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You have no doubt invested time, trouble and possibly money, in your "must have" software. This investment is largely protected when you move to Windows 7 / Vista 64 and, if not, there are many excellent freeware alternatives. (In addition, Windows 7 / Vista 64 continue the tradition of offering Here are the top freeware picks for Windows 7 / Vista 64 in their various sections. Where a native 64 bit application is currently unavailable, a suitable 32 bit alternative is provided. |
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BROWSER Although Windows 7 / Vista 64 include both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Internet Explorer, version 8 in the case of Windows 7, many prefer more secure products. The 32 bit versions of Firefox, Google Chrome,and Opera all work without a hitch under both operating systems. Apart from 64 bit Internet Explorer, the only other 64 bit browser currently available, and still under development, is an unofficial version of Firefox based on the Mozilla code. Various preview versions can be found here. I've found version 3.5.6 to be as stable as the 32 bit version. This version will import all of your bookmarks and history from 32 bit Firefox 3.0.14 or 3.5.6. All currently installed addons are checked for compatibility when 64 bit Firefox is started, and those that are known to work are loaded automatically. Although active development has been under way for some time these applications are not yet ready for daily use:
If you find these restrictions unacceptable, stick with a 32 bit browser. See:
EMAIL CLIENT Currently, the only released 64 bit email client is Windows Mail, included with Vista 64. Windows 7 does not include an email client. There is a development project for 64 bit Thunderbird 3, the latest build, 3.0 beta 2, codenamed Shredder, is available here. Unfortunately, moving from your existing email client to 64 bit Thunderbird 3 can be quite a challenge. Users moving from Thunderbird 2 under Windows 7 / Vista 64 will need to use two third party freeware products, MozBackup and MailStore Home. Migration from Outlook is relatively simple under Vista 64 using the Thunderbird 3 import function. This approach doesn't work under Windows 7 due to changes in the registration of MAPI entries which no one appears to want to acknowledge or address. Thunderbird 2 users who are considering the switch should be aware that the popular Lightning addon is not supported. For the time being I would recommend that you stick with a 32 bit email client. For details refer to our review:
FTP CLIENT Following a comment from a reader I have been searching for free 64 bit FTP clients. So far, I have only managed to find one, Null FTP from Vision Works. The free version of Null FTP, a cut down version of the paid product, has the following limitations:
Whether or not you can live with the first two limitations depends largely on how much you rely on FTP in your day to day activities. The third restriction has no impact on the speed of Internet or local network FTP transfers so I am surprised that they even bother to mention it.
Overall, the product fails to match the top 32 bit selections in our review Best Free FTP Client. Unless you feel that a 64 bit FTP client is essential I suggest that you look there for the solution best suited to your needs.
FIREWALL Remember that you should never run two or more firewall products side-by-side. If you plan to switch to one of the products below, ensure that you disable Windows Firewall and any other firewall you have installed first. If all you need is a simple interface to the built-in Windows firewall, and aren't too fussy about appearance or features, the free version of Windows 7 Firewall Control is perhaps the answer. Despite the name both Windows 7 and Vista 64 are supported. Be warned that access has to be defined for each application using one of four modes; out only, in only, enable all, or disable all. I suspect for many this will not offer a fine enough degree of control. If you are looking for a free firewall with extra peace of mind in the form of a Host-Based Intrusion Pevention System (HIPS - see our article HIPS Explained for further information), Comodo Internet Security (CIS), is an excellent choice. CIS can be rather intrusive at first, but things do settle down as the program learns more about the system. It's necessary to change mode when installing new software and when dealing with reports, but this is a small price to pay since CIS includes one of the most effective firewalls on the market, free. Full instructions are available in the "Miscellaneous" tab, or from the Comodo website. When installing CIS, deselect the Install Antivirus option if you already have a suitable antivirus solution installed. If you are using an old version of the CFP or CIS you should upgrade to the latest version as this will increase stability and reduce memory footprint. Windows 7 users should ensure they install version 3.9.x or later.
