Optimize your Windows Installation
Use Windows long enough and you'll recognize that bloated, sinking feeling creeping in. Spyware and viruses pile up, registries get corrupted, drivers stop working or cause conflicts -- eventually reaching that point where you want to just erase everything and re-install the entire system. After swearing to pay more attention to the links you follow and the software you install, you find yourself staring at a brand-new-all-over-again Windows desktop.
Your system is fresh and untarnished. Now what? Time to tweak it to your satisfaction!
Start by running Windows Update to make sure you're up to date with all the patches and security updates and then follow our handy guide to get the most out of Windows.
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Clear Out the Junk
If you're installing Windows from the CD that came with your machine, you'll likely end up with a bunch of trial copies of software you don't need or want. That's because some hardware manufacturers have distribution deals with software providers to sell Windows computers with trial versions of their apps installed by default. If you're installing a retail copy of Windows you will most likely not have this problem.
You can use the built-in Add/Remove functionality bundled with Windows to clean up the cruft, but the freeware app Revo Uninstaller makes the process faster and easier. Revo actually manages to make the process somewhat fun with its "Hunter Mode," which lets you drag a cross-hair onto any application to uninstall. Just aim it at your system tray, applications folder or where ever you see an app you don't want.
Revo Uninstaller also sports a very nice startup manager, which lets you control which apps fire up when Windows boots.
Another ultra-quick Add/Remove Programs utility to consider is the open-source Safarp. While it hasn't been updated in a few years, it remains an excellent replacement for the default XP/Vista tool.
Improve Your Security
There are a few steps you can take to make a Windows machine more secure right out of the box:
- If you don't have another firewall like Zone-Alarm or Comodo running, make sure that Windows Firewall is enabled. Open up the Control Panel and click "Security Center and find Windows Firewall. Make sure it's set to "on" and then click okay.
- Install Mozilla Firefox as a more secure alternative to Internet Explorer. If you're not a fan of Firefox, at least make sure you have some decent anti-virus and anti-spyware software, because exploits tend to be aimed more squarely at the more popular IE than at the lesser-used Firefox.
- Get some anti-spyware and anti-virus software. There are hundreds of possibilities, but we're partial to AVG for virus protection.
- Windows Defender is a free anti-spyware app from Microsoft and, while it isn't perfect, it's free and it's much better than nothing. Also worth investigating are SpywareBlaster and Ad-Aware. Even the $30 product PC Tools Spyware Doctor can be found (as an intermediary "Starter Edition") as part of the Google Pack. The much-heralded Spybot Search & Destroy has recently been shown in CNet tests to lag severely behind the competition at detecting and removing newer threats.
Keep in mind that you should only run one anti-virus program, but it's a good idea to have several spyware detecting and removing applications. No particular piece of software can be trusted 100% to catch every piece of malware, so the best solution is a combination of the best anti-spyware apps that work for you. Be sure to set whichever you choose to automatically update themselves and then scan your computer frequently.
Drivers
If you've never paid much attention to drivers, consider yourself lucky. Drivers are small chunks of software that control and communicate with a device or part of your computer -- for instance, there are video card drivers, drivers for mice and cameras and joysticks, et cetera.
Both XP and Vista ship with common drivers installed for most of the things you'll need, but the driver included with your base installation may be out of date. If you don't bother to get the latest version, you may find yourself encountering sub-par performance or dealing with bugs that have already been fixed.
Even you don't have a lot of peripherals, you should still upgrade your video driver -- especially if you're installing an older, manufacturer-specific version of Windows XP. There's a really good chance you won't have the latest video drivers since a lot has changed since XP was released.
The two most common video drivers are those from ATI and NVIDIA. Find out what video card your computer uses and then search the manufacturer's site to download the right driver for your video card.
Peripherals should be next on your list. If, like most people, you've got a printer, scanner and digital camera, you'll want to head to the device maker's website and find out what the latest driver for your model is. Compare it to your current version and upgrade if necessary.
Tip: You may want to consider a driver manager like DriverMax, which will monitor your drivers and prompt you to download updates as they become available. A handy way to stay on top.
Free Productivity Software
There are thousands of software packages out there covering just about anything you'd ever want to do with your computer. Here are a few we like:
- Photos - Google's Picasa is the best breed when it comes to managing your photos.
- BitTorrent - µTorrent is a popular lightweight choice. Azureus offers more options, but will also eat up more processor and memory resources.
- Chat - Multi-protocol clients are common these days, but some of the simplest, best, and newest are Pidgin, Trillian and Digsby.
- PDFs - doPDF or PrimoPDF is a great little utility that installs a virtual printer and lets you print any document as a PDF. Foxit Reader is an excellent freeware alternative to the slow, bloated Adobe Reader.
- CCleaner is one way to remove old and unnecessary files.
- Clipomatic is a nice way to make your clipboard more powerful.
Configure Windows Update
By default, the Windows Update tool for downloading patches and fixes from Microsoft is set to run automatically. There are a few reasons you might want to switch it to run manually -- most users prefer the control, and there's nothing worse than finding out an update is broken after it's already installed.
Keep in mind that if you do turn off the auto-update feature, you will need to be diligent about running it by hand.
