Don't pay for software you don't need — Part 3

[rmsiegel]

Woody,

I 1000% disagree with your idea that you don't need a separate search application but agree there is no need to pay for it. I use the free FileLocator Lite from http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?...&page=download.

I'm an Oracle data architect and DBA normally working on server versions of Windows OSes. On my Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit boxes I cannot get Windows to search inside my SQL scripts. These are text files with a .SQL extension. In Windows XP there was a simple Registry change (http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1250/) that made Windows Search search all files irregardless of extension. This registry change doesn't work on this OS. I've done much research and could not find any solution that worked and finally gave up and installed FileLocator Lite. It's a great well designed very flexible utility that even support regular expressions. Windows Search is broken waste of time in my opinion.

[Doc Brown]

It seems to me that for simple redundancy of files (raw video files for example) that software RAID should be fine. Or am I off base on this? Perhaps you have some opinions on using non hardware based RAID?

I would strongly caution against using software RAID 1 for simple redundancy. It is not reliable. You are actually safer using a single disk with a USB or eSATA drive for backups. Hardware RAID is far more reliable, and even then I can't stress enough the importance of mutiple backups. The purpose of RAID arrays is to keep systems up and running in critical environments that cannot have downtime. It is not, nor was ever intended to be a backup system to protect the data. That's the job of backup software and offline disks or tape.

[BigDocD]

Regarding the indexing/search applications and your statement "Look for a primer on Windows 7 search here in Windows Secrets Newsletter later this year. It's an important topic, for which a few tips can make a world of difference."
In general I find the search features in Win7 and Office 2010 great compared to some of the older versions, BUT, I find the search feature in Outlook 2010, that used to work very well before, always seems to need sorting prior to using instead of being pre-sorted as part of the automatic sorting features. AND, even though I have both Win7 and Office 2010 64-bit, the Outlook sort of messages seems dreadfully slow when necessary.
I hope your future primer intends to cover this area.

[Erik47]

There's sometimes more to it, depending on what you need/want. I use X1 Search because it allows me to quickly find and open any e-mail or document on my hard drive -- either on the machine or from my iPhone. Windows Search won't help me when I'm away and have only my phone.

[bibh55]

Woody's articles were a great read, a wake up call to stay critical, but all the time I found myself muttering "yes but...". The messages in this thread confirmed many of my "yes but"s.
Good informative articles *and* good, informative reactions.

[Dave Leippe]

The last time I looked my Windows 7 firewall was a two way firewall. I do however, continue to use the two way firewall, Sygate, which is still available in SystemSuite.

I encourage all my students and computer club members to partition their drives. Most are making their own image of their C:\ drive for a full system backup. Also,by moving the User in Vista and Windows 7 to D:\ they are very capable of keeping their personal data backed up and away from C:\ by just copying to an external device. They pay attention to my characterizing the C:\drive as the "war zone".

[MitelInMyBlood]

I recently upgraded to a new solid state disk (Crucial M4 256 Gig SSD) to replace my old 7200 rpm "spinning iron". The replacement had dramatic results, improving my W7 boot time (per Soluto) from an average of almost 4 minutes down to a pretty consistant 56 seconds. Needless to say, I was thrilled. However, a few days later my Avast AV software subscription expired and I was about to renew it when I came across your recommendation from a month or two ago to stop paying for software I don't need and decided to try Microsoft Security Essentials. What a bust that was! Suddenly my boot time on the new SSD had increased by a whopping 31 seconds and (per process explorer) now there was a huge new program taking up almost 30 megs of ram. After spending almost $450 and gaining a 400% improvement in boot-up speed, the huge performance hit associated with MSE just isn't worth it. I'm back with Avast and once again enjoying the markedly improved boot speed that the SSDs are known for.

[Deadeye81]

I recently upgraded to a new solid state disk (Crucial M4 256 Gig SSD) to replace my old 7200 rpm "spinning iron". The replacement had dramatic results, improving my W7 boot time (per Soluto) from an average of almost 4 minutes down to a pretty consistant 56 seconds. Needless to say, I was thrilled. However, a few days later my Avast AV software subscription expired and I was about to renew it when I came across your recommendation from a month or two ago to stop paying for software I don't need and decided to try Microsoft Security Essentials. What a bust that was! Suddenly my boot time on the new SSD had increased by a whopping 31 seconds and (per process explorer) now there was a huge new program taking up almost 30 megs of ram. After spending almost $450 and gaining a 400% improvement in boot-up speed, the huge performance hit associated with MSE just isn't worth it. I'm back with Avast and once again enjoying the markedly improved boot speed that the SSDs are known for.

Hi MitelInMyBlood,

How much RAM do you actually have installed on your Windows 7 PC? I have 4GB of installed and usable RAM on my Windows 7 64 bit systems, and consistently obtain less than one minute boot time using the standard 7200 RPM disk drive, and my laptops boot my 5400 RPM platter drives at not much more than one minute. Another thing to check is if you have Windows configured to manage your page file so it can dynamically change the size to fit the need of the moment. Something is bottlenecking resources on your system in a big way.

You mentioned you used Process Explorer. Try supplementing Autoruns, and WhatsInStartup to further evaluate what is going on. On Autoruns, focus on the Logon tab as Autoruns reports much more information than can be easily digested.

Many applications insist on starting helper applications to speed up loading, but are not necessary with today's powerful systems - they just bog your computer down. You can sort through the ones that are third party (not Microsoft) to determine which are vital and which are a waste of resources. Right clicking the processes will provide you with a context menu offering you, among other choices, searching the Internet for information available on the selected process.

Check out this Microsoft Answers piece for many suggestions and links to improve startup and general performance in Windows 7.

[Medico]

I also believe you have other problems than MSE. For example, I have a 7200 rpm HDD (not an SSD) My boot times are, To the sign on screen: approx. 33 sec, after entering password, to total boot ready to use, connected to wireless network: approx. 9 additional seconds for a total boot time of approx. 42 seconds. I would definitely use What's In Startup to find how many useless apps are loading at start up. Most of the apps that set themselves up in the start up cache do not have to be running in real time with today's modern PCs. Here's what my start up looks like:

What'sInStartup.jpg

Just 4 apps starting on my laptop. Plenty.

[pcunite]

This article needs one erroneous point corrected. Windows 7 Home should be replaced with Windows 7 Pro. The Pro SKU is the minimum version that allows for setting up a Limited User Account and Software Restriction Policies together, which if having spent the 120 seconds it takes to do this, will negate any need for antivirus software and other junkware. Also, FileSearchEX has saved people allot of frustration with using the built in Windows 7 search ... but that's just a nice-to-have.

[Orangecedar]

"Disk partitioners — Yes, you need to partition your hard drives in some very specific circumstances — when you're going to dual-boot, for example — but for most PC users, disk partitions are a waste of time and effort. I'm fond of saying that there's nothing you can do with a partition that you can't do better with a folder. When you do need to create a partition (or, more frequently, juggle partitions because you didn't set them up right in the first place), Windows 7 has all the tools you need for simple partitioning chores."

Well, I intend to partition the hard drive because I have perfectly functional hardware and software that works in Windows XP but not Windows 7. Does Windows 7 have suitable software? (Years ago I used Partition Magic for this purpose on a work computer, but don't know if it's still the best way to go.)

[dfd9880]

I must really be missing something because I cant find the search features I have in X1 in Win 7 search. Maybe the primer that was mentioned will clear things up