Windows Diagnostics Utilities

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myrt Webb
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Myrt Webb

Since I have been working on my win2000 MCSE friends and
co-workers often ask me to help them with their Windows
computers.

Most of the time the toughest problems involve screwy
registry errors caused by goofy applications. Sometimes I
can figure out the problem but many times I cannot.

What is the most reliable diagnostic utility to use in
assessing Win2000/XP operating systems??
 
Screwing a registry is the nature of goofy applications, and the best
approach is just uninstall them, if not install at all. What else tool do
you need?

The toughest problem is rather a human factor.
 
I don't know of a single program and besides it is impossible for a program
to decide what is a wanted application or not. There are a few that I like.
RegSeeker seems pretty decent at scanning the registry for a variety of
purposes. Also always check add & remove programs to see what shows there as
often a user will hit OK to initiate an install from the internet.

http://www.webattack.com/get/regseeker.shtml -- RegSeeker.
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/freeware.html -- great download site for
many free and shareware tools.

Often problems are parasite, or worm/trojan/virus related. AdAware SE and
SpyBot Search and Destroy are free and great for there purpose and do
registry scanning as part of there routine. For other malware I like the
free Trend Micro Sysclean which will scan for and remove many malwares. It
is not a full featured program but Trend Micro updates the definition files
often and does not need to be installed as an application - just download
and unzip to a common folder to run from.

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp -- Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp -- pattern files which are
updated often..
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm -- helpful info on parasites.

Msconfig is built in to most operating systems other that W2K, though you
can download a copy that works from the internet. It is useful to view
startup programs/services and do selective startups. SysInternals has many
free stand alone tools available that can also view [in much more detail]
startup programs on a system, view and manage running processes in great
detail, and map port to process usage. --- Steve

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/tcpview.shtml

Also I find the free version of Everest Home very helpful in finding out
information about a computer with many, many categories for software and
hardware. I find it very helpful to identify installed hardware to find
correct drivers as often a computer will have generic cards or motherboard
devices [audio, network adapter] that are next to possible to identify. I
will also display cpu fan speed, cpu temperature, power supply voltages, and
more if the mainboard is capable of such. -- Steve

http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en
 
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