boink

Hey all...thanks to those that replied to me questions about a new comp.

I did get the Dell XPS 630 here and it's set up ok so far w/ a 21 CRT as my primary monitor, a 42" Sharp Aquos as my secondary monitor. it seems to be working right...still need to tweak the color so the monitors match. they are sitting about a foot apart.

anyway...I was wondering about XP and it's auto updating...it seems to do it a lot. but then I was on that old NT rig which never updated anything automatically.

the thing is, out of the box IE looked similar to as it had on my old comp, then after an auto update it changed ?!? I can see this could get annoying.

I plan on getting another web browser, but haven't decided what I'll get. going to be re reading the firefox thread in a sec.

I'm also going to read the freeware thread to look for all those little apps for my day to day usage.

I sued to use Winamp and AcdSEE on my old comp...anything better for pics and music these days ?

I also used to use Zone Alarm but this has McAffee on it.

I used to have Nero on my old comp too but this thing has Roxio and Power DVD DX pre installed...haven't had a chance to use any of that yet.

overall just wondering if you guys have any advice for me on moving into my new home.

thanks

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when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Baraka_Guru

Get Spybot Seek & Destroy or its equivalent, or you're going to have a whole bunch of critters moving in with you.

I also use Ccleaner (Crap Cleaner); Windows XP gets clunky fast.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

boink

I had Spybot S&D on my old comp...these critters get past McAfee ? then what good is McAfee ?!?

I remember Spybot was pretty aggressive and ( if I remember right) deleted some file I should have kept. one of these type of tools screwed up my old comp and I lost the use of my printer. 'course it was my fault for not being more careful about using it =P

thanks though... I had CCleaner too and that seemed to work ok. I still had some mystery files that got ridiculously huge like my dbx file was over a gig at one point !

__________________
when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Baraka_Guru

I use Norton Protection Center. It handles trojans, viruses, etc. But spyware slips by sometimes, as they appear harmless, depending on your browsing response. (Some spyware is marketing and they slip through as though the user consented to it.)

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Hain

There's a sticky in T.Technology, The Open Source/Freeware Thread, where I've put a very lengthy list of stuff one can use.


I never trusted any store bought or pre-installed security suite since there are freeware alternatives on the internet- much better as they will not hog all your system resources.

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boink

that's the general feeling I've always gotten from everything I've always read, so I agree.


I mentioned I had seen the sticky list of freeware and thanks for it. will definitely get more of it.

__________________
when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Hain

Ah you hid that statement between two programs. You have found my blind spot, sir.

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MontanaXVI

You probably have done quite a few things to the system already, but one of the very first things I do is go download the PC Decrapifier (funny name, good program) Run it and uninstall all that McAfee bullshit, get rid of all those half ass trial version programs you'll never use etc.

Comodo firewall while it says Pro version is free fully functional and pretty powerful with many different configuration options.

As for the Spybot deleting a file your printer needed, I just don't see that happening since it runs a set of pre designed scanners it doesn't find what it thinks is a rogue program, it will only find and remove what it has in the database as far as crapware.

AV program is a must of course, and both AVG and Avast come highly recommended as well as being free also.

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xepherys

Norton/McAfee = not so good. For AV I use Avira (the free version). Not sure what I'd use on XP for spyware and such. On Vista, the OS actually does a pretty good job keeping itself clean.

I still prefer Nero to Roxio, but they both "work" just fine.

I use iTunes rather than WinAmp ONLY because I already need it installed to push music to my iPod. WinAmp is still pretty sweet!

IE was updated to a new (tabbed) version, that's why it is different. It was a major version changeup, so it's pretty obvious. Nothing to worry about on that front. You can always disable automatic updates, but I don't recommend it.

I'll throw in a vote for Firefox over IE. It's the first thing I change whenever I install an OS clean. Firefox v3 was just released. I was using it in beta and am using it now. I LOVE it!

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MontanaXVI

Not to turn this into a whole "what to use" thread, but above mentions of iTunes because you have to make me shudder. I dumped iTunes a long time ago and use Red Chair Softwares Anapod explorer. You can add and remove tunes from your iPod with the program.

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Hain

... or you can completely dump the iPod firmware (if the iPod isn't significantly newer, i.e. with firmware encryption), and Rockbox it so that it behaves like an ordinary external device.

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boink

hey thanks guys...I won't be using iTunes since I won't be using a pod.

any of you use the google taskbar ? I never had a problem just using all my search links from my fave folders...
man, I'm used to a pritty bare bones browser. all this extra stuff seems like overkill, but then I spose we all get used to using it and then it dosn't seem excessive any more.

__________________
when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

MontanaXVI

I don't know any other place to put this, but it seems pretty active so I will put it here.

Avast it seems is having an issue with Yahoo.com after some of the newest updates, it seems to be flagging the site as some malware or trojan. I had a buddy of mine call me in a panic because he could not login to Y! on his laptop and Avast kept saying it was a virus or something. After some simple digging I came upon a number of people in the Avast forums having the same problem, one of the admins admitted it was something they had fixed in an internal build and would be pushing out in their next updates. I however, had no problems logging into Y! on my laptop running Avast so YMMV, just a heads up.

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