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IMHO, defragmenting everyday with Defraggler is not a good idea if you use MyDefrag or JKdefrag. Nor is using any other defragmenter. It completely ruins the optimization that JKdefrag peforms by rearranging the files and filling in the much needed gaps that were set up. This actually causes more fragmentation, slower disk performance for Windows, and a lot more wear and tare on the hard drive. The author of JKdefrag says that defragmenting once a week is plenty.
With that said, I am having doubts about whether Mydefrag actually optimizes the way JKdefrag used to. Whenever it is finished I see a completely filled in hard drive with no gaps and many "space hogs" at the front of the disk. Looks like old-school Windows defrag to me! I haven't had a chance to visit their forums about this yet but I'm thinking of just using the old JKdefragGUI in XP mode, or trying to adapt it's scripts to MyDefrag format.
I have to say it's worth it. Discovering Jkdefrag might have been the single biggest boost in performance my system has ever seen. I really have no need for constant system upgrades anymore with tools like these.
Sorry for the double post below... stupid browser addons... :( Feel free to delete one.
I must agree with others, and raise an eyebrow at the recommendation of a registry cleaner. The best way to clean my registry is also God's gift to the curious: drive imaging. Windows pissing you off? Just re-image for a brand new system.
Personally, I still use DriveImage XML because it is pre-installed on most recovery disks so I'm not left stranded. It has never let me down. And it does come in a 64-bit flavor.
Between you and me, and the world, though, I do use the registry tool in CCleaner occasionally, just out of curiosity.... This is usually followed by a re-image. :-}
On Win7x64 system I like to use Chrome browser 9.0.597 beta to read a PDF either on the fly from a web page or a PDF on my hard drive. (Chrome embeds Adobe Flash as well at a higher level than publicly from Adobe.) However I do keep a current Adobe Reader X 10.0.0 installed in case I need to use its features, which is very rare.
The absolute best free PDF Reader is Nitro Free Version. You and extract images from it, drap and drop any other file on to the icon and it converts them into PDF's. It's light on resources, and for a free feature set, can't be beat. Who in their right mind uses Adobe Bloatware anymore? The only necessary adobe anything is flash unfortunately. Hopefully it goes away soon.
For more basic viewing, it doesn't get any better than Sutmatra PDF.
SMPlayer is great, VLC too.
Synctoy that someone mentioned being broken? The prefect backup solution for me.
[edit] Commercial product promotion removed
Why would an old program that runs perfectly well on native Windows XP in Wndows 95 compatibility mode not run (at all) in Windows 7 in Windows 95 compatibility mode?
Do I have to go to Windows 7 Professional and install the WINDOWS XP and Virtual Machine components or is there another solution?
I would like to apologize to everyone for not responding to comments; I have just returned home after three months in hospital.
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible :)
Rik
Please can we have the "bits". It's soup day tomorrow :D
Welcome back mate. Sadly and sorely missed. Just don't pile in too quickly and undo all the good work.
Remember, MC is watching! :D
Message received and understood :)
Great to be back.
Rik
Thanks for the information.
Rik
The app you use is a matter of personal taste although MyDefrag is, I believe, a better choice. As you point out, using two such tools is NOT a good idea.
Thanks for your valuable input.
Rik
I would agree.
Rik
'Better' in a PC sense is difficult to quantify. Personally, having switched to 64 bit Windows and Linux, I wouldn't move back.
Best regards,
Rik
Sorry for the delay in replying I have been unwell.
I have tried Foxit and found a serious bug which is still with the developers.
Rik
You can do a better job manually although it requires considerable effort and technical knowledge. It is something I only do every 3 months or so.
Rik
Sorry for being away, hospital is great fun :)
Frankly I never use them. I don't really trust such apps and can do a better job myself, sad as that might seem!
Rik
Personally I think a VM is a far better solution although configuration can be 'interesting' :)
Rik
Remember that the review is based on side by side evaluation. Frankly, this is no substitute for personal experience.
Thanks for the valuable feedback.
Rik
Generally removing software using Windows features is the best approach as you point out. Sometimes this doesn't work so knowing your 'way around' the system is a valuable skill.
Rik
Could you enlighten me as to how imaging your system has any impact on the layout or size of your Registry? This is a new one on me and I fail to see how it works.
Rik
Choosing a browser is a very personal thing. I do use Opera for testing purposes. It is a solid, well designed, and well written application.
Many thanks for the feedback.
Rik
Opera is out of its league when compared to Firefox or IE although I appreciate that choosing a browser is a very personal thing.
Comodo works fine on all the PCs I have installed it on so you might want to look at other possible causes for the problems you have.
Rik
Is there a toolbar available for 64 bit internet explorer/Windows 7?, or if not is there a way to run 2 sessions of the toolbar that comes with I.E. 64 bit?
Not knowing any of the background "area", I think I may be able to read in-between the lines - ouch painful. All the best for a swift & soothing recovery ;)
I'm afraid I don't know. This query would be better answered in the site forum.
Rik
What serious bug in FoxIt Reader? I've been using it for years without problems. PDFXChange is not much of an alternative to the bloated Adobe PDF Reader. For example, PDFXChange uses a whopping 96MB of memory (91MB above baseline) just to display a 696KB PDF file compared to FoxIt at only 11MB (3MB above baseline).
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is also as safe as CCleaner but removes far more junk over that of unsafe-to-use commercial registry cleaners. I run CCleaner, Eusing and PowerTools Lite (in that order, from weakest to strongest).
hey rik,
did you ever find out how imaging your system could or would clean and reset your registry... or whatever she was talking about? i don't think the first 63 sectors (0 - 62) of the ole hard drive had the mbr-
mental boot record intact any longer.
thanks for the help
I can't see how it would work following a standard image and then restore. Perhaps I'm missing something?
Rik
Most likely your legacy application contains some 16-bit code.
IMHO no way at all to run that in Vista/7 anymore.
Update to a current version that is written in fully 32-bit.
I never had so many freezes and blue screens as I did with Comodo. System restore would freeze as well. The customer service was not at all helpful so after really doing my best with it, I uninstalled it and all the problems went away.
If Foxit doesn't work for you, try Sumatra - just as fast/faster and very small.