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What software slows Windows down the most?

thepcspy.com — This guy did a cool test and if you have Norton on your PC, you might want to take a look at this. Norton slows down the computer so much it was mind boggling. I always knew Norton was a hog, but this is ridiculous.

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  • Slipdisc, on 10/12/2007, -171/+67mind boggling? Come on. Any idiot how has ever used Norton knows this. Granted a lot of people have no idea. Thats why they are idiots.
    • sicc, on 10/12/2007, -9/+110Oh I knew, but I didn't know it was that bad. When I buy a new PC, that's the very first POS that gets uninstalled.
    • schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -88/+23Why have it installed in the first place? Should an operating system not be secure by design? It is a case of solving problems that should not exist in the first place and solution costs money and computer resources.
    • chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -11/+439you can't uninstall Norton. It's like that liquid guy from T2. It just reforms over time.
    • rexCo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+63What slows down crappy websites the most?
    • julienbh, on 10/12/2007, -16/+32MSN8 should be on top of that list, who agrees?
    • apjoseph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+112Norton Removal Tool - I have used this tool on a number of machines to remove the Norton crap. I think it does a god job, albeit a bit slow on the removal process : http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
    • cisaza, on 10/12/2007, -4/+174Not to start a completely tangential rant, but... has anyone noticed how iTunes is a resource hog? I love my iTunes, but, c'mon, why do you need to use up 60%-80% of my computing power while downloading a tv show?? What is up?
    • harrisbradley, on 10/12/2007, -10/+291Yeah, my PC is mainly effected by mycluelessasswife.exe. I can't shut it down, I can only hope to contain it. I'm dreading the day I see the sneakyasschild.exe pop up in the task manager too. Those are harder to find all the time.
    • zirtbow, on 10/12/2007, -6/+357You guys should at least try to help those that are stuck w/ software such as Norton.

      Software: Norton Antivirus - Junk and a resource hog.
      Alternate: AVG Free - http://free.grisoft.com/doc/28415/lng/us/tpl/v5

      Software: Adobe Acrobat Reader - Slow again
      Alternate: Foxit Reader (free) - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

      Software: Windows Media Player - Actually not TOOO bad
      Alternate: VLC (free) - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

      Software: Internet Explorer - Yeah
      Alternate: Firefox (free) - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ (like I really needed to link this one)

      Software: AIM 6.0, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Chat
      Alternate: Trillian - I can't get a link.. its all blocked here at work

      Digg is a mecca of tech knowlege and smart tech people. I'm sure any of you could provide a better list of 'alternate' software people could use or maybe programs better then the ones I have listed here.
    • lonnieh, on 10/12/2007, -35/+3schestowitz

      ,----[ Quote ]
      | "Why have it installed in the first place? Should an operating system not be secure by design? It is a case of solving problems that
      | should not exist in the first place and solution costs money and computer resources."
      `----

      Hi.... and I stole your pretty ASCII quotes... sorry.
    • ninjasquirrel, on 10/12/2007, -6/+104Antivirus software:
      -NOD32: http://www.eset.com

      Antispyware:
      -Spybot: Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/
      -Using Firefox (seriously, my infection rate dropped to essentially nothing once I switched to Firefox 2 or 3 years back)

      IM software:
      -Gaim: http://gaim.sourceforge.net

      Media:
      -Media Player Classic: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
      -Foobar2000: http://www.foobar2000.org
      -ffdshow: (Open source video codecs for Windows): http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm

      Firewall:
      -Sygate Personal Firewall (Google it, it doesn't actually exist any more, but you can still find it. The absolute best firewall for windows)
    • fiftyeggs, on 10/12/2007, -11/+63svchost
    • andrewgreene, on 10/12/2007, -6/+136I tend to find that Firefox is a serious memory hog as well. I love it, but it's just a hog. Same thing with iTunes.
    • dtjb, on 10/12/2007, -10/+32@zirtbow - just speaking about memory resources, i'm not sure i agree with your recommendation of firefox over ie. don't get me wrong, firefox definitely has it's strengths over ie, but we all know what a memory beast firefox can be...
    • sheepster, on 10/12/2007, -19/+4@zirtbow
      its www.triallian.cc i believe. i like meebo way more though.
    • andrewgreene, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14@sheepster - it's actually http://www.trillian.cc
    • willdiggforfood, on 10/12/2007, -6/+23Try ClamWin, it's clamav with a Windows front-end. F/OSS baby!

      http://www.clamwin.com/
    • halobender, on 10/12/2007, -16/+9Backwards compatibility slows windows down the most.
    • thewump, on 10/12/2007, -30/+1Guys try flock browser.. my summary here: http:wumptech.wordpress.com


    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21Maybe it's because of all my extensions but I find IE7 loads WAY faster than FireFox. FF takes so long to load that I ended up getting the minimizetotray extension. FF loads on startup and stays resident in my system tray, opening instantly when I need it. (I have 2 gigs of RAM so I don't care about the footprint)
      http://minimizetotray.mozdev.org/

      And if Acrobat's ridiculous load time makes you crazy, check out Foxit Reader. It loads in a quarter of a second or so.
      http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
    • lowbot, on 10/12/2007, -23/+10@zirtbow

      Umm, whatm akes this software you list so great? Just because its free?

