8 for those that have a touch screen?  I don't so would be usless for me.

One more small thing...it seems to be the trend in OS's lately to become more 'stupid' and idiot-proof rather than less. I find I want more options for customizing as the years go by. I'm not sure if it's because users are either that stupid or unwilling to bother with their computers, but it should always be an option for experienced power users. After all, a computer is not your average appliance that you can just use and never bother with settings or tweaking like a television or a telephone. And that IMVHO, is the beauty of it ;). It's really sad that Microsoft has chosen this route. I'd much rather be able to tweak to my heart's content than take what I'm given. Maybe I'm just a rebel...hahahahaha.

One thing I definitely do NOT see is businesses migrating to Windows 8. It's just not gonna happen. They'll either have to go back to the pre-Windows 8 model or split the OS's again. I'd have no problem at all with the latter. I'd happily buy the business OS ;).

Laurie

Quote - Isn't Win8 for those that have a touch screen?  I don't so would be usless for me.

Nope. It's to be for general desktop use. Sad, so sad. I guess they just don't get that a tablet and a desktop are two different animals.

Laurie

I'm only just migrating users to Windows 7. Slowly. Still XP Pro for the most part.

Server 2008 R2 though, running behind that.

In some ways, depending exactly how customisable it is, the new UI paradigm could work quite well in a business context. Depends on the business... and users. The "idiot-proofing" can be quite desireable here.

On a personal basis, I like how both OS X and Windows are currently laid out and wouldn't be in a hurry to adopt anything radically different... and, yes, just want a tablet, mouse and keyboard... not a touch screen (or gesture recognition either). A Space Navigator would be nice.

By the way, it's already possible to replace the default Windows shell (Windows Explorer with Start menu, desktop etc) if you really want to, in fact:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_shells_for_Windows

Rainmeter does the job well. Not too intrusive, and not nearly as resource heavy as something like WindowBlinds or that ilk. You can even customize the way the widgets work with very simple code, much like HTML. I'm sure it'll still work in Windows 8, but I'm just not dying to try it out ;).

Laurie

Quote - One more small thing...it seems to be the trend in OS's lately to become more 'stupid' and idiot-proof rather than less. I find I want more options for customizing as the years go by. I'm not sure if it's because users are either that stupid or unwilling to bother with their computers, but it should always be an option for experienced power users. After all, a computer is not your average appliance that you can just use and never bother with settings or tweaking like a television or a telephone. And that IMVHO, is the beauty of it ;). It's really sad that Microsoft has chosen this route. I'd much rather be able to tweak to my heart's content than take what I'm given. Maybe I'm just a rebel...hahahahaha.

That's just it though, most people are idiots and MS is just trying to please the lowest common denominator. Everyone on this forum or any forum are an exception to this, even the ones that say they don't know much about computers or an OS. The fact that they took the time and understood how to register/post proves it and that's why the majority here would want all the options and advanced settings. We're the .1% who get it.

You even see this global dumbing down in PC games thanks to the popularity of consoles. Computer games today are plagued by "extras" menus that contain "Sound: High/Medium/Low" settings and the amazing "Mouse: Fast/Medium/Slow" settings and that's it. Half the time you can't even use the mouse wheel to go down the menus, you need to use the damn keyboard.

Internet game?  Kingpin 1999...lol....Yup a few of us diehards out there. Didn't even need a serial number back then...Few tweeks it even works with Win7...