scorecard Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Installed Avira free a week ago - now getting pop ups for an add-on 'Speed up your computer" US$22-. - Do these 'speed up' add-ons really achieve much? - Is there downside? Any aligned comments appreciated, Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 In general they are snake oil products and often much worse. Did you agree to advertising with that 'free' Avira install? If not I would be contacting them first as to how/why you are getting these pop ups. Personally I would not use a product that advertised such nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stereolab Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 11 minutes ago, lopburi3 said: In general they are snake oil products and often much worse. Did you agree to advertising with that 'free' Avira install? If not I would be contacting them first as to how/why you are getting these pop ups. Personally I would not use a product that advertised such nonsense. As stated. do not do this under any circumstances, you will be opening a Pandoras' box, to other problems. Is your computer actually slow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Real Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Do not buy and install that product. It´s only downsides with it. As a matter a fact so many that it´s not even worth dragging up. As another thing, there is absolutely no benefits at all with it either, which makes you draw a right down to the core negative total. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 The best thing I have used for over a year now is 10Bit Advanced System Care Ultimate Pro.. Has a really good toolbox too...I use that with a few other of their freeware programs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjoo888 Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Optimizing and "speed-up" programs will clean and remove junk from your computer, some will safely clean the registry as well. But, there's programs like Ccleaner (free version) that do a pretty good job for free. I have a 9-year old Thinkpad that works as good as new, and I've used Ccleaner since I bought it. I also defrag and free up disk space often in the Control Panel of Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 1 hour ago, gjoo888 said: Optimizing and "speed-up" programs will clean and remove junk from your computer They are more likely to take control and require payment than fix anything. They are not needed using today's operating systems and a serious danger to most people even when not malware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aforek Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 For registry, I don't believe any program, like Microsoft says, never clean your registry and my computer works fine; in the past, CCleaner "cleaned " my registry much too much and I had to make a clean install: registry, not any more ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ostyan Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Defragging is useless practically. Somehow most of the registry cleaners are the same. I had CCleaner, but they had some kinda scandal and since than I have tried dozens of clones and optimizers. I could find one working program out of dozens of snake oil. Since I do not want to advertise it the first letter is "W" and it has a number in its name 365. About Microsoft, I am rather sceptical. Whatever problem I had to solve, I consulted with Microsoft pages and found no real solution to my problem. There are a number of good tuning sites, youtube where you can understand the problem and they show you the possibilities of fixing it. Otherwise, I think Linux is better and no need to use any "optimizers". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upu2 Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Dont do it. It is a waste of money and in many cases causes more problems that it cures. If you want your computer to go faster disable the applications from running at start up, remove all the temp files and defrag / optimize your drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerryd Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 "Free" programs/apps often include pop-up ads, it's how they get paid. Many offer to remove those ads, if you pay for a subscription. That's life on the internet these days. I will use something like Trend Microsystem's free "HouseCall" to do a sweep of my computers every now and then if I suspect there is a problem. (I'm also running a paid Norton Internet Security subscription on them as well so I'm pretty well covered - hopefully). Other "free programs" though I tend to use once, get the end result I was looking for, then uninstall the program. Also, many of those "free" programs will try to add things like 3rd party tool bars if you click the default Install icon (some have the option to do a "Custom Install" where you can deselect the 3rd party apps - but some may not). Some will disable ad blockers as well (especially those that rely mainly on ads to generate revenue). As for the "speed up" programs - most of them do what you can do yourself already, like defrag your hard drive. Those speed up apps basically remove obsolete Registry entries, empty temporary internet file caches and trash cans and defrag your hard drive. Some of those things (like Registry entries) you do NOT want to play with unless you are VERY sure you know what you are doing. However, I don't think cleaning up the Registry will improve speed that much by itself. (I tried a few "free" speed up programs in the past and they were not worth the effort as they didn't really do much and you had to contend with the other crap they try to add to your system.) Deleting temporary internet files and defragging the hard drive are the two things that help the most (I have mine set to automatically defrag every week). If you do a lot of downloading, copying, moving and deleting of files, after awhile your hard drive has to work a lot harder to try and find the information you need, as it may end up being written in dozens of different locations on the hard drive. Defragging basically reorganizes all the files/programs so they are back together again. That way when you call up a file/start a program, all the associated files are in the same location. (Basically. It's a bit more complicated than that.) You can set that up through windows in a couple minutes and never (really) have to worry about it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoshowJones Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 On 6/17/2018 at 9:43 AM, transam said: The best thing I have used for over a year now is 10Bit Advanced System Care Ultimate Pro.. Has a really good toolbox too...I use that with a few other of their freeware programs... You advised me to use the 10Bit Advanced System care a long time ago along with a few others and my computers have run great ever since. Ultimate Pro? I assume you pay for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 3 minutes ago, possum1931 said: You advised me to use the 10Bit Advanced System care a long time ago along with a few others and my computers have run great ever since. Ultimate Pro? I assume you pay for that one. Yep, it has a lot more "tools"...I use it every