      First off, trillian is a notorious resource hog. 20 megs of ram footprint with just one conversation open with a basic minimalist install? No thanks.

      AVG is as much a resource hog as any. In fact there really is no good realtime scanners by definition of realtime scanning. If youre going to be scanning all the files your pc uses thats going to be a big IO performance hit not matter what app youre using. I dont even have a realtime scanner running. I just do weekly scans and scan new downloads before I attempt to install them. I also think its disingenious to lambast these 'bloaty' apps. theyre designed to scan for every stupid thing careless users download, do, etc. Toss in spyware scanners and youre pissing away a significant amount of performance. Again, smart computer usage means no need for all these serious performance hits.
    • InsomniaSlim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I wish he had included Google Desktop... I'd like to know how much that slows the machine down when loaded at boot-time.
    • greatblackowl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Does anyone know if symantec antivirus (the corporate edition) is as system hogging as Norton?

      Thanks, and sorry to abuse the reply system.
    • gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -17/+8╓──────═╡Quote: lonnieh╞═─
      ║Hi.... and I stole your pretty ASCII quotes... sorry.
      ╚═══════╕

      Mine looks cooler
    • mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26Real Player - Kind of sucks, plus spyware etc.
      Instead: Real Alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download_soft.php?d=2541&s=65

      Quicktime - Definite system hog with qttask running all the freaking time
      Instead: Quicktime Alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download_soft.php?d=2829&s=66

    • mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Whoops, ran out of time before I could add this.

      Firewall: Comodo Firewall Pro http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
      Free and very useful
    • muka3d, on 10/12/2007, -14/+9VLC is just about as bloated as Windows Media Player, so you lose either way.
      Media Player Classic is the only way to go.

      Same deal with Firefox; Opera is significantly faster and smaller, and not bloated like Firefox has become recently. If you don't want a sluggish experience, Opera is the way to go.
    • Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@cisaza - You're completely right. I love how something as simple as navigating back a page in Firefox causes iTunes playback to skip on a system with 1gb RAM and an Athlon64. Not a problem in my other music players.
    • astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27@chris9902

      ** loads and fires shotgun **
      Norton Remove
      http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

      ** twirls it around and re-loads and fires**
      RegCleaner 4.3.
      http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/LFWV/RegCleaner.html

      Hey System Hog... your Terminated!
      Crap Cleaner
      www.cccleaner.com

      ..Astalavista... Baby
    • diggsIt, on 10/12/2007, -22/+12What's Norton? Sincerely, Ubuntu
    • polymorphist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"Software: Windows Media Player - Actually not TOOO bad
      Alternate: VLC (free) - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"

      VLC is fine but I like Media Player Classic with bundled codec such as Storm Player or CCCP better...at least on Windows
    • Sabin, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6"Quicktime - Definite system hog with qttask running all the freaking time"

      My machine has been up for over 350 hours and so far qttask.exe has used no cpu time (literally o seconds of cpu time) and a whopping 656k of ram. Why not just list system idle process since its obviously doing more to impede the performance of your machine.
    • joesnow, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1strange... lol ninjasquirrel stated EXACTLY what i was about to post regarding the alternative applications.. lol
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1@greatblackowl: Yes the corporate edition is better, but the last time I used that was probably about 5 years ago so I can't say if that's still true today. I avoid Windows if I can now and when I must use it I will use something like ClamWin, AVG, or avast.
    • bob645, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@greatblackowl
      The corp versions and Norton are two completely different products.
      I've used the corp edition over the last 6 years on a few clients, and it is really a good solution for networks with 10 or more computers and easy to manage and deploy from a server.
      Back in the day, somewhere around 1996 or so, it was called Intel LANDesk. It allows for centeralized control, so one admin could manage every aspect of the antivirus from updating, remote scanning, running an entier sweep of the network at a time of an outbreak. I don't know if it was developed by intel or symantec, but I have to beleive it was not developed by the same group that makes the abomination that is Norton Antivirus.
      At one time it was called Norton Corporate Editon. Sometime in 2003 they changed it to Symantec Client Security and dropped the Norton name completly, with some (optional) features borrowed from the consumer edtion to handle pop3/smtp scanning and client firewall.
      Even still, the two should not be considered the same.

      I find it easier to manage that the other enterprise AV products. Performance will vary depending on what type of file operations a user is performing. For users in CAD/CAM that deal with large project files, I usually exclude these types from the scan, especially if they are working inside a zip file.

      I'm recalling this fom memory, so the dates may be off a little.
    • negativenancy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Am I the only one that suffers from serious memory leaks in Firefox? I love it and I have the latest version, but that doesn't stop it from occasionally taking up 100,000-200,000K memory, and it gets really annoying sometimes. I mean, it already takes up quite a bit of memory to begin with.
    • Mirag3, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13http://www.duggmirror.com
    • r3zonance, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"i'm not sure i agree with your recommendation of firefox over ie. don't get me wrong, firefox definitely has it's strengths over ie, but we all know what a memory beast firefox can be..."

      Except IE hides most of its memory usage in about 12 other processes, mainly explorer. It is never going to be possible to get IEs real memory usage. But it definitely uses way more memory than firefox with a single tab.
    • aaronm67, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I disagree. It's iTunes.

      Try running that with a decent sized library where your files are stored on a networked server. You'll see 300+ mb ram, huge cpu spikes ever song change, minute + opening/closing times.
    • Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1@ninjasquirrel -- isn't GAIM running under Java?

      Java should be near the top of this list for PIG applications. Dog slow.

      I avoid Java apps like the plague.
    • zybch, on 10/22/2007, -0/+24The biggest resource hogs, apart from NAV, that I have exposure to is the ***** software that HP makes you install with their printers when all you want is a ***** print/scanner driver!
      For *****'s sake, a 680Mb install so I can just use my printer/scanner's most basic functions are just frigging insane!!
    • damentz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4GAIM uses GTK for its gui. Its definatley not using java for the code though.
    • mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I decided to take everyone's suggestions on lightweight apps and put them all in one place with links. Have fun!

      http://www.digg.com/software/Light_or_Lighter_Weight_Aps_To_Replace_Memory_Hogs_in_Windows_XP
    • erikt311, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1r3zonance: I don't doubt what you are saying about using other processes like explorer, given how integrated it is. Do you have any links/research to back that up? Maybe something comparing explorer with/without IE, etc? IE 7 feels a lot faster than newer FF versions to me, both initially loading and in navigation. For what it's worth Opera uses more RAM according to Task Manager too (and get's real slow to load if you open more than one tab at startup, but that's obvious).
    • skylights, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1http://www.duggmirror.com/software/What_software_slows_Windows_down_the_most/
    • PunkRampant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks guys for listing all these alternatives to crappy apps. I'm gonna start working on removing Norton right now...
    • DarthFredd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Slow software: Realplayer, quicktime, windows media player
      Alternative: Media player classic w/ appropriate codecs. All codecs and needed software are included in the K-lite Mega Codec pack.

      http://www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm
  • bdub92, on 10/12/2007, -48/+26Bypass all of the blog *****, and all of the extra information you dont need, here is the link to the results:
    http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_slows_windows_down/3
  • sfacets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39Yeah I convinced my dad to get rid of Norton, he was impressed with the sudden speed increase...
    • centinall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"Yeah I convinced my dad to get rid of Norton, he was impressed with the sudden speed increase..."

      He would have been even more impressed if you had waited until it was time to renew Norton. When it came time for me, my computer suddenly started to creep to a halt. Strange coincidence.

      Anyone else notice this?
    • Sphonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes, Norton is stupidly slow, and just ***** up your computer. It makes the computer its bitch until you try to uninstall it, which works, but it gives you a your computer a black eye and emotional scars that keep it unstable until you format...
    • Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Norton Is like smallpox
      You can get rid of it
      but theres a chance it can still do harm
  • techfish, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down
    • Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -5/+65What slows down thepcspy.com the most?

      Digg.

      Damn it, is every site posted to digg running on a 286 in some kids basement?
    • andrewgreene, on 10/12/2007, -4/+56Actually, I think it's just two Commodore 64's duct taped together.
    • johnsmith118, on 10/12/2007, -0/+67the server must be running Norton.
    • intense321, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Blasphemy! How dare you insult the C-64. Still my favorite computer of all time.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17"Actually, I think it's just two Commodore 64's duct taped together."

      It's called a Commodore 128 Core Duo 2.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Only people who haven't actually used a C64 for several years still keep insisting that its a computer, let alone a great one!
  • phoephus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+30Interesting that Adobe Acrobat wasn't included. That's what I thought of when I read the headline.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23I'd agree with you about 7.0 and under. Have you tried 8 though? It's absolutely SMOKING. Version 8 is a DAMN good job.
    • MeanYogurt, on 10/12/2007, -6/+22I think FoxIT completely owns 7 and 8. Its my favorite pdf reader.
    • pinesol101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Sorry. same comment as MeanYogurt
    • sroske, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I've had trouble with foxit lately (in XPprof). I've been trying to export from GIMP to pdf by printing to pdf through a postscript workaround. No other program has had problems before, but it seems the pdf randomly drops pixles from my 300dpi image. It is strange error, since sometimes a line of single width pixles is missing and a followup attempt shows it there. However, a line of pixles in another area disappears! I am suspecting there is a configuration inside foxit to correct this, but oh well, I'm happy otherwise. Damn intermitent defects.
    • FartyMcPooPants, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29Adobe Acrobat has caused me to swear far too many times for me to trust it again. I hardly ever write comments this long, but you hit on a seriously sore point with me, but I'll keep in mind this is a public forum and children may be reading, so I'll avoid going on a long swear word filled rant. Anyway that said, let the rant begin.

      Whether it's the 10 minutes it can take to open up a medium sized pdf (Average/small pdfs' only take 2 or 3 minutes), or the constant reminder about inconsequential updates, or if you do bite the bullet and say yes to update, it won't just update to the latest version, oh no, that would be far too easy, it has to download EACH AND EVERY tiny update between you and the latest version, often requiring a reboot after each stupid update. The fact that it loads that stupid acrobat speed booster thing at start up that takes forever to load, and if that's supposed to speed things up, then I would hate to try using it without it.

