PC Software Faq

[mainiac]

I'm starting this FAQ because I haven't seen one on this site yet. (If there is one sorry can someone send me the link). I was wondering if you pc mechs out there could give me your opinions on these questions. Feel free to post your own questions as well.

1. Which is generally the best internet browser? (In terms of security and speed)

2. How often do you reformat your hard drive, and would you recommend doing it on a periodical basis?

3. What do you usually add/delete/change when you first install an operating system and why?

4. In terms of security and performance, what is the best combination of firewall, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, etc. for a pc?

Well here are some questions to start off with, if I think of any I'll post them up. Thanks

[TwoRails]

1) there are lots of threads about browsers here. It's pretty much personal preference, not to mention that a lot of us run multiple browsers. My favorite of the four I have installed is Firefox.

2) I do not personally reformat as maintenance as I have far too many items installed and it takes weeks to get a system back in tune. I format on OS installation and that's it, barring any catastrophic problems.

3) the only OS changes I make are to disable unneeded services and similar tweaks.

4) there are tons of threads about everybody's favorite firewall and antivirus software, etc.. I use Zone Alarm Pro for my firewall and my antivirus of choice is the one that everybody loves to hate: Norton.

There are many threads on the above, especially numbesr one and four, so if you search a little you'll have lots of reading

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by mainiac 1. Which is generally the best internet browser? (In terms of security and speed)

Oh boy...this is a loaded question. You're gonna gets lots of different responses and opinions for this question...some will say IE is best, some will say FireFox is best, and so on and so on. I think you should just install whichever browser you're interested in and try it out to see if you like it or not. You can install several different browsers and run them side by side to do a comparison test to see how each one does on your computer. I use Opera as my main browser but I also have IE, FireFox and Maxthon installed.

Originally Posted by mainiac 2. How often do you reformat your hard drive, and would you recommend doing it on a periodical basis?

I reformat and reinstall as needed...I don't do it on a schedule of any kind. The install of WinXP on this computer is about 2 years old. The installs on my wife's computer and my other computer is 4 years old each. They're all working fine so I haven't felt the need to reformat and reinstall yet.

If you want to do it on a periodic basis I don't see the harm in it.

Originally Posted by mainiac 3. What do you usually add/delete/change when you first install an operating system and why?

After I install the OS and all the necessary drivers I usually add the security software, Office 2000, photo editing software, the internet browsers and a few free utilities.

I don't really delete anything, I just go through the services and disable the ones I don't need. I use Black Viper's Windows XP Service Pack 2 Service Configurations.

Originally Posted by mainiac 4. In terms of security and performance, what is the best combination of firewall, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, etc. for a pc?

Oh boy, another loaded question...again, you're going to get lots of different opinions on this one. Best combination? I don't know what would be the absolute best combination to use. The thing I think you should remember is to keep the active background scanners to a minimum as they're the ones that will use system resources all the time. For malware I use a lot of different manual scanners. For the firewall you only want to use one.

Cricket

[Force Flow]

1) Opera, hands down. I started using it several years ago and haven't looked back since. But, since I do web development, I do have to deal with the other major browsers as well. Most people would say Firefox is the best since it's the most well-known alternative browser.


2) As needed. Usually I reformat every summer, although it looks like this year I'll be able to do without since my current installation is fairly stable.


3) I update all the drivers from the manufacturers websites, apply custom registry tweaks (although now I put these directly on the installation CD rather than applying them manually), remove some pre-installed software, add some additional software, install all my Microsoft software, then any core essential software (browser, browser plug-ins, media players, AV software, a firewall, spyware utilities, then all my graphics/web development/video software, followed by everything else.

So, as for why I do it this way, it works and avoids software conflicts.


4) No idea. I can tell you what *not* to use more easily. I usually lean towards the most light-weight solutions that seems to work well for me. What I usually suggest is AVG, Kerio/Zone Alarm, Adaware/Spybot/HijackThis.