ANTIVIRUS With its ease of use, fast scanning, and excellent detection rates, my first choice is Avira Antivir Personal Edition. Although it lacks an email scanning feature, it compensates by the speed in which the real-time protection leaps to your defence when any threats, including infected email attachments, are detected. As of version 9, Avira protects against Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Rootkits, Dialers, Spyware and Adware. I have no information, as yet, regarding the effectiveness of the anti-spyware and anti-adware components added in version 9. Version 9 of Avira also adds the facility to review suspect items at the end of a scan, rather than dealing with each item when detected. This leaves the user free to run a scan unattended at any time and simply deal with the results when appropriate. I do have criticisms. The large advert for the paid version which accompanies the updates, but it only takes a click to make it go away. In recent months many people have encountered problems with updates although this issue seems to have been resolved. You also need to periodically reregister. If you need an antivirus with extra features, Avast Free AntiVirus may be the answer. Avast has full real-time capabilities, including web, e-mail, IM, P2P and network shields, boot-time scanning, and a behavioural blocker. Avast is light on resources. Detection rates are good but not quite up to the standard of Avira. Many of the protection mechanisms used by Avast rely on interactive Windows services. Support in Windows 7 / Vista 64 for interactive services is intended for use by legacy applications. This places restrictions on the information that can be sent to the user. Both Avira and Avast are hybrid 64 bit applications. Only the low level kernel mode drivers that interface with operating system are written in 64 bit code. You can have more than one AV product installed, but only one should be enabled for real-time scanning. The same applies to email scanning. If you are interested in alternatives to Avira and Avast, such as AVG Free,a-squared Free, or Microsoft Security Essentials, then refer to our review:
ANTISPYWARE There are some very good on-demand scanners which don't conflict with real-time protection. Perhaps the best of these is SUPERAntiSpyware (SAS). Only available as a 32 bit application, it can still detect malware that other products miss, remove rogue applications, and also repair some malware damage. If you check the Windows event log, don't be concerned by entries relating to SASDIFSV.SYS and SASKUTIL.SYS following a reboot. These are 32 bit device drivers used by the full version of SAS and do not affect operation of the free version. The 64 bit version of SAS is currently undergoing beta testing. It is unclear if there will be a free version. Malwarebytes is also worth considering because of its fast scanning and general ease of use. Effective at detecting and removing trojans, results are less impressive for other types of malware. Ad-Aware 2008 includes heuristic detection and integrated real-time protection, although the latter is only for rogue processes in the free version. Real-time protection is implemented by a combination of an interactive Windows service and a 64 bit kernel mode device driver making Ad-Aware a hybrid 32/64 bit application. Support in Windows 7 / Vista 64 for interactive services is intended for use by legacy applications. This places restrictions on the information that can be sent to the user. As to real world effectiveness, Ad-Aware continues to maintain a reasonable detection rate but many threats go undetected. For full details of the testing carried out on these and other products in this category refer to our review: Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover
SYSTEM TOOLS Although Windows 7 / Vista 64 have their own housekeeping tools for defragmenting the hard disk, removing junk files and various other tasks, there are 3rd party alternatives which perform better and offer additional features. There are few 64 bit tools but the ones available, added to the 32 bit versions that work under Windows 7 / Vista 64, are very good at what they do. Before you dig too deeply into this section you might want to read the great article: "How to make Vista run faster" The information contained in the article applies equally well to Windows 7.
ALL IN ONE If you prefer to use a single tool for the upkeep of your PC, you need look no further than the latest version of the excellent Glary Utilities. Some sixteen different utilities are included, covering virtually every aspect of PC maintenance. Although none of the individual utilities can compare to standalone competition, you do have the advantage of having everything in one place. As this is a 32 bit program that runs in a 64 bit environment, you will notice that one or two of the modules are not fully working, the Uninstall Manager for example, doesn't recognise 64 bit applications, and therefore cannot uninstall them.