      Well I say good riddance to bad rubbish, I've used Fox It Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/) for over a year now, and I can say that no single program has impressed me so much so quickly as that little utility. It opens pdfs, just like that, there's no way to describe the joy of double clicking on a pdf, and it being on your screen seemingly instantly, it's like there was the world Adobe lived in, and then there was the real world....

      I will admit I haven't tried version 8, and from SkyShocks comment I guess it's adobes attempt to recapture some lost ground from fox it, but I'll never know, because I have a program that works, and works well, so the chances of me ever installing Adobe Acrobat again in any form are slim to non-existent. If I didn't like playing flash games so much, I'd say let Adobe die, a horrible slow painful death (Oh and I suppose Photoshop is quite good too)
    • lowridah, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4Would you people please stop calling Adobe Reader "Acrobat"? It's not "Acrobat" it's "Adobe Reader" and yes it sucks ass.
    • lowridah, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2Stop calling Adobe Reader "Acrobat" please. Acrobat is what you use to MAKE the pdf files.
    • FartyMcPooPants, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Actually I was being very acurate in my post, I had acrobat installed, and it was the

      WORST....

      PIECE OF SOFTWARE....

      EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      This is not to say that the reader was any better, far from it, whilst Acrobat was the very definition of bloatware (I lose count of the number of plugins it trys to load at startup) the reader was just as bad.

      The fact that it could create PDF's was it's only saving grace, until you realised that you couldn't move on sourceforge, or download.com without bumping into at least 1 free pdf creator.

      Oh and yes, I did uninstall it and use Adobe Reader in a vain attempt to speed up my work day (By the way that's another point, uninstalling Acrobat was possibly the slowest uninstall I've ever witnessed, can't even delete itself at a decent speed)

      Oh well, please, stop this, I can literally feel my blood pressure rising, damn that was some bad software, really really bad....
    • fotoman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4lowridah- back in the day, "Adobe Reader" was called Acrobat, that is what the actual executable was named. I still type acrobat at the command line sometimes and forget that it was changed to acroread like 5-6 years ago.

      Old habits are sometimes hard to change. :
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Come on man we all knew what he was talking about... well, unless you're like 5 years old you should know anyway.
    • DuckFOO, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Here is an article about speeding up Adobe Acrobat. Made a big difference for me.

      http://dwtips.com/2006/06/17/how-to-speed-up-pdf-loading-with-adobe-acrobat/
    • spurtle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Until the thing opens up Photoshop and Illustrator files, I will still call that program Acrobat Reader.
    • mraustin1337, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2For writing PDFs I use PDF995 (when I am on Windows)

      PDF995
      http://www.pdf995.com/

      Some ads but it is quicker than Adobe and it IS free if you don't mind ads and you can kill the ads for about $10.
    • loozer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@mraustin1337
      Try PDFCreator instead of PDF995

      http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
      -and-
      http://www.pdfforge.org/

      It's OSS and not full of ads like PDF995
  • bfaulk04, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5so on the fonts issue, what's the best way to go about having 1000's of fonts at your disposal, but not having them installed? you think just keeping them saved but not installed, and then installing them individually as needed is the best strategy? or is there an application that does something similar to this?
    • pbaehr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7There is font management software available that will let you keep fonts on your system in an uninstalled state and install them when you need them.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_manager
    • VANOS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeah I keep 5000 fonts in a folder and load them only when I need them, unload them when I'm done. Works excellently and takes about 20 seconds to do.
    • bendk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4i'm using "the font thing" : http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html
    • Kappa3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3ATM (Adobe Type Manager) allows you to disable/enable fonts at will
    • crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Kappa:

      From Wikipedia:
      As with ATM Lite for Macintosh, Adobe licensed to Microsoft the core code, which was integrated into Windows 2000 and Windows XP, making ATM Lite for Windows _obsolete_, except for the special case of support for "multiple master" fonts, which Microsoft did not include in Windows, and for which ATM Lite still acts as a font driver.

      ATM Light is still available for Windows users, but ATM Deluxe is no longer developed or sold.

      And for Mac:
      Around 2001, with Apple's Mac OS X (and Microsoft's Windows 2000 and XP), support for Type 1 fonts was built into the operating system using ATM Light code contributed by Adobe. ATM for Mac was then no longer necessary for font imaging or printing.