morning, it does about 20 jobs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorecard Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 11 minutes ago, transam said: Yep, it has a lot more "tools"...I use it every morning, it does about 20 jobs... For those you are not all that tech savvy (me), is it also a virus remover, malware remover, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Just now, scorecard said: For those you are not all that tech savvy (me), is it also a virus remover, malware remover, etc? It scans for virus at all times entering the PC, but I use their free malware scan as l am not sure if ASC does that..It never finds anything... At times I use online scans just to check, never finds anything..So all good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petermik Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 10 hours ago, Aforek said: For registry, I don't believe any program, like Microsoft says, never clean your registry and my computer works fine; in the past, CCleaner "cleaned " my registry much too much and I had to make a clean install: registry, not any more ! I,ve used CCleaner on all my pc,s for the past ten years or so and never encountered any problems......"cleaned my registry too much" ..........not possible sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Just now, petermik said: I,ve used CCleaner on all my pc,s for the past ten years or so and never encountered any problems......"cleaned my registry too much" ..........not possible sorry I also use Ccleaner every night before I turn off the PC... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorecard Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 13 minutes ago, transam said: It scans for virus at all times entering the PC, but I use their free malware scan as l am not sure if ASC does that..It never finds anything... At times I use online scans just to check, never finds anything..So all good... ASC ? online scans - do you mean like Adaware etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 2 minutes ago, scorecard said: ASC ? online scans - do you mean like Adaware etc? I have 10Bit Advanced System Care Ultimate Pro (ASC) which you pay for. I install Malewarebytes Pro free trial to double check stuff then delete it, using 10Bit uninstaller..MB is good and finds PUP's, if nothing else on my PC..ASC uses PUP's so I have to uncheck those before l let it clean.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petermik Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 7 hours ago, transam said: I have 10Bit Advanced System Care Ultimate Pro (ASC) which you pay for. I install Malewarebytes Pro free trial to double check stuff then delete it, using 10Bit uninstaller..MB is good and finds PUP's, if nothing else on my PC..ASC uses PUP's so I have to uncheck those before l let it clean.. Forget the malwarebytes and use ADWCleaner....part of the same organisation....its also free and much better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 1 minute ago, petermik said: Forget the malwarebytes and use ADWCleaner....part of the same organisation....its also free and much better MB uses ADW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aforek Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 44 minutes ago, petermik said: I,ve used CCleaner on all my pc,s for the past ten years or so and never encountered any problems......"cleaned my registry too much" ..........not possible sorry it's your opinion, not mine https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-registry-error-clean/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 56 minutes ago, Aforek said: it's your opinion, not mine https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-registry-error-clean/ I read a lot too, but I still use Ccleaner with noooooooo ploblems every day.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slain Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Tried the free version of Avast. Cancelled within a month because pesky ads and other offers . They still took the monthly fee and told me I was signed up for a year. Luckily I had signed up using Paypal and they sorted it out for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBF Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Used CCleaner since the Windows 98 days, through XP, W7 and now W10. They dropped the ball once in September 2017 with version 5.33.6162 which contained malware https://www.ccleaner.com/news/blog/2017/9/18/security-notification-for-ccleaner-v5336162-and-ccleaner-cloud-v1073191-for-32-bit-windows-users but they sorted it out PDQ and importantly did not try to hide their embarrassing mistake! Be aware - CCleaner is not an antivirus tool in any way! My preferred setup on Windows is as follows: Paid-for Norton Security which includes AV, F/Wall, / A/Spam, Exploit prevention. This runs in the background, and as it's paid-for - no adverts. Then Free Malwarebytes - run on demand Then Free CCleaner - set the way i want it as regards cookies, privacy, monitoring, scheduling - run on demand, usually daily before shutdown and manual backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter525 Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Avast antivirus free CCleaner free. Malware bites, free. (All free via filehippo.com ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxcorrigan Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 22 hours ago, peter525 said: Avast antivirus free CCleaner free. Malware bites, free. (All free via filehippo.com ). Avast may be OK but a pain if you want to uninstall it, have to download a special tool from avast otherwise it shows up everywhere, you can't just normally uninstall it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 minute ago, maxcorrigan said: Avast may be OK but a pain if you want to uninstall it, have to download a special tool from avast otherwise it shows up everywhere, you can't just normally uninstall it! 10Bit uninstaller is very good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxcorrigan Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 minute ago, transam said: 10Bit uninstaller is very good... That's true, but with Avast the problem is maybe it's a good anti-virus, as i read once, an anti-virus works like a virus itself delving into all nooks and crannies like a virus, which possibly make it difficult to get rid of, i'm no expert so can't vouch for this explanation, but it seemed to make some kind of sense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transam Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 minute ago, maxcorrigan said: That's true, but with Avast the problem is maybe it's a good anti-virus, as i read once, an anti-virus works like a virus itself delving into all nooks and crannies like a virus, which possibly make it difficult to get rid of, i'm no expert so can't vouch for this explanation, but it seemed to make some kind of sense! Over the years I have tried them all, well the big names...There was to much crap with many of them...I have found my happy medium where the stuff on my PC does not interact with others...No ploblems..Only one program is paid for...And no ads too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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