Mary Jane writes:

<<Has anyone used the software named above? It is supposed to virus scan,
prevent crashes, clean registry, do a good job of disk defrag, etc>>

Mary Jane,

General consensus seems to be that most crash-prevention programs cause
more problems than they solve.  I've tried several in the past, including
Fixit (  an older version) and almost invariably, the first thing they do
is to crash my previously-stable system most horribly.  I must be a slow
learner, because I always seem to fall for the latest Wonder-Version of
every Anti-Crash  ever invented, always with the same dismal
results.  Perhaps they need a crashy computer to work best, but somehow I
doubt it.

If you think your system needs that sort of protection, far better to fix
the source of the problem rather than use a utility to "mask" it.  Sooner,
rather than later, it will unmask you and you'll likely end up with a very
dead computer.

As for the defrag utility, sure sounds good in theory, it will put all your
most-used proggies at the front of your hard drive, etc, and this will
speed things up.  But we're only talking about milliseconds here, and I
doubt you'd notice the difference.  Maybe if you have a very old and very
slow hard drive---you know, the ones with a clockwork motor that you have
to wind up every 5 minutes with a big key.....otherwise, don't
bother.  Anyway, I thought Win 98 already did that.

As to registry cleaning, I must say that I run various regcleaners
occasionally, as it "seems like a good idea", but  I can't honestly say
that I've ever noticed a scrap of difference before or after.  Maybe if you
had neglected it for a long time a regcleaner might help.   But hardly
worth the bother otherwise.  You can download plenty of free ones.

Far better to backup and keep  known good copies of your registry and
restore regularly.  Now that DOES make a difference and will help keep your
computer up to scratch.

If anyone wants, write me for details of how to do this.

Just my opinion, others may differ.

Don Penlington








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