DISK DEFRAGMENTER MyDefrag, by the author of JKDefrag, available in 32 and 64 bit versions, is novel in that it is a merely a defragmentation and file placement engine. The actions carried out by my MyDefrag are script driven, with a number of useful example scripts being included in the installation. The simple scripting language is well documented allowing scripts to be developed to suit any defragmentation/optimisation requirement. The scripting language includes a command that allows the files identified in the Windows Prefetch cache to be optimised. A script can be executed by double clicking on it in Explorer, passing it as a parameter to MyDefrag invoked via a shortcut or the appropriate task scheduler. MyDefrag requires administrator privilege and, if running from the Task Scheduler under Windows 7 or Vista, it is recommended that the SYSTEM account is used. If the MyDefrag GUI interface is set to be visible during script execution, the default, the rather poor disk map, familiar to JK Defrag users, is displayed. You can switch from this to a text based statistics/progress view, but presentation is equally unimpressive. All physical directory/file operations carried out by MyDefrag use the Windows Defragmentation API and can therefore be considered safe. The process can be interrupted at any time without risk of data loss or corruption. For those with unusual defragmentation and/or optimisation requirements MyDefrag offers unparalleled flexibility. Readers who merely want to defragment their disk(s) on a regularly basis should use one of the standard scripts provided with MyDefrag, I use FastOptimize, to achieve excellent results. MyDefrag definitely deserves to replace JKDefrag as Gizmo's Top Pick. Defraggler, finally provides native 64 bit competition for MyDefrag. From the authors of CCleaner and Recuva, Defraggler is a great application for day to day defragmentation tasks. However, MyDefrag still produces the best results, albeit with a considerable runtime penalty. In typical Piriform style, the Defraggler interface is clean, easy to follow, and therefore simple to use. Analysing a drive only takes a few seconds, performing a quick defragmentation, on my system, less than ten minutes. Impressive. Unfortunately, Defraggler falls down by not taking into account the results of 'ReadyBoot' (sic), and it doesn't have the flexibility of MyDefrag's scripting language. Conclusion: I use Defraggler day to day, and once a week I run MyDefrag. Together I think they do the job nicely. Readers who would prefer to consider 32 bit products should refer to our review: Keep in mind that 32 bit disk defragmentation tools will incur a performance hit by having to use the WOW64 (32 bit compatibility mode) interface. If you decide to use a third party disk defragmenter, other than MyDefrag, don't be tempted to disable the built in Windows 7 / Vista 64 disk defragmenter. If you do, you will greatly reduce the effectiveness of ReadyBoot (sic), the mechanism that monitors files accessed during the last 5 boots and creates a boot plan to reduce startup time. This boot plan is passed to the Windows disk defragmenter to allow the placement of files used during the boot process to be optimized.
DISK CLEANER CCleaner, recently rewritten in c++ , scans for both junk files and registry errors. The registry cleaning component only handles that part of the registry visible to 32 bit applications and is quite mild. Additional features include cookie management, program removal, and secure file erasing. Existing users who upgrade will notice a significant reduction in scanning times. This is one of the first tools I recommend people install on a Windows PC, and regular use will go a long way to preventing the hard drive from becoming bogged down with unwanted junk. CCleaner has never dealt with purging Windows Restore Points, a major source of accumulated junk. The Disk Cleanup tool available in 32 bit Windows 7 / Vista allows you to do this but, under Windows 7 / Vista 64, although the option to perform this task still exists, it does not work correctly. My thanks go to Kristan Kenny for providing the solution to this problem. If you want to correct the Disk Cleanup shortcut in the Start menu, follow these steps:
If you've automated Disk Cleanup, the correct path to use in your script is: %WINDIR%\sysnative\cleanmgr.exe If you launch Disk Cleanup from another location in Windows, for instance by clicking the “Disk Cleanup” button in the properties window of a drive, the correct 64 bit version of Disk Cleanup is launched.
REGISTRY CLEANER I am not a fan of Registry cleaners. They have a nasty habit of removing things that are vital to the correct operation of commercial software.
Firstly, it allows you to backup the Registry before you start and there is also a restore option. Secondly, by default, it doesn't check Class Security Identifiers (CLSIDs) or other areas where most Registry tricks are played, although these can be included if required. Finally it divides redundant/invalid entries into two groups, 1) those you can remove safely, and 2) the rest which require closer examination before removing. I think it is fair to say that you are reasonably safe removing the entries in the first group although I would caution against removing those in the second group unless you have a good understanding of the Registry and how applications use it.
REGISTRY DEFRAGMENTER While a PC is in use there is a constant stream of data being added to and removed from the registry and over time this can cause the registry to become fragmented, there is also the problem of registry cleaners and program uninstalls producing gaps in the registry file. When this occurs, it does nothing to enhance the performance or reliability of the system, therefore, the occasional use of a registry defragmenter / optimiser is seen by some as a necessary part of the maintenance regime. Free Registry Defrag is a fast, reliable and free tool which is capable of compacting and defragmenting the registry and from version 2.4 onwards includes both 32 and 64 bit versions. If used when the level of fragmentation is in excess of 10% the results are noticeable. Be aware though that the software does not include a Registry backup option so exercise caution and create a Restore Point before using.
SYSINTERNALS SUITE No list of system tools would be complete without mentioning the excellent SysInternals Suite which is used to trouble shoot PCs worldwide. Although SysInternals is now part of Microsoft, the tools remain free and are regularly updated. Most of the SysInternals tools work correctly under Windows 7 / Vista 64. In particular, the three most widely used tools, Process Explorer, Process Monitor and Autoruns, extract and run 64 bit code. At present, Autologon doesn't work, but a suitable alternative can be found here. If you are looking for a utility that will create shortcuts to the most commonly used SysInternals tools, check out SysInternals Toolbox in our review :
SYSTEM INFORMATION UTILITY The 32 bit SIW utility still manages to display a host of detailed information relating to your PC hardware, operating system, installed programs, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic when running under Windows 7 / Vista 64. It also displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more. SIW doesn't require installation so it can be run from a USB flash drive without problem. For a full guide to System Information Utilities: Best Free System Information Utility.
