Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
PC Maintenance
Hi, sorry if this is the wrong forum for this but i wasn't sure where to put this.
can anyone tell me what is a good PC maintenance software? right now i just use the free version of CCleaner but wouldn't mind spending money on a better one if it exists.
i also want one where i can buy the full version, no one year subs.
any suggestions?
thanks!
Comments
You'll need to be more specific. What kind of maintenance do you need to do, and why so often that you wouldn't be bothered by paying for it? lol
Simple scandisk/defrag/MAYBE ccleaner on occasion really should be all that's needed pretty much 99% of the time. If there's something more than that you think you need, you're probably well beyond general suggestions and might want to just take the comp to a tech every month or so and let them figure things out.
cc cleaner is all you need. (other than a scheduled defrag). You can get away without it if you know where all the things it does are located yourself.
If something needs fixed mechanically thats another department.
You will get a lot of varying opinions on this. As an IT professional, my opinion is that user education is better than any software you can install. Use a virus scanner and be aware that malware can easily get past virus scanners. Anything else is probably not worth installing.
= VIRUS SCANNER =
The most important thing you can do for your PC is not get viruses or malware. Most of the time, viruses and malware are installed by the user (yes, YOU) by running a program or visiting a malicious site. Very few viruses spread without user interaction, and almost all of those are avoided by keeping your OS up to date.
We all make mistakes and have occasional lapses in judgement. To make up for that, it is a good idea to have a virus scanner with on-access scanning enabled. This will catch virus activity as it attempts to perform something bad. Many virus scanners do this.
Which virus scanner should you choose? I don't know. No virus scanner stops everything. I suggest using free virus scanners because if a paid one doesn't stop a virus that you get, you will feel cheated out of the money you spent. Windows Defender (included with Windows 8) is adequate and doesn't have a high performance impact. For Windows 7 and earlier, install Microsoft Security Essentials. If you don't want Microsoft's product for a virus scanner and you play games, look for a virus scanner with a low performance impact as you don't want the scanner (real-time or otherwise) to make your games lag.
= OTHER MALWARE =
Virus scanners don't stop toolbars, spyware, or adware. Don't browse the internet and think you're safe from everything just because you have a virus scanner. If you click "yes" on something without paying attention, you could accidentally be installing a trojan. Read before clicking.
If you do install something, fortunately, most of these programs can easily be removed through the Programs and Features interface in the control panel. They have to look like a legitimate Windows program in order to install themselves in Windows, so they almost always come with an uninstaller. For the few that aren't completely removed, a search on the internet can usually reveal instructions for removing programs.
Some might suggest installing certain programs to prevent or remove the malware that virus scanners don't catch. The only decent one I know of is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It is not designed to catch everything but it is designed to catch what virus scanners often miss.
= PC OPTIMIZATION =
Never install any optimizing software or registry cleaners. Windows XP might have benefited from certain optimizers but this is no longer the case with Windows 7 or later. Keep your PC free of malware and it will perform as good as it can. Installing extra software to "optimize" your PC just means something is going to use more system resources and slow your computer down.
The only exception I would make for running a registry cleaner is if you know you have malware that added registry entries. Certain scanners can easily identify registry entries made by malware and remove them. HijackThis, CCleaner, and AdwCleaner are decent at this, but don't need to be run unless you need to remove something.
If your computer is always running slow, you have two options. You can reinstall Windows if you think software is the issue. If it still runs slow, you probably need to upgrade your hardware so it can meet the demands of newer games and programs.
thanks, i know how to do stuff manually i just didn't know if there was a good program out there that does what CCleaner does plus other stuff like optimization and defragging.
my PC isn't running slow at all at the moment i was just curious.
thanks for the reply!
i didn't say i wouldn't pay for it, i said no yearly subs. and i don't "need" it, i was just wondering if there was some cool software out there that i didn't know about.
A can of compressed air getting rid of the dust bunnies inside the case every few months will do more good than any piece of software.
As far as software goes, I use Windows Security for A/V, plain MS Firewall behind a closed NAT router, and plain MS Defrag for HDD mainteance, and I keep a pretty clean machine, and have had no problems (or at least none that I've identified, the NSA could be keylogging all of us right now)
For cleaning up other computers, I have used CCLeaner when they get hit with malware or for those people who have 12-year-old XP installs that are full of crap. If your looking for something more robust, nearly all of them are subscription based because they have to keep updating their malware/AV database, and your going to have a hard time finding something that will stay updated without a subscription beyond free options (which seem to operate fine for most purposes).
I would strongly recommend staying away from any software from IOBit, free or otherwise.