A clean windows is a happy windows

[windhound]

For thoes who use windows, here's a few free tools I found useful

Tools to keep windows clean:

spybot - anti spybot
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/1200-2023_4-5157428.html?tag=antispy

adaware - anti adware
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Plus-review/1200-2023_4-5157422.html?tag=antispy

ms windows defender beta 2 - anti spyware and adware
http://www.download.com/Windows-Defender/1200-2023_4-5157448.html?tag=antispy

thoes three combined do a good job of keeping your computer free from spy/adware

ccleaner - scrubs your computer clean of all unnessiary files
http://www.download.com/CCleaner/3000-2144_4-10465908.html?tag=lst-0-1

Hijack This - detects processes that are running and gives you a text file
http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10379544.html?tag=lst-0-1

Hijack This helper - looks at the log file and tells you what's bad and what to fix (hijack this will fix it for you)
http://www.hijackthis.de/

Also needed:
a virus scanner. sysmantic aka norton's is my preferred, but there are others out there

a firewall (also needed for linux and mac)
a router may also contain a firewall (my linksys gets 85% of the junk that comes across the network)
windows firewall is accepible

*shrug*
just a few notes, thought I'd put them here while I was thinkin about it
add to or suggust alternatives

[The Beatles]

That's as may be, but even with a clean windows, it struggles to open zip files and crashed on me this morning doing just that. From what I can tell it was contacting the virus scanner for each unpacked file, leading to a situation in which it crashed. So did notepad btw.

[Freenhult]

What version of Windows do you use? I have had it only crash once, and that was when I told it to run like 60 processes. (normally it runs 39)

[The Beatles]

Windows XP.

(This is because of recent hardware issues on my Linux box. The graphics card is corrupt, so it doesn't display anything. I can still ssh in though, which is how I get anything to work at all.)

[windhound]

the question is more how powerful a computer
a powerhouse will overcome windows' issues with sheer force
...until a process gets out of control and brings it to its knees anyhow

on an interresting note, vista's recommended system specs are 2 gigs ram, 256mb video, a dual core proc, and a sata2 hdd.. and it wont be released till january now..
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/07/vista_hardware_reqs/

the phy lab computers (P4 dells runnin' win xp) refuse to zip anything.. it crashes explorer and made my lab partner panic as the screen flashed black.. but it came back and I saved the stuff on my network space

beatles
are you sure it isnt just a driver issue? tried a livecd?
if desktop then a cheap vid card isnt hard to find.. if laptop.. = (

[Freenhult]

XP...Pffff. Use windows 2k. It is far more solid. One of the best Windows editions. Maybe you should set a process limit. Or limit the amount of physical memory so it stops doing things before your comp dies. Thats what I have to do on my old junker here.

[The Beatles]

It's a laptop, and it does it under Linux and Windows, plus it does it even without the NVIDIA driver, and even in text mode, in fact, even when plugged into another monitor. Crashes Windows, although not Linux. So yes, it's a card issue.

[Corban]

TweakNow RegCleaner is another program which I've found really useful recently. Its a free and easy registery cleaner whichs seems to be effective and safe: http://www.download.com/TweakNow-RegCleaner/3000-2094_4-10512597.html?tag=lst-0-1

[Devari]

Problems with Windows? Just install this and your problems are over!

[windhound]

or try this first to see if you could get used to linux

[Corban]

BTW, here is a list of the best in freeware: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

[Slasher]

Pfffft norton stinks! Use Kaspersky or NOD32