SYSTEM TOOLS/UTILITIES INCLUDED IN WINDOWS 7
To try out Resource Monitor, click on Start, type resource monitor into the search box, and then click on the Resource Monitor entry that appears under Programs. For an in depth look at Resource Monitor refer to our article: Windows 7 Resource Monitor: New & Improved My favourite new feature in Windows 7 is the Problem Steps Recorder. If you've ever tried to help a friend or family member over the phone, or via email, with a PC problem I'm sure you know how difficult and frustrating it can be. With the best will in the world things tend to get lost in translation. They miss out a piece of information relating to the problem, or you do regarding the solution. PSR overcomes this problem by allowing the steps needed to reproduce a problem, or to implement a fix, to be recorded and saved to a file. To start PSR, click on Start, type psr.exe into the search box, and then either click on the psr.exe entry that appears under Programs, or right click and choose Run as a administrator. Note you need to choose Run as administrator if any of the screens you wish to capture are running with administrator privilege.
The ZIP contains a MHT, mime encoded HTML, format document that includes the screen shots, any comments that were added, and a text based description of the actions that were carried out. This can be opened and edited in any version of Word from 2002 upwards. Alternatively, the file can be viewed using the free Word Viewer, Internet Explorer version 5 or higher, Firefox with the UnMHT extension installed and Opera version 9.0 or higher. PSR is not a ground breaking application, but it will help me to assist others much more quickly and efficiently.
TWEAKING TOOLS The majority of tools in this category are covered in: Best Free Vista Tweaks which includes details of compatibility with Vista 64. With the exception of Vista Logon Studio all the applications that work under Vista 64 will also work under Windows 7. An alternative to Vista Logon Studio for Windows 7 users is given below. In order to use Iconoid to change the colour of text you must first turn off drop shadows for icon text. This must be done via Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings, and then click on the Settings button under Performance. Right clicking on Computer, and then choosing Properties, will only change settings until you logoff or the PC is rebooted.
Windows 7 imposes a 256 Kb limit on the size of the JPEG image that can be used for the logon screen. If your image is larger than this, Logon Changer will give you the option to automatically resize and/or compress the image. Note that the original image is left untouched.
DATA/FILE/FOLDER TOOLS DATA RECOVERY / UNDELETE No matter how careful we try to be, there's a chance that an important file, picture, track etc will get deleted by accident. Hours of work and valuable photos can all be lost with a click of the mouse, or by selecting the wrong option on a digital camera. A data recovery tool such as Recuva, from the makers of CCleaner, now available as a native 64 bit application, can help you resolve such unfortunate errors. Recuva is simple to use, effective, and can be used to recover lost items from the following:
FILE ARCHIVER/ZIP UTILITY 7-Zip and PeaZip are available as native 64 bit applications and contain all of the functionality of their 32 bit counterparts. Readers interested in a comparison of these products should refer to our review: Best Free File Archiver/Zip Utility
FOLDER SYNCHRONIZATION UTILITY Microsoft's SyncToy, available as a native 64 bit application, can copy, move, rename, and delete files between any number of folders and even computers. Operations are carried out on local and/or remote pre-defined folder pairs. Remote folders can be specified by drive letter or UNC name. You define and name these pairs, files can be included or excluded based on wildcards and/or file attributes, and then when you want to perform a task, you recall one of these pairs and carry out the operation. Syncing can be in either direction and covers all options from complete sync to updating newer files only. SyncToy can also keep track of files you rename and rename those in the sync destination. Overwritten files in the destination can be saved in the recycle bin, in case you need the older version. SyncToy also allows you to preview a sync, that is, view what would happen if the sync operation was executed. This ensures the operation will do exactly what you want before you use it. In addition to the easy to use GUI, SyncToy can also be run from the command line to sync a chosen folder pair or, all folder pairs. SyncToy is a versatile utility that will satisfy all but the most demanding of users. It also runs very quickly despite being based on the .NET framework. The only major things it lacks are the ability to select files from a folder via a standard tree view, direct support for ftp, and a portable version. If you would prefer a non-Microsoft solution, or require features that SyncToy doesn't have, then refer to our review Best Free Folder Synchronization Utility.