      Adobe discontinued development of ATM Deluxe for Macintosh after Apple moved to Mac OS X. Adobe in 2005 ceased selling ATM Deluxe. ATM Deluxe does not work reliably under OS X (even under Classic). ATM Light is still helpful to Type 1 font users under Classic, however.
    • Throlkim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hmm, you could try a font manager, but unfortunately I use a mac, and I'm not sure of any for Windows.
      I also don't have any system slowdown because of my absurd amount of fonts, do the systems handle them differently?
  • revansii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28I would've thought Google desktop would be on there.
  • unicornhunter, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18OUTLOOK!!
  • brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -13/+86What software slows Windows down the most?

    explorer.exe
    • MSDommell, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14lol tru.dat
    • Odiumjunkie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15The solution? BlackBox for Windows.

      http://www.bb4win.org/
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I prefer Directory Opus as an explorer replacement. Works like a charm.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ Odiumjunkie

      That is awesome. I didn't know they ported BlackBox to windows, I'll have to check that out.
    • OutThisLife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Odiumjunkie

      Cool, just need a fluxbox.
    • Hindu_Wardrobe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1LiteStep owns as well.
      http://litestep.net
      Or, the dev page
      http://www.lsdev.org
    • diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2litestep was abandoned some years ago. i was pretty active with it before and loved it. i switched to linux and used fluxbox, amazing. but now i'm back on windows and osx so i'm looking again at the alternative desktops. Directory Opus is just a file manager, if you want something substantial try Total Commander by Christian Ghisler. That is the best file manager ever, aside from the bash shell.
    • H3g3m0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I used bb4win for several years, actually i started with bluebox, then moved to bblean (fork of bb4win). I would probably try xoblite which seemed the more popular of the clones last time I checked. if I bothered to use windows for anything other than launching games. These are great shell replacements which speed up normal computing, if you get an alternative file browser you can ditch explorer.exe completely, unfortunately iI never found something that did everything I wanted, I actually tried to get Rox-Filer to run under cygwin, had it mostly working too but it sucked for executing windows stuff. Maby konqueror will be the way to go when KDE4 is ported.

      "Cool, just need a fluxbox."
      These have many Fluxbox style functions, there not actually ports of Blackbox from Linux just clones (well some gradient code was copied).

      I tried Litestep but never really got into it, seemed like you would spend weeks digging through its config files to set it up the way you wanted it and then have to do it every time you wanted a different theme, the bb4win stuff you just need to edit the menu to add applications to it. There are a load of other shell replacements around try http://www.shellfront.org/ for starters.
  • latino, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6all the instant messaging programs should be there :)
    • rokinroj, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Try Trillian. Besides that the fact that there has been no major upgrades in years, (though it looks like one is coming) it is otherwise a pretty good application. I keep mine connected at all times to AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and 2 different MSN accounts. Right now task manager says it s using 0% cpu and 11,000k of memory...not too bad.
    • vuzman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Not Trillian. It's a bit slow on startup, but otherwise fast and very easy on the resources.

      Edit: ok, beaten to it. But rokinroj is right, Trillian is coming out with a new version (Trillian Astra) real soon now.
    • dungbeetle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Gaim works great and only takes 25mb of RAM. The official clients usually take upwards of 50 or 60.
    • op12, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Or the best option, Meebo. Works in your web browser, looks as good or even better than Trillian, and you can use it anywhere you have internet. No need for an additional app! It handles new message notification quite well.

      http://www.meebo.com
    • julienbh, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7Try www.meebo.com
      Web-based chat client which supports a lot of instant messengers.

      EDIT: DIGG ME DAWWWWNNNN Op12 beat me to it.... but at least it shows it's not that bad ;)
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@ Dungbeetle

      GAIM is ranked 15th on their list.
      Trillian is 9th
      Windows Messenger is 13th.
    • sroske, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I just tried meebo after seeing it mentioned here. Wow. Impressive. Now I can get my sister and nephew off msn and speed up my network!
    • Spampy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm a harcore user of Winamp 2.91 and AIM 5.9. AIM only uses like 20 MB of RAM, and 2.91 only uses about 13 MB together with its agent program.
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I've used a heck of a lot of IM programs in my day, and the one I love dearly above all others is Miranda IM. It's an open source Windows-only client that supports all the major IM services. It's similar to GAIM except that it's Windows-only so it loads in the blink of an eye. It's also got a HUGE developer community making all kinds of plugins for crazy things like Skype, that Logitech keyboard with the LCD monitor on it, Winamp, and zillions of skins and GUI and functionality tweaks.

      Do yourself a huge favour and just try Miranda for 5 minutes. It takes a bit of a power user to get it working just the way you like, but it uses low resources and is hugely configurable. It lured me away from GAIM forever. And for what it's worth, it's one of the official clients mentioned on the Google Talk homepage.

      Miranda IM homepage:
      http://www.miranda-im.org/

      Plugins and skins:
      http://addons.miranda-im.org/
    • chapium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For all those touting meebo, I really suggest the permatab extension for Firefox. Meebo's pretty much replaced IM clients on my laptop. My desktop on the otherhand I prefer using GAIM.
    • JernejL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Miranda im is also nice, it's like the utorrent of IM programs, uses about 2 megs per protocol you use, uses 5.5MB of memory running just msn protocol with a few hudert people on my list. you wouldn't believe how much garbage offical msn client can collect over time, on my sister's pc it used to waste 80-100mb, that's quite a waste of resources...
    • supervan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 spyrochaete - the miranda site is done, could it be from one little mention on here?!
  • cw1925, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14http://duggmirror.com
  • kitchensj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+72nd to the slowdown issue I hate the way the norton firewall randomly decides to block programs you already put on the white list.
  • JakSmit, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4def. norton antivirus kills your pc, when i uninstalled was like formatting my pc the new speed
  • Kappa3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Like the word wasn't out... Norton is total garbage.
    • fotoman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Hey, some of us didn't know that Norton was a hog. Some of us don't use windows, or haven't on a regular basis for 8 years.

      My wife's computer has windows XP and she was wondering why her new 2 Ghz computer was slower than her PIII from 5 years ago running Win98. I'll remove Norton and see if that makes a difference. I had always chalked it up to all the crap that's being installed at startup. Hey, at least she's a Firefox user :)
  • OutThisLife, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12What slows down Windows the most?

    WoW.exe - Kill it whenever it's up.
    • VANOS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16If you do, maybe it will drop some loot on your desktop.
    • julienbh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sometimes it hits 75% CPU usage on my PC. That's HORRIBLE.
      And that percentage is directly proportional to the percentage of friends I lose everytime I play.
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3WoW was designed to run on like Pentium 3's. That's probably the least CPU-intensive modern game you can play today that's not made by Popcap.
  • iluvhatemail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1what would you guys recommend over Norton?
    • OutThisLife, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Avast! Antivirus:
      http://www.avast.com/
    • cliffmaier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1www.grisoft.com
    • CaptainBukko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Avast works pretty well for me...and of course it's free.
    • Mudcrutch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Not downloading/opening strange files.
    • deacont23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10NOD32.
      http://www.eset.com/
    • ejstacey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I've always liked AVG Free. It's free for personal use.

      http://free.grisoft.com
    • ninjasquirrel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Free antivirus software is great and all, but none of the free systems that are available can be a majority of the paid software. I use NOD32 currently, and I used to use Bitdefender before they pulled a Symantec and started bundling. NOD32 is lightning fast and very tiny.
    • vuzman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1For antivirus I highly recommend NOD32. It's consistently among the best rated, but it's by far the best I have seen resource wise.

      For firewall I use ZoneAlarm, and would recommend it, but I really don't think it's that great. Just haven't found anything better.
    • tobbe303, on 10/12/2007, -14/+0Grisoft's AVG stopped being free January 15th (or 18th, can't remember) so.. count that one out for those of you looking for free-as-in-beer-antivirus solutions.
    • mattyparanoid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1NOD32
      http://www.eset.com/

      Beaten to the punch....ah well consider mine another vote

    • dudu78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2AntiVir
    • draxiswolfe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I recommend common sense above all else. Even the best anti-virus software can be thwarted by a lack of it. Really, if you have even a minimum of net savvyness, you should know what not to download. Other than that, running some anti-spyware software (Like ad-aware) every once in awhile for the junkware that unfortunately comes along with some installations should be fine. I'd only recommend anti-virus software for your mom's computer, or if you download a lot of warez and porn (Which you shouldn't be doing, for shame!) And in that case I'd recommend something like AVG. It's pretty non-invasive.
    • BTime, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Avast is no longer free after January
    • julienbh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Antivir
      www.free-av.com/
      Nice low usage and only ONE popup on update. (which is news on the current viruses)
      Recommended.
    • caspercat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@tobbe303
      AVG is still free , you must have read their press release wrongly. They are discontinuing support for free version 7.1. To make people upgrade to their FREE version 7.5. So AVG is still free. http://free.grisoft.com
    • vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Avast is no longer free after January"

      Incorrect, there is a new version that came out. Support for the old version ends on Jan 31st.
    • ArmandoM, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Bury
    • rokinroj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@tobbe303
      "Grisoft's AVG stopped being free January 15th (or 18th, can't remember) so.. count that one out for those of you looking for free-as-in-beer-antivirus solutions."

      I keep hearing that around the internet, but it's not true. The pop up message that was saying it wasn't free anymore referred to version 7.1. If you go and download 7.5 and run the upgrade, it is indeed still free. I have been running AVG for about 3+ years now, and am still running it today. :-)

      =======================================================================
      Update of AVG 7.1 to 7.5

      Run the AVG Free Edition 7.5 Setup program
      Click "Next >" on the AVG "Welcome!" screen
      Click "Accept" on the "License Agreement on Use of an AVG Free Edition" screen
      Select "Repair installation" on the "Select Setup Type" screen and click "Next >"
      Select "Restart the computer now" (pre-selected by the program automatically) and click "OK" on the "Installation Complete!" screen to restart your computer and complete the installation

      http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free/setup/avg75free_432a904.exe
    • BinaryFragger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Grisoft's AVG stopped being free January 15th (or 18th, can't remember) so.. count that one out for those of you looking for free-as-in-beer-antivirus solutions."

      Um, no.
      The AVG Website says "AVG Anti-Virus Free 7.1 will be discontinued on February 18th 2007. You have a unique opportunity to get more security and benefits with our new AVG 7.5 products."

      Version 7.5 is still free.

      [EDIT] several others beat me to it...
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Avast is my favourite. I fix PCs on the side and whenever I go to a client's house and see Norton installed I immediately recommend uninstalling it, even if they have a year left on the license, and installing Avast. It's the best free AV I've tried.
    • kendawg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2active virus shield. it's kapersky made free by AOL. just make sure to use dodgeit.com for the email registration.

      http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?
    • zizzybaloobah, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Gotta go along with the others that recommend Avast! ( http://www.avast.com ).

      Whenever I clean up somebody's PC, or get all the crapware off a new PC, it's always part of the treatment (along with Firefox and Thunderbird). It runs well, updates itself without problems and haven't had any complaints yet (except a couple of folks who are taken by surprise when their PC speaks up and says 'Virus Database has been updated').

    • trylleklovn, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3ANYTHING!

      It surprises me so many diggers actually have Norton installed.
      You've all just lost your nerd certificate.
    • Timbit42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Overall:
      Best: NOD32 www.eset.com
      2nd Best: Kaspersky www.kaspersky.com
      3rd Best: Antivir www.avira.com

      Free for non-commcerial use:
      Best: Active Virus Shield www.activevirusshield.com (uses the Kaspersky engine)
      2nd Best: Antivir www.freeav.com or www.free-av.com

      Does anyone know where to get a "free for non-commercial use" NOD32 anti-virus?
    • sroske, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3trend houscall
      http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp
    • MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I like AVG's marketing plan:

      1. Create free product
      2. Create confusing pop-up saying the product is no longer free
      3. Observe thousands of forum posts saying "what are you gonna use since AVG is no longer free? OH NO!"
      4. ????
      5. Create new free product

      Talk about creating a buzz. Good job Grisoft! I got a dozen frantic phone calls from friends and family, and every response was http://free.grisoft.com
    • Gigabyte, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Norton is a great antivirus to use!
    • linuxinit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Avast!
    • 13thfloor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1As strange as it sounds, I'd recommend going to AOL for their anti-virus. It is repackaged Kapersky at no cost to the user.
    • Bean945, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I say manually deal with each and every virus that comes through.
    • SirG3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've never had an issue just using Firefox and Windows Defender... Of course, I guess I'm smarter about opening foreign files. Also, if I cared enough I could always hook a debugger/disassembler up to a keygen / crack and make sure it's not malicious :-P.
    • vaxguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Been using Kaspersky for about 5 months now and I couldn't be happier. It updates very often and has one of the highest detection rates. Doesn't bog down my system either. A great product IMHO.
    • NMVK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Even the security professionals recommend alternative software.

      http://www.uri.edu/security/i.php?i=apps
  • dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Gosh darn server, why must you be too busy!?!
  • icepickk55, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2/me kiks the server in the nutts
  • flag564, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Digg.com
    ftw

    :(
  • Wuzzle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I'll tell you what slow down windows:
    trying to visit a site that's been dugg to smithereens.
  • mayurpatil, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Who installs Norton btw? Avg or avira rocks.
  • mogydy, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Windows it self is a resource hog
  • SoxFanNH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Kaspersky is another great A/V has the quickest definition updates (sometimes every hour) and very light resource usage.
  • airjrdn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Google cache to what appears to be an updated version:

    http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:WrfGtKN3GC0J:www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down/5+http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
  • KnightMareInc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2is there a .net framework that works?
    • SteelFrog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was wondering that myself. Is it safe to simply remove .Net 2 or do most programs/applications require it?
    • KnightMareInc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1*alternative
    • SirG3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As far as I've seen, relatively few programs currently make use of the .NET framework, though the number of .NET apps is growing. As for an alternative framework, I don't see why you'd want to but Mono supports a nice amount of the .NET framework, but it's missing too much to be a viable replacement.

      http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page
    • KnightMareInc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it tends to cause problems on my system some how and just look at the added delay on that benchmark
  • vondur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I'd like to add the crappy software that is bundled with Kodak cameras. I believe it is called Easy Share. I uninstalled it on my dad's PC and put on Picasa. A world of difference.
    • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You should see Canon's software.

      All the software that ships with cameras sucks.
  • niteskunk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Can anyone post their experience with fonts? I have about 500 installed, and I just did a clean install... I haven't noticed any difference between having the WinXP default fonts, and my collection installed.

    I'm aware these tests were performed on Vista, but I'm curious in general.
    • skyfall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i have hundreds of fonts, the only thing having extra fonts slows down is certain programs when you try to use a font or fonts.
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fonts slow down your boot time for some reason. Backup your fonts directory, sort by date modified, delete all the fonts installed after the day you installed Windows, and reboot. You'll see a huge decrease in the time it takes to see your desktop.
  • skyfall, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0The website seems to have broken under the torrent of digg abuse.
  • BarneyXP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What slows me down the most while trying to work on my pc I'd have to say digg lol :)
  • gatekillr, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2I'll probally get burried for saying this, but uninstall windows and install OSX. That'll improve performance :)
  • roberto_deneero, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1XP/Vista slows down Windows the most! The problem isn't applications, it's the platform!
  • SoundJudgment, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2History shows that it is the daily Diggnation-effect which slows down most Internet Web-servers.
    • astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Let's not forget the McKrap from McAfee.... there all in one system hog of an application, and terrible support.
    • steal_apps01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1McAfee is owned by symantec the makers or Norton Lotta-Viruses
  • al4444, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1cool article
  • zongamin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5'Grisoft's AVG stopped being free.'

