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Tom AZ

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Posts posted by Tom AZ

  1. Does anyone know of a free download for a registry cleaner that would speed up my pc? I have found one on MajorGeeks.com but you have to buy it Thanks for any help you can give.

    Anybody have a good GENERAL "Ignore List" for Registry Mechanic?

  2. 1.6

    One other thing . . . once you use the split-screen function -- how do you dis-engage it so that programs will open full-screen? I downloaded and installed it, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get things back to full-screen.

  3. You can set it to start up with Windows or you can start it manually. Started manually it is instantaneous. Click the desktop icon or the start menu short cut and the program starts in like half a second if that.

     

    Looking at the the program in Process Explorer it is using 4 Mb of ram and 0 CPU.

     

    This program installs at 2.5 MB.

     

    I read about this program on Lifehacker so you can read the review and comments there. http://lifehacker.com/software/top/maximiz...tion-292793.php

    Thanks for the article -- haven't read it yet, but I will. Are you using version 1.5 or 1.6?

  4. It's a decent program if like to have several windows open at the same time. You don't need to drag them around and re-size them to where you like it. This program divides the screen into 9 sections. Each section has a keyboard short cut for it or a touch pad type pop up can be used. Use the keyboard short cut or the pop up and select e one of the nine areas and the window will just fit right into it.

     

    Windows has tile vertically or horizontally built in but this program takes it farther.

    So, I guess you feel it works pretty well. How about load or activation time? Also, what about resources -- memory and/or CPU? Is it pretty resource intensive, or not all that bad?

  5. I am not familiar with Script Defender, but I was wondering how you use it? Once it's installed, is it automatically "active" and running in the system tray -- or do you have to launch it -- or what?

     

    I think you said it doesn't run in the background, so how do you activate it and know it's running and doing what it's supposed to do? And what actually happens when a script is intercepted -- are you notified, is it blocked or are you given some options????

     

    Sorry for all the questions -- just a little curious.

  6. There's an index.dat file in the Windows help files PCHealth to be exact, that if deleted it breaks help on your system. Some programs will list that PCHealth index.dat file, so be careful.

    On this subject of index.dat files, I just uninstalled "Index.dat Spy." After your earlier comments, I decided not to run the risk of being tempted some where down the road to use it long after I had forgotten what you said. After uninstalling the program, I noticed that it left a GID file behind (indexdatspy.gid). I really don't know what GID files are or what they're used for. I assume it safe to delete, but I thought I should check with someone that knows more than I do.

  7. No! Only those related to and created by Internet Explorer such as in Temporary Internet Files should be deleted.

    Thanks so much for the reply! Some time back, I downloaded a little program called "Index.dat Spy 2.0," but I've never used it. I decided to take a look at it today, but after seeing the results, I wasn't sure what to do -- sure glad I asked.

     

    What's happens if you delete the ones you shouldn't?

  8. The same here! I've been using it since whenever I first started using SpywareBlaster and checked out their other freeware, I just wish it was able to clean out the Customize Notifications icons in WinXP SP2 like it did on SP1.

    Do MRUs serve any real purpose, or is it safe to delete all of them that MRU Blaster finds?

  9. It's not really a case of uninstalling it Tom, it's only a file which you can delete quite easily.

     

    I'll give you my experience with HOSTS file, because only a short while ago, I'd never heard of them.

     

    First time I tried using a HOSTS file, with no knowledge of what it was, therefore no mental image of where it resided, how to use it etc, I installed a HOSTS Manager.

     

    I must have done something wrong, because my pc was screwed up big time. It was a bad introduction to HOSTS, so it went the same journey as some other stuff when I did a complete reinstall.

     

    This time, I decided to do it manually, and it was a piece of cake to do.

     

    I downloaded the MVPS HOSTS file. I then went to start > my computer > C: drive > windows > system 32 > drivers > etc (etc being a folder, and not meaning carry on from here on your own).

     

    In that folder, you will probably already have a HOSTS file with very little in it. If you want to check, you can open a HOSTS file with notepad.

     

    Rename the HOSTS file, if there's one there, to anything really, maybe HOSTS.old. Do this because you don't want two files of the same name in a folder.

     

    Then you can simply move or copy the downloaded MVPS HOSTS file to that folder.

     

    If you don't want it. Delete it and rename your HOSTS.old or whatever, back to HOSTS.

     

    You'll find that the MVPS HOSTS file download includes a simple batch file (mvps.bat) that will rename the existing HOSTS file to HOSTS.MVP then copy the included updated HOSTS file to the proper location.

     

    This is the dead simple way to do it, but by explaining the above, I hope I've given you a mental picture of what exactly is happening, and where. Plus, I got more satisfaction, and a better understanding, by doing it myself.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    EDIT: Very important, and maybe someone else can confirm this. While using the HOSTS file I learned that you must disable in services DNS Client. Do this by Start > run, type services.msc, look for DNS Client, stop the service, and change it to manual by right clicking, select properties, and use the drop down menu, otherwise it will start up again. If you bin the HOSTS file, change it back.