SECURE ERASE UTILITY The 64 bit version of Eraser will securely overwrite selected files and folders, or even whole disks (it works with any drive, including IDE, SCSI, RAID, and CD-RWs). It addition to handling normal data areas, Eraser can also wipe data in the paging file, Internet cache, temporary files, Internet cookies, unused disk space, and a number of other places where data can secretly lurk. It can handle FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions. Erasing files with a high level of security, involving user selected data patterns and multiple passes, will always be a time consuming task, and 100% security cannot be guaranteed. However, Eraser makes the task about as easy as it can be, at a security level that exceeds most conceivable requirements. If Eraser goes beyond what you need, then refer to our review Best Free Secure Erase Utility for details of simpler, 32 bit alternatives, that work quite happily under Windows 7 / Vista 64.
DESKTOP/OFFICE TOOLS DIGITAL IMAGE EDITOR This is not a field in which I can claim to have any expertise. I have tested the products identified to confirm that they work under Windows 7 / Vista 64. Readers who are interested in comparing product features should refer to our review: Best Free Digital Image Editor Paint.Net is available as a native 64 bit application. In addition to the products built in features there are a huge number of user contributed plugins that add further capabilities. Despite requiring version 2 or higher of the .NET Framework, 3.5 SP1 is recommended, Paint.NET isn't too resource intensive and during testing I didn't notice slow downs at any point. An experimental 64 bit version of The GIMP is available although the installation routine stresses the fact that this version isn't suitable for day to day work.
DIGITAL IMAGE VIEWER  A reader has brought to my attention FastPictureViewer, a native 64 bit application for viewing JPEG images.This claims to be (and probably is) the fastest viewer ever. It uses hardware to speed things up and requires a lot of system resources and graphic capabilities. It has a nice interface as well. Anyway, the program offers no other functions and is limited to just viewing.For readers who require greater functionality, the top picks in our review Best Free Digital Image Viewer, XnView and IrfanView, both 32 bit applications that include 64 bit shell extensions, run flawlessly under Windows 7 / Vista 64. I suggest that you refer to the review for an expert comparison of these products.
OFFICE SUITE Open Office covers just about all the bases, everything from a document writer to databases and spreadsheets, it handles files produced with Excel. Word and Powerpoint, and also there are numerous extensions available. All in all this is one of the best examples of freeware to be found! For those of you who need to be able to handle Office 2007 documents I suggest that you check out How do I open Microsoft Office 2007 files?
PDF READER
In use, the 64 bit version is quick and memory usage is on a par with Adobe Reader 9. Image quality, although not quite as good as Adobe's product, is still excellent. In fact, for documents that originally contained rasterised images, reproduction is actually far better. The portable 32 bit version is worthy of mention. It naturally lacks some features available in the full product but still produces high quality images making it ideal for a personal PC toolkit. If you want a feature rich 64 bit PDF viewer and are not prepared to wait for Adobe to play catch up, then I recommend you take a look at this product.
PDF WRITER BullZip, CuteWriter and doPDF all have 64 bit versions although BullZip and CuteWriter rely on the 32 bit version of GhostScript Lite. I have successfully tested all of these applications under Windows 7 / Vista 64 and suggest that interested readers refer to our review : to assist them in choosing the best product for their needs.
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1.3.0.0 
Unrestricted Freeware 
XP, Vista 32/64, Windows 7 32/64
Portable version available|
Have Your Say
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To make this category a success feedback from readers is essential. I cannot possibly cover everything, but if you have an idea for an area of software that should be covered, or if I have left out one of your favourites, then post a comment. There are five ways to send feedback: registered users can contact me directly here or in the forum under Contact Info. Registered users may also post in the forum. Anyone can post a comment at the bottom of this page. Finally, please help us by rating this review |
This category is maintained by volunteer editor Rik Mayell, a self confessed computer nut, who loves PCs, desktop or server, and thinks the Mac is cool, although doesn't own one. Also plays around with Linux in his spare time.
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Freeware for 64 bit Windows 7, Freeware for 64 bit Windows Vista, 64 bit Windows freeware, Freeware for 64 bit Windows, 64 bit freeware |
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Double Commander, native 64 BIT Explorer alternative. Still in Beta, but looking good.
http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/
All of the installation files for the latest beta, 0.4.5, are Linux related deb, rpm or tar files. No mention of Windows anywhere.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
All downloads here;
http://sourceforge.net/projects/doublecmd/files/
I'd really appreciate your recommendation for a 64-bit win7 disk defragger. I imagine you're too busy to test, but you could give us your preliminary best guess with the usual caveats.
