System Repair Tools

system mechnic is my choice. fix it utilities works great too.

Spybot - Search and Destroy (spyware killer)

AdAware (for the very few things Spybot doesn't catch)

Defragment regularly

That's all I use, and I don't have any problems I don't cause myself
Everything runs nice and smooth.

I use GoBack for this and it works great. It sits on your system running like XP System Restore but it's much better. It just monitors changes to your system, and then if you install something funky, you can just roll back the changes to get your system back. I love it.
If you get Systemworks, Goback is included.

Digital_trucker, Get SpyWare Blaster. It's a nice little program that stops you from ever downloading certain spyware that Spybot or Adaware has picked up on.
Since i've downloaded, I receive from both Spybot and Adaware ( NO SPYWARE )
[Message Edited]

Actually, Spbot does just that...it's called 'Immunize'

At the risk of being engulfed in flames.. here goes my 2 cents worth:
1. Forget repair utilities. Ie.. Norton Utilities, Systemworks etc..
instead, practice sensible computing habits like regular maintainence like defrag (diskeeper for that), anti-virus, and run adaware periodicly.
2. Keep your files organized. You wouldn't go to your office and just fling files on the floor.. so don't do it with your computer. Develop a system and use it.
3. Have at minimum, 2 hard drives in your system. One is primarily your operating system and programs. The other is for your files and any data that you have created with your programs. Anything that you don't want to lose, keep it on the second drive.

I have found that invariably, it is much easier to reformat and do a fresh install of windows as opposed to trying to find and fix a nasty issue that eludes me. The so called fix all utilites just hog resources, and I have seen them actually cause crashes which would then force you to re-install windows anyway.
Sisoft Sandra is a good utility for diagnosis however and can point to potential problems.
And last but not least... NEVER ever, add additional fonts to your windows fonts folder other than what programs that need them install. Place your extra fonts in a different folder and get a font mgmt tool like font explorer to load/unload your extra fonts. I saw a system with 7000 fonts installed that would absolutely drag until we moved the "other than default" fonts out of that folder.

Spybot Search and Destroy is great, and its free.
It can fix registry issues too.

The best all around utility for XP is TweakXP.

Norton is good, but these two take it a few steps further.
Good Luck.

Phoon talks a lot of sense. Norton Systemworks though is great for picking up some of the problems though. I have had it for 3 years now and run Windoctor every week and Speed Disk every two to four weeks depending on how big the changes have been made to my system. Adaware is a big must as well.

Early Norton Rescue utilities that were supposed to save you from dramas actually created more of their own....hence system recovery proggies have a bad rep.

Basic education such as the 'what does this button do?' sort of thing will stand anyone in good stead....more so than once the proverbial horse has bolted attempts at recovery...

Phoon, about the font thing.........I once asked about installing fonts, because I had heard of problems caused by installing too many. I got some interesting anwsers... here's a couple;

#1  by  c242 - 7/15/2003 9:49:05 PM  
1223 fonts installed here and no problems at all.

#6  by Admin Jafo - 7/19/2003 7:57:24 AM  
2000 and XP can handle any number of fonts....but Win 9x has a limit based on the names [their total length], not a specific number of fonts...

I had Norton Systemworks 2001, and it had the bad habit of trashing my computer to the point of unusability. Don't know if the newer version are any better. Phoon's method is the best, have a 40-60 gig HD for your operating system and so forth, and a nice BIG one for any updates and software you upload (preferably backing them up to CD...just in case). It really doesn't take that long to reformat/reinstall if you do something so heinous that it can't fix.
Always assuming you have a fairly modern computer, of course. One of the best things you can invest in is at least 256 megs of RAM. It's fairly inexpensive these days. My computer was reasonable state-of-the-art a couple of years ago or so, so it's pretty much out od date by now. I have all kinds of stuff running at once and don't notice any real slow-downs. Keep the spyware out and keep your HDs defragged...that's all you really need to do.

Keep the spyware out and keep your HDs defragged...that's all you really need to do.

unless you own a mac. In that case do nothing because they defrag themselves. I wonder if ad awre runs on a mac?

#10 by Wizop Koasati - 11/28/2003 8:54:13 AM Phoon, about the font thing.........I once asked about installing fonts, because I had heard of problems caused by installing too many. I got some interesting anwsers... here's a couple;#1 by c242 - 7/15/2003 9:49:05 PM 1223 fonts installed here and no problems at all.#6 by Admin Jafo - 7/19/2003 7:57:24 AM 2000 and XP can handle any number of fonts....but Win 9x has a limit based on the names [their total length], not a specific number of fonts...

Thats what I used to think, until I saw the problem first hand. I then done some more research into "font issues". Heres is a good link.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/weekly/aa072099.htm

I curious as to whether anyone here has reached that alleged font limit on WinXP? Then, I'm curious as to whether people with less than 1000 fonts have font problems. A corrupt font directory caused blue screens of death(BSOD) in my old windows98 machine. Then, I learned what to do to prevent this sort of thing from happening. I even see traces of the same problems in my WinXP machine, and I always fix it. It's fairly easy to corrupt the font directory when installing and uninstalling programs. A corrupt font directory is much more of a problem than reaching a alleged number of fonts.

Phoon....that article DOES mention the name-length limitation/s that limit what you will get into the font folder [as I mentioned]....but it's about 98, not the later OSs....the give-away is a reference to Office 97.....bit out of date, lad...

Yeha 98 had an issue with name space. 98SE addressed that I think didn't it?

Jafo, the issue I witnessed is on Windows XP. The system had over 7000 fonts in the windows\fonts folder.
When opening Outlook express, it took a full 5 minutes from the time of double click to the readability of the inbox. Also system startup was awful among many other applications.
Once the font folder was cleared of all non windows default fonts, Outlook snapped open, windows started up faster, other applications were happier and it was like a new system.
I understand the that the article references the name-length limitations etc, and had I not witnessed the performance ramifications of 7000 fonts I would have been sceptical of such a yarn. But make no mistake, Windows XP does have font limitations.

Wow. 7,000 fonts? Not many needs that much fonts. I can think up possibilities however. Maybe something like publishing, etc.

Wow. 7,000 fonts? Not many needs that much fonts. I can think up possibilities however. Maybe something like publishing, etc.

I might be wrong but a majority of desktop publishing pros use macs.

I only have 50 fonts myself...

two words...

"Extensis Suitcase"

There could have been many other reasons for the slow system performance with a large number of fonts. If a large number of fonts aren't in the fonts folder that would cause such a problem. If fonts are moved that would also cause a problem. If fonts are deleted and still referenced in the registry, that would cause a problem. I once had a similar lag problem starting office programs, and then I realized these sort of errors in my fonts folder. Adobe Font Manager caused me terrible problems too. Therefore, there are a meriad of other reasons for slow system performance with many fonts.

@ IPlural

Phoon....again, that's not actually a limitation....you can have as many fonts as you like....such as 7000...however obviously [or it should be] reading them on proggy launch will take ages.

Win 98 actually DOES have a limitation....where you will not be able to actually add more icons at all...whether you are happy with the slow-down or not.

It's a registry limitation apparently, where the path-size and/or name of the icon file, if verbose [lengthy] will shorten the possible number of available icons loadable.

THAT is my interpretation of 'limitation'......something which actually STOPS you from adding more....

 

And Chas.....'myriad'...

Agreed...

I use System Mechanic, Fix-It Utilities, PC ToolWorks.
I guess if that won't do it, it doesn't need done.