     

    If you don't do this, you will probably have serious problems connecting to the web.

    Thanks, DennisD, this is really helpful. Just curious, when it's all said and done, does the "host file" function somewhat similarly to "SpywareBlaster?"

  10. I would be a little bit more careful than that, it took me many months before I trusted it completely and allowed it to remove everything. I basically deleted the entries I was confident were safe, used the computer for a couple of weeks to make sure nothing was wrong, then deleted a few more and kept repeating that till I was able to delete all without any problem.

    Thanks, JDPower, this is good advice. But it does lead to another question. I noticed that after a scan, the checkbox on every entry it found is checked -- ready for action. If I have hundreds of entries and only want to deal with a few of them, do I have to manually uncheck all the rest of them -- one at a time -- or is there a button or command somewhere that will uncheck all of them at once?

  11. I would be a little bit more careful than that, it took me many months before I trusted it completely and allowed it to remove everything. I basically deleted the entries I was confident were safe, used the computer for a couple of weeks to make sure nothing was wrong, then deleted a few more and kept repeating that till I was able to delete all without any problem.

    Thanks, JDPower, this is good advice. But it does lead to another question. I noticed that after a scan, the checkbox on every entry it found is checked -- ready for action. If I have hundreds of entries and only want to deal with a few of them, do I have to manually uncheck all the rest of them -- one at a time -- or is there a button or command somewhere that will uncheck all of them at once?

  12. Agreed. I managed to get the free vnunet download of Reg Mechanic a while back too and I wouldn't be without it now.

    I just installed Registry Mechanic and on my first scan had about 500+ entires in the "Custom Controls" section. Is it safe to just repair/delete all of these, or do I need to be a little more discretionary than that?

  13. The same ... MVPS.org HOSTS File ...

    I'm not really familiar with these. Can anyone give me a simple explanation as to how a "MVPS.org HOSTS File" works, what it really does and how easy (or difficult) it is to install. Once installed, is it fairly "automatic" -- or is it something that needs to be managed manually?

  14. Yes I would, it's thorough enough without causing system-wide havoc. It can also create backups two-fold i.e.; it's own proprietary backup and a system restore point. You still need to be careful about removing stuff you don't know about though, however I've got my install configured to ignore some stuff that I don't ever want removed and now I can use it without any concerns.

    When using any registry cleaner, how do you begin to interpret all of the registry keys. Some are more obvious than others, but many of them consist of a path along with a whole bunch of characters and number -- and sometimes bracketed with { }? It seems like these are almost meaningless. How do you know if they're safe to delete -- or if you should leave them alone?

  15. The registry cleaning is more thorough than EasyCleaner. With Registry Mechanic there's still some stuff that it will find that I won't remove, and I just right click those entries to tell it to never list them again.

     

    You're correct neither will fix everything, however many "so-called" errors in the registry can be ignored.

    So, Andavari, would you say that Registry Mechanic is a worthwhile item to have in your computer "tool-belt?"

  16. That's actually a rather good one and doesn't produce too many false positives.

    How does Registry Mechanic stack up with the registry section of Easy Cleaner?

     

    I suppose with both of them you still need to be rather careful and have a pretty good idea of what you're doing. I doubt if either one is a wholesale "fix and repair" solution.

  17. But where are the green files?

    Actually, for some reason, I wrote this incorrectly:( . The pink is at the top -- green at the bottom. So based on what you've said, apparently all's well. There's still a tad of confusion when you look at Kessel's disk map with black on the top, green in the middle and pink on the bottom. Oh well, no need to worry, I guess.

     

    Thanks for your help and explanation.

  18. So use any of the optimise modes and it will move spacehogs to the end of the data.

     

    JDPower . . . here's why I asked the "spacehog" question. I was on the JKDefrag website just recently and noticed what I thought was something peculiar about the colored harddisk map example (on the first page of his site.) What I discovered was that his sample map was totally inverted from mine. In other words, on my computer, the pink area is at the top and the black area at the bottom. On his, it's just the opposite. So, I concluded that the system files and spacehogs files may not be positioning themselves properly. I use the JKDefragStarter GUI with the default "mode" settings.

     

    Then I read on a little further about the u "mask," which read as follows: "Files that match a mask will be moved to the SpaceHogs area. The program has a build-in list for all files bigger than 50 megabytes, files not accessed in the last month, archives, files in the recycler bin, service pack files, and some others. Disable this list by specifying the special mask "DisableDefaults". Use wildcards '*' and '?' in the mask to match a set of files or directories."

     

    I also looked at the code behind all of the presets and switch settings, and I don't believe I saw the "u mask" on any of them. So, all of this left me with a big question as to whether or not it was actually performing as I thought it was.

     

    So, that's where I am . . . still wondering???

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