I feel forced to turn to commercial sware, but I only want to run it once a month.
Just a point here which may be of interest to you, it doesn't make any difference to the results whether you use a 32 BIT or a 64 BIT, or indeed any other processor in conjuncton with a defragger. The file fragmentation is removed by physically moving files on the disc, and it is irrelevant which processor happens to be involved in this process. The same applies to various optimisation techniques.
Of course, a fast 64 BIT processor may allow you to accomplish such operations a little faster, simply because it is intrinsicaly faster, but the main limitations here are dependent on the disc itself and its mechanical components.
If you want to avoid this, then you need to go for an SSD ( Solid State Disc), it has no moving conponents, and does not require defragmentation.
I imagine it wont be long before SSD's take over more or less completely anyway, as they also provide other massive performance advantages, and are being produced in larger capacities and ever cheaper., This will make defragging and optimisation software as it is presently known obsolete.
The API used is common to both 32 and 64 bit applications although 32 bit calls carry the translation overhead. In real terms a 64 bit application will always run faster. Without testing I couldn't say by how much.
The problem with SSD is that the drive will eventually die, something that isn't a problem with standard disk drives. The limited life expectancy and high cost do little to sell this to me. Further, if you were to model the impact of SSD on an end user PC I doubt you would see much benefit as you are the slave of the somewhat jaded Windows virtual memory model and some 'well intentioned' Vista and later 'performance enhancements.'
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
All true, but the actual enhancements are still quite massive. Boot time as low as 7 seconds, load times massively reduced. Other problems either removed or severely reduced. No defragging, no NOISE!!! etc.
May be of interest; http://ssd-reviews.com/
Also, the first disc drives had lousy MTBF values. In the meantime PC's and various components can be fairly considered consumable throwaways, and the average "life" ( not the expectancy, the average actual life in operation) is often much less than three years. If an SSD is guaranteed for three years, many wont care if it dies after that.
I am very happy indeed with an SSD as a system "disc" in one of my machines, and will certainly go for it again when I buy any new machines. Indeed, I may upgrade a couple of the others in the meantime.
The MTBF may have improved but it doesn't change the fact that the drive will die. I can live with a two minute boot time safe in the knowledge that the machine will boot. If I really want a fast boot I go into Ubuntu :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
At some point in the discussion, Gizmo used to finally say something like "I personally use product X".
What does Rik use on 64-bit Win7?
Or isn't it worth doing anymore?
Or just use the MS-provided one?
Well I can't speak for Gizmo but personally I don't bother. Most if not all desktop applications are CPU bound or, if you're into design and stuff, bound by the graphics card. If on the other hand you're into Exchange / SQL Server then you'd know the answer anyway :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
So we have turned full circle (once again).
You seem to be saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Well I wouldn't quite say full circle :)
Defragmenting the hard drive(s) will have an impact on performance, especially after a hefty dose of maintenance, such as installing a Service Pack. Improving file layout can also make a big difference, this requires knowledge of the files you use most and where best to move them to. This isn't rocket science you just have to put in a bit of hard work ;)
Although not highly regarded, the Microsoft disk defragmentation tool deals with the Boot Plan generated by ReadyBoot (sic.) MyDefrag is the only freeware tool that does that. So, if you don't use MyDefrag, don't disable the Windows tool.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Thanx.
My personal decision is to use the MS one about once a month except in the circumstances you note.
In the article I recommend MyDefrag as top pick.
The mathematics of disk file placement are beyond the scope of this article but remember that 'big iron' systems, MVS, VMS as was, commercial Unix, don't seem to need to defragment disks. Obviously they know something that we don't.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
That's not true! :)
If you want some precise and conprehensive info on it;
http://www.diskeeper.com/fragbook/contents.htm
Fragmentation occurs on every system which uses disc storage. Obviously the VAX and other analsysis and remedial programs will not run on Windows PC's but there are analogs to these programs. for PC's. The majority of PC defragmentation programs are sufficient for most users to maintain reasonable performance. Network and server management teams often require much more specific strategies of file placement and defragmentation techniques. For some specific PC applications more specific strategies are also required.
They are not generally of much use to an average user, but system managers need this knowledge.
Most users on "Big Iron" will never come into contact with anything like this, and don't need to know anything about it. PC users who maintain and service their own machines should learn at least a little about it, as it is one of the major causes of system performance degragadation.
