What are your favorite Cleaning/Maintenance program(s)

Steinberg Lounge
1

I use a number of programs:

OS

CCleaner - General cleaning
Revo Uninstaller - Remove applications completely
IOBit Uninstaller - Remove browser toolbars and plugins
BleachBit - Remove unused files
Wise Disk Cleaner - remove windows update/baseline cache
Wise Registry Cleaner - Registry clean and defragmentation
Advanced System Care - Reset Hard Drive Bitmap
Comodo Autoruns - Remove non-existant drivers from registry

Hardware

CrystalDisk - Uncorrectable Sector Count
SpeedFan - Manage fan speeds and system temperatures
Driver Booster - Keep drivers up to date

If you know of any other tools that do the same, similar or different job, please add to this list

:sunglasses:

2

Only use CCleaner, have done this for years now.

Other systems seem to do much more, but cleaning the registry and temp-folders is more then enough for me.

3

I use REFORMAT HARD DRIVE, followed by an image I’ve created with Acronis…takes less time than looking at a few post on the Cubase forum. The cleanest I’ve ever known.

4

What about system updates though and user files?

Notwithstanding, simply because you create an image after installing an OS, doesn’t make it “clean” nor reliable, particularly if the drivers are also out of date.

5

Well Syco, here’s my solution is… I don’t update, and my image is made when everything is a perfect working system, complete with programs, drivers and whatever else I need…at that time of course. This is for my dedicated music machines I’m talkin’ here mind you…which are never connected to the internet during it’s life time, never have firewalls or anti-virus, or anything else crapping them up.

You see, I’m on Win XP, everything I use on my systems have already had all the updates that there are going to be for it. Any hardware or software that I use is ‘age appropriate’ for the systems. I already have spare machines, spare parts should anything ever go south on me, so there’s no scramble to replace anything. Anything I need I can get used for cheap on ebay as well.

OR…I could go ‘PRO’ :spit: and buy Cubase 8, then worry about all this stuff, and be forced to update until the cows come home.

My internet machines with Win Vista, Win 7 & 8 are a slightly different story. Still, I don’t put crap on them if I am not absolutely forced to. With those, there’s not much on them that I need to make images for, so I don’t. If something go’s wrong I can reformat & reinstall Windows ‘whatever’ from their disks. I stopped fooling around trying to ‘fix’ or ‘clean’ an OS years ago.

My computers are all have their own purposes…though I don’t have a dedicated pRon machine…not at this time :wink:

6

I use CCleaner and Defraggler (both from Piriform)
Revo uninstaller Pro
WinAso

I have all of them and Advanced System care (but without real time functions) installed on another computer (gaming computer)

7

Explorer & Regedit.

8

Point taken here.

My internet machines with Win Vista, Win 7 & 8 are a slightly different story. Still, I don’t put crap on them if I am not absolutely forced to. With those, there’s not much on them that I need to make images for, so I don’t. If something go’s wrong I can reformat & reinstall Windows ‘whatever’ from their disks.

Would you say the need to Image a machine has lessened with the introduction of Windows 7 and in particular Windows 8 because they are more reliable than Windows XP?

I tried their tweaking app but it crashed on my 64 bit system.

If you know all the hacks, then this works best.

For example there is a program from the Windows Club called Ultimate Windows Tweaker that allows you to remove Metro apps from executing via “Open With”.

I am sure there is a registry setting that could be changed but sometimes it is easier just to use a program where available or save the registry key to a .reg file.

I’ve had Windows 8.1 x64 running for about a year now, which is the longest I’ve ever had a system running (I am fully online) so I may just get to the point of creating reg hacks at some point.

9

Lol. yes!, that’s what I’m talking about.

10

Works fine here. Win 7 ultimate SP1 64 bits

11

Short answer …NO.

I don’t use my Win Vista, Win 7/8 machines for DAW recording, only for internet, so I have no reason to make an image for those. I only make images for my music machines, reason is because it would be a GREAT time consuming cluster-puck hassle otherwise, with all my software…OS, DAW programs, drivers, updates VSTi’s, samples, etc, etc, etc. For my internet machines, it’s easy enough to use the Win install & drivers disks that came with machines.

And for the record, I don’t find my internet machines with Win Vista, Win 7/8 more reliable, but just the opposite. Besides the usual hardware problems with any computer, my Win XP music machines don’t generally give me grief…primarily because they’re not on the internet, and don’t need any so called ‘protection’ from evil forces known as anti-virus and other crapola.

My internet machines give me stomach ulcers & bad gas…all thanks to being on the internet…of course, I can’t rule out my diet & love beans for the bad gas part :wink:

12

And that’s all you need.
Have tried every cleaner under the sun, they do more harm, and are in general a waste of time.