    NO IT DIDN'T - all they did was discontinue the old version - just get the new one.
    ***** me I thought everyone knew that by know.

    http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
  • shifty2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4server is slow/down... they must have forgotten to uninstall Norton Security Center...
  • Noctem, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Wow - Nobody is questioning his test methods?

    Clearly, certain things are obvious, like AV suites, etc. But Opera and VLC delaying boot times? Come on. What's his test method? And why in god's name is he testing IN VMWARE? Obviously boot times are going to be EVEN SLOWER.

    Buried for inaccuracy.
    • podgey22, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The tests and scores are RELATIVE to to the stock VMWare install. Jesus. I wrote what I did over two pages so I think I've been pretty transparent there.
  • airjrdn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Here, I've mirrored what I got from my local cache to my freeware site - http://www.missingbytes.net

    http://www.missingbytes.net/what_slows_windows_down_mirror/3.htm
  • raccettura, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3One should note that this was Norton IS 2006.

    Norton AV 2007 is a whole other beast. Fewer processes, less ram consumption, and a ton faster. IMHO it rebounded quite a bit.
  • Vermifax, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4A. Windows Vista.
  • TheSeeker11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3On the other end of the spectrum you have NOD32, small footprint and excellent heuristics.
    • tybris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Indeed, NOD32 is seriously impressive. You simply won't notice it's there, but it will never fail you when it's needed.
      It's not free, but worth every penny, and you can usually get a discount if you're a student.
  • DeepDoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1AVG FTW
    seriously, with AVG being free, why does anyone who knows anything about PCs use Norton and McAfee?

    Norton and McAfee are the biggest bloatware offenders ever
    • Timbit42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They don't run AVG because they know about Active Virus Shield (www.activevirusshield.com) and Avira Antivir (www.free-av.com or www.freeav.com).
  • fantasticjon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1In defense of Norton, I think it runs a mini scan at boot time. Don't get me wrong, it is still a major piece of crap. But the long boot time is probably due to that.
  • jagtar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7i've always wondered why there wasnt a uninstall button for norton...***** i wish i never pirated this crap
  • Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1PC Mag Review

    "With the 2007 release, Symantec's Norton Internet Security takes a clear new direction. The suite does its level best to stay out of your face—instead of asking confusing questions it makes its own decisions. And the design strives to limit the utility's impact on system performance (a common complaint in earlier versions)—to the point of omitting some modules in its default configuration"
    • AReallyGoodName, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've got to admit, it is pretty damn secure though. Especially when it randomly decides to completely disable the network connection.
  • matteusx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I didn't see anyone mention Google Desktop, which I ran for many months and found to be a big drag on performance. Even though it's supposed to index your local files while you're idle (or using idle CPU resources) I found it was a big memory and CPU hog. I also can agree with all the Norton and Acrobat comments -- both have been terrible for me (up until they were uninstalled that is).

    On a sidenote, since Google Desktop was not so great for me, anyone know of a _decent_ Spotlight-esque tool for Windows XP?
    • galaxy121, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You an try Copernic Desktop Search .... do a google search.
  • hug0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On my PC I use Norton 2002, which is still very much supported in terms of Virus Definitions as well as security updates and general software fixes. It uses much less resources than the bloated later versions do. I cannot see anything that anyone would really need in the recent Norton versions. Norton 2002 gives me anti-virus protection and a simple software firewall without being performance hogging bloatware. I guess Norton needs to continuously add more crap into their software suite in a misaligned attempt at keeping consumers on the upgrade path and thereby ensure a steady revenue stream.

    Of course on the mac on which I write these words I use no Antivirus and just Little Snitch as firewall because I like to keep track of which apps keep calling home.
    • hug0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0And of course since macs support PDF-files natively there is no need for any of the lousy Adobe Acrobat programs either, neither Reader nor Professional. On the mac PDFs are supported in the operating system which makes it a breeze for software developers to let their applications support the PDF-format, hence all mac apps I have come across can save in PDF-format.

      I think I read somewhere that Windows Vista has improved PDF-support?
  • ajck, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2> What software slows Windows down the most?

    Anything written by Microsoft, the *****.
  • sammyc53, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ok, what about Symantec Corporate Edition 9 or 10? I wonder what the performance hit is on that. I hear of A LOT of people switching their business to nod32.

    Does anyone have any good resources that compare the two?
    • sammyc53, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Damn, www.eset.com seems to be *****

      But not from a frontpage article, but from so many comments linking to it. Kinda interesting...
    • astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Anything Norton is going to drive your system into a deep grave. So just get rid of it... throw Norton out of the picture, and try the above (and below) alternate freebies.
  • fober, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Norton 2007 is far superior to 2006 with regards to CPU/RAM performance consumption.
  • AARGH2K, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is also huge differences in Symantec A/V and Corp. edition as well. I'm still running Systemworks 2005 since all the later versions kept removing more and more software out of the package. It's down to like 3+ items now. Used to be everything.
    • dramatools, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition is a completely different animal from the Norton products. While it's still more resource intensive than many AV packages, it doesn't strangle your system the way Norton Internet Security does. I can't help but wonder what Peter Norton thinks of the products given his name by Symantec.
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