On MVS, I think I'd be looking at CICS and DB2 before I started reaching for my PL80 manual :)
If trying to improve the performance of a Windows PC, disk fragmentation would be at the end of a very long list.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I only posted that fragbook because it explains various problems with discs and fragmentation very well in terms that more or less anybody can understand. Specific manuals tend to use too much specific terminology that hardly anybody not involved with them understands! :)
Since I started using SSD's, file and disc fragmentation on those machines have dropped off my list altogether, although they were once a fairly high priority for me at least. I just try to do the best I can with what I have, just a hobby now, I don't even need most of it anyway! :)
Thanks for the interesting input!
Also worth pointing out here that optimisation is not the same thing as defragmenting, although these are "lumped together" a lot on PC's.
This chapter explains the differences, explains much the same "Red Herrings" as are often used to refer to PC's and gives some background on the matter Although not always precisely analog it is of considerable use in explaining some things clearly;
http://www.diskeeper.com/fragbook/chapter6.htm#ch6f
Disk defragmentation and perhaps more important, optimal file placement, is a subject we could discuss for hours. I've given this some thought and I'm not entirely sure whether this could be considered an np hard / np complete problem? I doubt it matters really as long as you're happy using whatever you happen to use.
Further discussion on this matter should be carried out in the forum.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Hmm...I don't think the application of computational complexity theory as such is really all that relevant to actually solving the problems involved. The usual approach is strictly practical, in that one finds a bottleneck and attempts to remove it. Whatever, I agree that it probably doesn't matter a great deal as long as whatever you use works.
I haven't yet found a defrag program that didn't work, but some are very slow and cumbersome. With further regard to optimal data placement, it is well nigh impossible to even define the problem, much less find a pure mathematical solution involving polynomial time calculations, hard or otherwise, or indeed anything else either, because nobody agrees on the various theories with regard to the actual optimal placement, so most simply fly by the seat of their pants.
As you obviously don't want any further discussion on the matter here, I will refrain from any further references.
Obviously 'one size fits all' cannot be applied to PC use. To an extent this is more complex than the 'Travelling Salesmen' problem as it is intangible. NP Hard / NP Complete problems at least have boundaries that we can state. Not computable in non-polynomial time being the most obvious. As computer scientists we work to address these issues and take our thinking forward. It isn't helped by people coming into the field that don't even know the fastest way to perform a sort, sigh...
Offers on the best way...Ordinary quick sort doesn't get you any points.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Well, I'm not a computer scientist as such, just a fairly experienced engineer, and the last sorting algorithm I had anything much to do with was library sort ( it's an insertion sort, fairly new, and invented in 2005 I believe). New ways to sort are still being invented. I really don't know enough about the alternatives or applications thereof to make any sensible comment, I am most certainly not on the cutting edge of forward thinking here, and I don't know the fastest way to sort per se either, so it looks like I am not going to get any points this time! :)
We don't really give points here, but if we did you would get quite a few. You've been kind enough to stop by and read and further you've taken time to join in by posting. Finally what you don't say in your post says more than what you do. A rare gift in life indeed...
Thanks for your post.
Finally, if anyone does want the low down on the fastest sorting algorithm, contact me and I'll send it to you :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Useful;
http://beingpc.com/2010/02/fix-all-your-important-file-association-with-...
Useful if you want to just restore the main file associations. There are other utilities that allow you to be more flexible.
Useful find. Thank you.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Hi Rik,
Do you or any visitors here know of a good free 64 bit CD/DVD burning package? InfraRecorder is, frankly, a bug-ridden horror story on my system. ImgBurn is rock steady and reliable, but it is 32 bit and doesn't handle music compilations.
Alternatively, does the lack of this category here indicate that everyone is happy with the built-in Windows facility? I suppose this might have moved on since XP, where I last used it.
Regards,
Alan
I use CDBurnerXP, a 32 bit application, which gives me everything I need. The built in Windows facilities work fine but I find them less than intuitive. I am on the look out for a native 64 bit application but nothing seems to be on the horizon at present.
Rik
what about a 64 bit image mounting program?
I'm afraid that I'm not aware of one. Gizmo Central works fine for me, I've yet to find anything it can't handle.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Just wondering if it was possible to add a review of Panda Cloud Anti-Virus to this discussion. It is a powerful tool with high detection rate and low requirements of system resources. However it has a slow scanning speed. Anyone else have anything to say about it?
In our review Best Free Antivirus Software Panda Cloud doesn't even rate a mention, presumably for good reason. If you'd like to see this product get a mention then that is the best place to follow this up.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I like your article, but not that I can't print it out to give to my father to read. Please fix this ASAP. Thanks.
