This is probably the wrong group to ask this on. If there's a better group,
please let me know.
Depending on which version of Windows you're having installed, I
suggest one of the Microsoft newsgrups for that OS. There are
usually very competent and knowledgeable people posting and
monitoring those groups.
If you're interested in freeware alternatives, alt.comp.freeware is
very good.
I just ordered a new computer. In addition to AV and anti-spyware software,
I probably will want some kind of system utilities for disk problems,
system restore, etc. I used to use Norton, but I wonder if there's
something better. Opinions?
I used to use Norton's System Utils back in the Win 98 days, and
I always thought the old product(s) were excellent.
Personally, for Win 2K, I use a variety of good freeware
products. CrapCleaner, RegSeeker (but be careful what
you delete), What's Running, ... to name three apps I
find useful. Just Google them up if you wish.
For cloning to a backup physical drive with the NT based
OS (Win 2K or XP) I find the free XXCLONE to be quite
good and reliable. It creates a bootable clone of your
main drive partition. Win XP (and Win ME) has a System
Restore facility which can be useful but it's not as
powerful as a removeable physical hard drive
that can bail you out if your main h.d. fails.
Another free backup/restore program for the registry
I like very much is ERUNT.
Acrually, Win 2K (I dunno about XP) has some valuable
maintenance things in its Recovery Console. I suggest
that you check out what's available and what can be
done using the facilities of the OS itself. Use the OS
Help facility to explore and find what's available.
Hope that helps.
Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg