This is just brilliant Sethery. Just what I was after, I just didn’t realise it. I’m going to do all of that.
So if you never hear from me again, something went wrong!
Good luck! After being amazed at how poorly Norton System Works and Iolo System Mechanic do what they claim to do (especially with how beefy Norton is), I was doubly amazed at how small these utilities are (less than 2MB total for the three I described) and how well they worked. Iolo would sit in my taskbar and every few hours proclaim (paraphrasing), “ACK! Your available memory is below 25%! You must defrag your RAM!!!” So I’d defrag my RAM and find my computer would slug along for a couple of minutes while it finds where Iolo moved all it’s program memory, then run just as fast, but no faster, than before the defrag. I’m convinced now that RAM defragmentation is a crock. I actually noticed my computer ran about 10% faster after I removed Iolo. Makes me a little sick at how much money I spent over the years on system optimizers. Run those three freebies every few months, or when the machine seems consistently slower, and it should remain pretty happy. I also backup and clean the registry (not necessarily optimize) whenever I uninstall a program. I’ve never had to restore the registry after running CCleaner, but I’m a paranoid chap. My computer is my career.
CM - 18 January 2008 08:40 PM
I use VLC already to play all video files.
I’ve just deleted RealPlayer, so now require an mp3 player/ripper replacement....
What is good about Media Player Classic?
I use Audiograbber for my MP3 ripping. Unfortunately it hasn’t been maintained in almost four years, but it seems bug-free and does everything I need in terms of ripping. If you use it, I recommend adding the LAME codec. I’ve read that it’s the best. I don’t usually play MP3s on my machine, so I just use WMP on the rare occasions that I do.
I installed VLC just a few weeks ago and think it has a lot of cool features, but a few annoying habits. I might just need to find the right options. I’m going to try that codec package and hopefully get rid of Real.
This is just brilliant Sethery. Just what I was after, I just didn’t realise it. I’m going to do all of that.
So if you never hear from me again, something went wrong!
Good luck! After being amazed at how poorly Norton System Works and Iolo System Mechanic do what they claim to do (especially with how beefy Norton is), I was doubly amazed at how small these utilities are (less than 2MB total for the three I described) and how well they worked. Iolo would sit in my taskbar and every few hours proclaim (paraphrasing), “ACK! Your available memory is below 25%! You must defrag your RAM!!!” So I’d defrag my RAM and find my computer would slug along for a couple of minutes while it finds where Iolo moved all it’s program memory, then run just as fast, but no faster, than before the defrag. I’m convinced now that RAM defragmentation is a crock. I actually noticed my computer ran about 10% faster after I removed Iolo. Makes me a little sick at how much money I spent over the years on system optimizers. Run those three freebies every few months, or when the machine seems consistently slower, and it should remain pretty happy. I also backup and clean the registry (not necessarily optimize) whenever I uninstall a program. I’ve never had to restore the registry after running CCleaner, but I’m a paranoid chap. My computer is my career.
CM - 18 January 2008 08:40 PM
I use VLC already to play all video files.
I’ve just deleted RealPlayer, so now require an mp3 player/ripper replacement....
What is good about Media Player Classic?
I use Audiograbber for my MP3 ripping. Unfortunately it hasn’t been maintained in almost four years, but it seems bug-free and does everything I need in terms of ripping. If you use it, I recommend adding the LAME codec. I’ve read that it’s the best. I don’t usually play MP3s on my machine, so I just use WMP on the rare occasions that I do.
I installed VLC just a few weeks ago and think it has a lot of cool features, but a few annoying habits. I might just need to find the right options. I’m going to try that codec package and hopefully get rid of Real.
Interesting stuff. You were so right about Outlook starting/running a lot faster after ‘defraggling’ those files!
Sethery, what’s funny about those utilities is that you need them to keep Windows running. I find that hilarious. OS X is a champ. No extra crap needed.
Sethery, what’s funny about those utilities is that you need them to keep Windows running. I find that hilarious. OS X is a champ. No extra crap needed.
They don’t “keep Windows running”, they just keep it closer to optimal. Besides, spending the five minutes every six months or so to run them doesn’t piss me off that much.
I diagnosed a problem on a wireless VOIP network, but the problem was beyond my scope of training. We had to escalate to Nortel, and there was more than one problem (as usual).
I diagnosed a problem on a wireless VOIP network, but the problem was beyond my scope of training. We had to escalate to Nortel, and there was more than one problem (as usual).
