Which programs you recommend for : Anti-Malware , Registry Cleaner , Driver Finder , Defrag and anything else?

[1Nor1]

Just did a clean install wanna start fresh with the usual programs to keep Computer stable , not sure how well have this years are the programs i used before doing nowadays so asking the community for recommendations i previously used:

Anti Malware = Spybot Search & Destroy (is it anti-malware or just anti spyware?)
Registry Cleaner = Ccleaner
Driver Finder = iObit Driver Booster 2
Defrag = Auslogisk Defrag

i like free versions that are capable , are this still the best ? any other utility ive missed to keep pc clean and stable?

pd: getting a partition for windows 8.1 pro will this programs work on that other OS as great as in 7 pro?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Anti-malware: MalwareBytes and Spybot: Search and Destroy. I recommend running both.
Anti-virus: Avast, Avira, AVG. Pick one.
Registry Cleaner: Download CCleaner as necessary. No need to keep it installed.
Driver Finder: None. Download and install drivers manually.
Defrag: None. Should not be necessary.

Whichever drive/partition the program is installed on, it will see the other as just a data drive.

-Wolf sends

 

[1Nor1]

Thanks for the answer , although im surprised about the defrag program i tend to use every couple of months and i do see a lot of improvements .

Now with the Driver Finder i guess you are right doing it manually best way, even more now since i just learned iObit programs are very harmful and intrusive , will check later best way to manually download drivers...i guess by checking hardware IDs on device manager and search em on google?

good to know Ccleaner still great and Spybot Search and Destroy , guess Malwarebytes is the anti malware and Spybot S & D the anty spyware?

gonna check those antivirus although i really hate active shield or active protection.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I run both Spybot and MalwareBytes because there is no program that covers 100% of all problems. Even running both won't give you 100% coverage, but they'll each cover some of what the other misses.

Don't know about defraggers. I haven't used one since my XP days.

-Wolf sends

 

[giantbucket]

i don't get it - you're looking to install free crap that keeps your computer safe from other free crap. the way most people get viruses and malware is by installing free crap in the first place.

stick with native Win7/8 features as much as humanly possible. and don't install free crap. or paid crap. or just crap of any kind.

 

[MrZoolook]

I kind of agree with giantbucket in that if you avoid the usual avenues of malware and virus installation (namely running random crap from the Internet that you download), you can get away without needing AV or AntiMalware software at all. The one thing you didn't ask about in terms of security that will help with things out of your control, is a Firewall.

In that regard, I'd recommend Comodo. It's a bit bloated since they updated the front end, but it works flawlessly for me.

For registry clean-up, try a registry defragmenter rather than just a cleaner. I don't bother on Win7, but defragmenting the registry hives sped up my old XP system by about 50%.

 

[jsmithepa]

I am going to give you my WACKO scenario, you may send me to the sanitarium if you want:

I run a hardware firewall (sonic wall) to protect my LAN.
I have turned off my Windows firewalls (I consider my LAN safe, seems like hassles to me).
I don't run any virus can (another hassle to me).
I just found out Win7 automatically runs defrag and am furious it does it by default and have turned it off.

My thinking is, for the past 15 years, I cannot be paranoid about getting malware, some fly will get in, as paramount leader Dend Xia Ping used to say, as long as I have a cure (my saying

My cure is to maintain few generations of OS image backups. This serves multiple purposes, not just to protect against malware, but also to protect against myself, because once in a while I will install something, just to try it out, and despite that they all say I can uninstall them, I never trust that they are all able to do so, potentially leaving garbage on my drive/registry.

When I installed my OS from scratch, (it takes like 30 minutes and it needs to be attended), I made an image backup right after that, that's my generation 1. After that I have made about 5 generations of OS images, to the last one which is the last stable and working with all the App I need. Updates go awry, bad drivers happens, this method saves you all, GUARANTEED.

Now anything happens, feel weird, i just restore my last gen OS image and am back in business within 15 minutes. I don't spend no time trying to figure out what's wrong, getting too old for that. Is like a time machine, is like doing a reset on Commander Data on that episode of STTNG to rid his brain of alien virus.

Defrag, well depends that you are doing, but I myself would like my drives to last as long as possible, and not accessing them unnecessarily. Last time I did a defrag manually, it took forever, drives are getting bigger so it figures. So my SSD boot drive doesn't need defrag, that leaves my audio/video collection drive, materials of which rarely get deleted, only added, so no defrag there necessarily either, then my third HD is my "Tivo" drive, programs which get recorded, viewed, and soon deleted afterwards, I don't feel any lag or freeze or nothing, the drives are capable of 1.5 gbit/read rate and I actually measure my single streaming rate never exceed 10 mbit, so am well below saturation, am not gonna worry about the r/w head doing some extra seeking once or twice before I delete that old recording.

YMMV.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Closing thread
Wolfshadw
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