"Pimp" My Comp

I'm in no trouble currently, but I do wish to make my computer run faster,look better,be more customized,and free up some space.

If anyone recommends any (open-source preferred) or freeware programs to tweak,defrag,or speed up my computer,safer programs,imaging programs,etc... ...please tell me.

Right now I use...

Security and Cleaners.

*CCleaner

*Regcompact

*HijackThis

*Microsoft AntiSpyware

*Ad-aware SE

*Sygate Personal Firewall

Imaging Programs

*Gimp

*Blender3d

Alternates to Microsoft

*Firefox 1.0.3

*Thunderbird 1.0.2

*Gaim

*Deadaim

*OpenOffice 1.9 beta (or the newest beta as of May 30)

Other

*Konfibulater

*Python 2.4

*7z

Any good tweaks and overall nice habits/guides would be appreciated.

PS, tell me what I should get rid of here...

This topic could eventually be altered to newbies who wonder what they should get etc.

Spybot should be in the list.

Defrag: PerfectDisk 7

Firewall: Outpost Pro. ;)

Spybot should be in the list.

Defrag: PerfectDisk 7

Firewall: Outpost Pro. ;)

You have to pay for those if I remember correctly (not spybot but the others).I want free stuff for I am poor. :-P

Instructions:

Click Start

Click Control Panel

Click Switch to Classic View

Click View

Click Details

Click Display

Click the Desktop tab

Click Customize Desktop

Uncheck Run Desktop Cleanup, and then click OK

Click the Screen Saver tab

Choose (None) for the Screen Saver

Click Power

Change Turn off monitor to Never

Click Apply, and then click OK

Click the Appearance tab

Change the color scheme to Silver

Click Effects

Uncheck Use the following transition

Uncheck Show shadows under menus

Click OK

Click the Settings tab

Change Screen resolution to 1024x768 pixels

Click Advanced

Click the Monitor tab

Change Screen refresh rate to 75 Hertz

Click Apply

Click Yes

Click OK

Click OK

Click Folder Options

Click View

Check the following boxes:

Display the contents of system folders

Display the full path in the title bar

Display the full path in the address bar

Show hidden files and folders

Uncheck the following:

Automatically search for network folders and printer

Hid extensions for known file types

Click Apply

Click Apply to All Folders

Click Yes

Click OK

Click Internet Options

Click Use Blank, and then click Apply

Click the Content tab

Click AutoComplete

Check Forms, and then click Apply

Click the Connections tab

Click LAN Settings

Check Automatically detect settings, and then click OK

Click Setup

Type area code, and then click OK

Click OK

Click Next

Click Next

Select Set up my connection manually, and then click Next

Select Connect using a broadband connection, and then click

Next

Click Finish

Click the Programs tab

Change HTML editor to Notepad

Uncheck Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser, and then click Apply

Click the Advanced tab

Uncheck the following:

Enable Install on Demand (Other)

Enable page transitions

Notify when downloads complete

Show Go in the address bar

Check the following:

Use inline AutoComplete

Use Passive FTP

Do not search from the Address bar

Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed

Click Apply

Click OK

Click Mouse

Click the Pointer tab

Change Scheme to 3D-White (system scheme)

Uncheck Enable pointer shadow

Click the Pointer Options tab

Uncheck Hide pointer when typing

Click Apply, and then click OK

Click Sounds and Audio Devices

Check Place volume icon in taskbar

Click Sounds Tab

Choose No Sounds for the Sound Scheme

Click No

Click Apply, and then click OK

Click System

Click the Advanced tab

Click the Settings button under Performance

Select Adjust for best performance

Check the following:

Show window contents while dragging

Smooth edges on screen fonts

Use drop shadows for icon labels

Use visual styles on windows and buttons

Click Apply, and then click OK

Click the Error Reporting tab

Select Disable error reporting

Uncheck But notify me when critical errors occur, and then click OK

Click the System Restore tab

Check Turn off System Restore on all drives

Click Apply, and then click Yes

Click the Automatic Updates tab

Select Turn off automatic updating

Click the Remote tab

Uncheck Allow Remote Assistance

Click Apply, and then click OK

Click Taskbar and Start Menu

Uncheck Lock the taskbar

Check Show Quick Launch

Click the Start Menu tab

Select Classic Start menu

Click Customize

Check Display Favorites

Check Show Small Icons in Start Menu

Uncheck Use Personalized Menus

Click OK

Click Apply

Click OK

Click User Accounts

Click Change the way users log on and off

Uncheck Use the Welcome screen

Click Apply Options

Close the Window

Exit the Control Panel

Open My Computer

Right-click on the hard drive icon and select Properties

Uncheck Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast searching

Click Apply

Select Apply changes to X:\, subfolders and files, and then click OK

Click OK

Reboot machine, Call me in the morning.

Refresh rate should be as high as your monitor and resolution can accept -- the higher, the better for your eyes.

The rest I didn't read :P

Refresh rate should be as high as your monitor and resolution can accept -- the higher, the better for your eyes.

The rest I didn't read :P

Same here.Those things were sorta pointless, but appreciated.

*defragment your hard disk...

*remove un-necessary start up entries... i recommend starter... or just use run -> msconfig...

*disable indexing service... right click on your hard disk and properties, uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching"... then select "Apply changes to subfolders and files". "Ignore All" if any files cannot be dis-index...

*set static page file size

this are few things i can think of...

I find using XP-AntiSpy as a faster way to disable a bunch of junk that you don't want.

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities.

Neat little Photoediting program i found. called "Paint .Net" runs off the .NET Framework so you'll have to have .NET Framework installed for it to work.

very nice freeware version of photoshop basically.

Paint .NET Screenshots

CCleaner is #36 on that list, but for some reason, apparently falls short of the 'Empty Temp Folders' program (bah).

I dont have microsoft office and have been using Star Office 8 (I got it for free during the beta trials). I love it, it makes powerpoint and excel documents with ease, plus they seem to be fully compatible with ms office. The only thing I didnt like was the word processor. I went to the above mentioned site and saw a link for abiword and it works perfectly. I do have ms works and this is deffinately a step above that pos.

AntiVir

http://www.free-av.com/

A free (as in beer) anti virus scanner. Works on Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris. Does not contain any big bloated interface with skins. Does not eat up all your processor power or memory. Simple and great.

7-Zip

http://www.7-zip.org/

File archiver that supports alot of format such as 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. It is completly free software which is released under the GNU LGPL, its open-source. It has its own .7z format which offers superior compression ratio.

ABC (Yet Another Bittorrent Client)

http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/

Is a free, open-source Bittorrent client, you can use it to download files from Bittorrent with is.

Miranda IM

http://www.miranda-im.org/

Free, open-source (GNU GPL), multi-protocol IM (Instant Messanging) client, that you can use to chat with people on Jabber, MSN, ICQ, IRC, etc. It is highly customizable and very easy to use. It is very simple and bloat-free. Doesnt hog your processor power or memory.

DC++ - Your files, your ways, no limits.

http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/

Is a free, open-source DC (Direct Connect) client under the GNU GPL that connects to DC hub's for P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing with other users. Has TTH hashes, etc.

FileZilla

http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

Is a free, open-source (GNU GPL) FTP client, it is easy to use, it is great, its competly spy/adware free.

Mozilla Firefox

http://www.getfirefox.com/

Great web browser, free, open-source. Secure, safe, tabbed browsing. Can disable Java, Javascript, third-party cookies, third-party loading of images, etc (to get rid of banners), it blocks popups, etc.