Your ability, or otherwise, to print this article is solely dependant on the facilities provided by your browser and version of Windows. Normally a simple File, Print, from the browser will suffice. You can of course be rather more exotic and use one of the on-line convert to PDF sites.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
You imply I'm a newbie or worse but your slip is showing. This is true because file/print is the first thing anyone would try, and all that and print preview produce are one page of content and one blank page, which was hardly the objective. Apparently you guys are using frames or some more exotic way to lay out the page content which is not compatible with normal browser printing functions. I also tried print selection, by the way, which did not work either. Needless to say, these methods normally work just fine for me. Fortunately, I do have a fallback named FastStone Capture, last freeware version, which was able to take an image of the scrolling window that contains your article's content, so I was able to print that. However, my complaint still stands that you should have some printer-friendly way for your users to preserve the content of especially such an important article as this one. Thanks. P.S. Next time you might want to try it out for yourself to see if it works before suggesting an obvious "solution."
You seem to have found a solution so that's fine. File, Print will work quite happily from Firefox, perhaps I should have mentioned that.
You seem to think that there is some sort of problem with being a new comer to computers, a 'newbie.' We all had to start somewhere and helping people is what Gizmo's is all about. You're never too old, or young, to learn.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
My solution is only OK, since an image is not as sharp and clear as the printed text would be. I wish I could get you to actually try your "solution" so you'd see it only gives you one page of text out of the dozen or more you should get in order to have the whole article, not including comments. I have run into this on other websites, so you are not alone, but many others have recognized the problem and instituted a printer-friendly version of such scrolling window "pages" for the simple reason that they do not print out properly using the normal browser printing methods. I guess my function here today is to wake you up to these facts that are obvious to anyone who has actually tried to print this article out. BTW, I am using Firefox 3.6 with Windows XP Pro sp3, with no other problems printing, so I doubt that it is the problem, but if yours does print it all out, I'd like to know why--i.e. is there an add-on?
How about considering Puran defrag? Its free and is a native 64-bit application.
The download link is http://www.puransoftware.com/Puran-Defrag-Download.html
On this page look for Download Details - Puran Defrag Free Edition as the page also lists a paid version.
Hi Mandeep,
I'm waiting for the conclusion in the category Best Free Disk De-Fragmenter. I also believe that there has been some activity on the forum related to this product. The outcome of that debate might also prove useful.
Once I have the above information I'll consider adding something appropriate to this review.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
PDFXCHANGE Viewer is not showing japanese character
I think you should report this to the developers as it is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Thanks very much for your invaluable guidance over several years, this is the first niggle I have had to remark on.
This concerns Avira AntiVirus Personal which I loaded on your recommendation after starting to find that AVG was apparently no longer up to the job and my OS moving to Windows 7.
It was not long after the installation of Avira that I started getting blue screens it seemed to be something to do with Avira's random times for updates sometimes conflicting with some of Windows 7 applications, in particular Windows Explorer and worst of all with Windows Backup which, because it takes a long time to work through, nearly always seems to meet an Avira update head on with the on screen electronic equivalent of a train smash followed of course by the inevitable blue screen. Please excuse the drama but that is the most succint way I can put it in my ignorance. I have had no option except to uninstall Avira and look elsewhere with my fingers crossed.
AVAST-64 BIT TOO!
Despite being largely redeveloped Avast 5 is still a 32 bit application. As ever only the lowest level device drivers are 64 bit, as required to be loaded into the kernel.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I'm sorry to hear that you have experienced problems with Avira. I am concerned that Avira might have only served to help show a problem with your system that is probably being caused by something else. As a precaution I would urge you to check your system for viruses and other malware. Assuming the system is clean check the event log to see if it contains any useful information. Please remember that the forum is available for detailed help with any problems that you are having.
Rik
winrar is also 64 bit, and while not technically freeware, it is a very good proggy, and only nags after the trial period, as noted in your zip file comparison article...
http://download.cnet.com/WinRAR-64-bit/3000-2250_4-10965579.html
WinRar is a fine product, but as you point out it isn't freeware. We at Gizmo's can't be seen to encourage people to use it beyond the trial period now can we?
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Go God Mode;
http://apps.nozavi.com/go-godmode-overview
I posted this as a 'Hot Find' a couple of weeks ago but thanks anyway.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Please can I ask that if you are going to post details of something that you think should be included in the review, ensure it is a 64 bit application.
Many thanks,
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
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