13

For laptops, the OEM disks are the easiest way from woe to go but for desktops, imaging is only useful up to a point but I don’t really agree that XP is on par with Windows 7 and above in terms of reliability, since why would Microsoft have gone and designed a whole new audio layer with Vista, notwithstanding kernel and user modes.

There may be a case to be made that XP works fine when not on the internet, with only basic tweaks but from my experience there is always some kind of maintenance that needs to be done since there is no self-healing mechanism as with Vista and above so unless you know the folders and registry entries concerned, or can be bothered; tools are great.

My internet machines give me stomach ulcers & bad gas…all thanks to being on the internet…of course, I can’t rule out my diet & love beans for the bad gas part > :wink:

Use Anti-virus and a firewall, software now days is so tightly integrated with the Kernel that so long as you have adequate hardware resources there is no real problem bar the odd Xmas buy message but perhaps I will save this for another post.

14

I never said Win XP is “on par” with Win Vista, 7/8… but they do ‘act up’ more than my XP machines. This has to be because they are connected to the internet, keep wanting to update themselves on nearly a daily basis, and are generally ‘exposed’ where as my XP machine never update, nor is there any exposure. Everything in it has been proven.

When you have the element of exposure, you obviously then have to measures to fight off every virtual Thomas, Richard & Harry. That’s what my more modern/up to date machines have to deal with. And by the way, they are all laptops on Vista, 7 & 8. For my XP machines, take away the prime offending element, INTERNET, and all is well.
Actually, I LIED above…I did indeed connect my last XP DAW build I did a few months ago to the internet…I connected it for several minutes trying to find ONE driver for the video card, directly off the manufacturers site…guess what, things went screwy immediately afterwards…much of it getting SPAMMED from Microsoft themselves, trying to convince me I need Win 8 and I should get a new computer! I ‘was’ just about going to Reformat/reinstall Windows again, being it was just a Win XP install so far, but when I brought it back to the music room, everything seemed on again…so I went ahead and installed a minimal music software selection.

Traditionally, I’ve found that with some music software (rare), but especially the written XP pro audio ASIO drivers for my audio interfaces tend to act up, and have never been 100% totally stable. But still, my XP music machines are more stable than my Vista, 7 & 8 internet machines…even though they’re protected.

And, I total agree with the statement that the various Cleaner software out there, and in my own experience some of the well known anti-virus software causes more problems than it claims to help.

Aside from the threat of having my internet machines somehow hacked, my sensitive information compromised, I’m sure that if say a Windows 8 DAW machine was kept off the internet from DAY ONE (if that’s even possible!) it would run fantastically for a long time without issues…that is, once everything is hunky-dory with software installs, updates & proper drivers…it THAT’s even the case yet :unamused:

15

And yet application plugins such as VST Connect imply that internet connectivity is the wave of the future, even for the DAW.
My DAW PC is connected and I’ve never had an issue for years. I don’t even have any heavy virus software, just MS security essentials - it runs as well as when it was first set up. Then again I don’t go internet surfing on it. I think that is the real danger, that’s where you risk infection.

16

I download each and every update no matter how large or small for this purpose and run a script to apply alll updates at once, a lot of typing for sure but worth it if you need to re-install at some stage but with the Factory re-install feature of Win 8.1, there is even less of a reason to be concerned about internet nasties.

Personal information is one thing, spamming is another.

I am grown enough that I can handle the “spamming” thus I benefit from the tools that developers make.

As to the XP experience, it is true that drivers are not as solid as for Windows 7 and up but saying that, one day I am going to have to build an old box to support my PowerCore and thankfully SB allows me to use older program versions.

Once I needed a disk and SB sent it to me direct from Germany, so I hope that when the time comes, they will be as kind and generous as they have in the past and will burn me whatever program version I need from an original disk.

Exactly the point, but using a browser such as Mozilla SeaMonkey and various networking tools, means that the risks are mitigated.

17

I use a sitecom router which has cloud security. This means that before information reaches any of my computers the networktraffic is scanned by 3 different antivirus cloud engines. I tend to have internet connections available to my DAW but restrict the pages I look for from my daw, I only do windows updates, license authorization en download drivers/updates. Never had any problem with my daw regarding adware or virusses, my internet PC on the other hand has been rebuild a dozen times :frowning:

18

I have a question for the learned folk on this thread, my computer never goes on the interweb so it should never need
‘‘cleaning’’…should it?

Kevin

19

No, while internet computers have more temp files, but stand a lone system do also generate temp files which need cleanup. The positive side of this is that the cleaning is not nessecary but can lead to faster disk IO. tools like cccleaner also cleans up your registry database to keep them as clean and mean as possible resulting in faster response times.

20

Agreed… I also use the free Microsoft antivirus program. Can’t remember what it is named.

I also heard the free K9 internet filter and malware software is good. Probably going to try that soon.

If it’s free it’s for me. :wink:

Regards. :sunglasses: