Third Party Utility Programs You Shoul Have

Third-party Utility Programs You Should Have

There are many third-party utility programs out there that can help to optimize the performance of your computer system. If I had to choose the 4 most essential, they would include the following:

1) An Anti-Virus program that you trust and feel comfortable with, and know how to use. It doesn't matter if you choose Norton AntiVirus, McAfee's Viruscan, Doctor Solomon's, or whatever other program you may prefer. The main thing to remember, is that you should buy the retail version, either from their website or from your local store. Don't just download the shareware version and leave it at that. And, don't just rely on the shareware version you got with your computer 2 years ago.

A lot of people seem to get confused between updating the anti-virus program itself, and updating DAT files. Anti-virus programs search for and detect viruses in many different ways. One way is to watch for virus signatures, or pieces of code specific to a certain virus. This is part of the information found in DAT files. There are hundreds of new or modified viruses each month.

You should probably buy a new version of your anti-virus program about once a year, or every time you see a major change in the version number. DAT files can be downloaded from your program manufacturer's site every month or so for free!

Along with anti-virus programs, I should mention that its becoming more and more important to also install a personal firewall program. This will prevent hackers from gaining control of your computer via the Internet, and from accessing your personal information, data and passwords. This has developed into a very real threat.

If you're wondering what I use, I use McAfee's Personal Firewall, McAfee's Viruscan, and its Online Clinic. Signing up for McAfee's Online Clinic is, in itself, truly an exercise in patience. I've used McAfee for years, I'm familiar with it, and its never let me down (and its caught a lot of viruses). Yet, I've heard a lot of good news about Black Ice Defender for firewall protection, and I'm thinking of trying it out.

However, I know people that don't like McAfee's at all, and swear by Norton Anti-Virus. I know others that will only use Dr. Solomon's. I am by no means recommending one over the other, use what you are familiar with, and what you trust.

2)The second type of utility I think you should have on your computer is an uninstallation program. Two of my favorites are Symantec's CleanSweep, and CyberMedia's Uninstaller.

Even though most of today's programs have uninstall utilities, Windows' file system will still end up being littered with discarded and displaced garbage from past applications. Uninstallation programs will allow you to safely (and completely) remove programs, unassociated DLLs and orphaned files. They will help you to find, and remove icons and shortcuts that are no longer associated with programs.

These programs have many methods to help clean up your hard drive and increase your free space. They can also help you to find and remove unassociated values and keys from the Registry.

Another added feature is the ability to compress and archive the many different files and programs you remove. If you find you've removed something you shouldn't have, it can be restored. After an appropriate amount of time, the archives can safely be deleted.

3)The third utility I would recommend is REGCLEAN. It's available as a free download off the Internet.

Every time you install or uninstall a program in Windows 95/98, entries in your Registry are created or modified. You may experience minor Registry errors, system slowdowns and computer problems over a period of time, as unused or dissociated Registry key entries develop. RegClean will not fix a corrupted Registry, but it may make a bloated Registry a little more expeditious, and help improve performance by keeping it free of the garbage that can be left behind by software that doesn't remove itself properly.

According to Microsoft, "RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys that are stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, and after recording those entries in an UNDO.REG file, it removes them from the Windows Registry." For more information, and to download REGCLEAN.EXE, Click here.

4)Tweak UI is a utility developed and assembled by the Windows development team. If you have Windows 98, it can be found on the installation CD under TOOLS/RESKIT/POWERTOY. Just right-click the file Tweakui.inf and choose Install. Tweak UI has many different features that can enhance performance, as well as other tools that you may find interesting.

If you have Windows 95, you can download Tweak UI for free from Microsoft's website at www.microsoft.com. Just do a search for Tweak UI.

In my opinion, those are the top 4 third-party utilities you should have on your system. Since we're talking about optimization and reducing errors, do you want to know the 4 utilities I think can be the most detrimental to your system? I'm going to tell you anyway.