iolo

[ceagle]

I've been wrestling with a particularly tuff computer bug this week for a customer... a bit out of the ordinary with its tenacious grip on keeping the startup at a regular 45 minutes EVERY time... (which makes for VERY slow progress, having to do restarts to test how each strategy is working...)

I was able to clean up a lot of active running problems in memory, but couldn't beat that startup issue, so I picked up an automation tool called iolo's System Mechanic ($30 for three computers).

*whew* It worked like a charm!! Not bad for $10 per machine! It found nearly 3,000 problems... a lot faster than I could have located *all* those... so, I wanted to give it a plug here.. and also ask what similar things you all have used with success, and which tools to stay away from.. :>

Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

3000? That sounds kinda wonky... Kinda like when an anti-virus program reports tracking cookies as "threats".

Pleased to hear the problem is cured though - what was the root cause?

CYa!
Mako

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Yush... Its first run (with the overall suite) fixed about 500, and then when I ran the registry tuner (deep instead of quick check), it found the other 2,300 or so and fixed those).

I also made a few very minor tweaks trying to fix the startup issue, which may have helped also, but I am going to give credit to the iolo for this round :>

Methinx that the registry got horribly wonked, and was over-checking, as the startup bar (Microsoft Corporation on screen in Vista) would literally just do that startup pulse for 45 minutes, dependably, before this fix. Service pack upgrades, HiJackThis, msconfig and system restores... nthing would nail that, even though I did get the actual machine running much leaner.

What caused it? One of the people in the household thinks it's because the kid installed FrostWire.... blecch. ;/ ...so that's the major suspect. There were also a load of browser bars on there, including one (Softonic) that turned all the URLS into ***.***.***.***:port displays, so that was mighty suspicious as well..

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

oooo! Another legitimizing thing for this software is it's the off-the-shelf stuff (from Office Depot) :D

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I never trust this kinds of programs. Being on a store shelf doesn't give them much credibility to me, because I've seen some seriously shady software being sold on stores too

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tips, critter ^v^
I've definitely seen some crap apps out there, probably more (in this sort of thing) than good ones. After working for almost a week on it though, it was a big relief to see the startups go from 45 minutes to 3 minutes again on this Vista machine. I had never seen such a horrid startup delay in all the years I've worked on these, so I figured I'd better try at least something like it... *peeks out from behind wing*

[grrouth.livejournal.com]

Many times I use an "Ultimate Boot CD or DVD" to boot up independent of the OS on the hard drive and do virus and spyware scans. It has an XP interface and can be configured with a variety of tools. Good network support and such.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the reminder! I think I may have one of those around, but I hardly have ever used it, and with all the cleaning up lately, I'm losing track over where some things are... :/

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I recommend Regscrub XP, CCleaner (both free) and Registry Mechanic, Tune up Utilities seems to have slipped after 2006.

Hiren's Boot CD with mini xp is also great for cleaning out crap and using JKdefrag on the disk to do a proper defrag.

Vista however is evil like Win ME