shapiro2

Well, how 'bout I 'poop' in a box... & certify it?

O&O Defrag. It may not put on a dazzling display/lightshow for you, but it does highly decrease the Windows boot-up and starting of programs (using the Defrag/NAME option). AM I WRONG? Or is that not why we defrag? Pretty much you install it, defrag it the way you desire (differs on your computer & whether it is a laptop) & setup your options. Last, set-up the fully-automated defrag "job" by clicking on "automation" & then "OK." It then sits in the background and defrags occasionally using an intelligent CPU detection-thingy and selects the best defrag method for each drive (that even varies over time). Basically you don't ever notice that it's defragging (no slowdown at all - playing a game? it won't start, then...) The background monitor only uses up 4MB or less (varies) of RAM (i've got 2GB on my computer). The downside would be the cost for the Pro & Server Editions. I have also incorporated the server version on my server at work. It not only does the above, it also does it for the 22 other computers networked to it. Check out www.oo-software.com for the marketing/"technical" stuff.

DEP = Data Execution Prevention Microsoft Website explaining DEP (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875352) Article #875352

ZoneAlarm Pro... hands down. Bought it for $40 & haven't had any problems. Web sites don't have pop-ups (ZoneAlarm blocks those bad cookies & leaves a blank space where the ad was & pop-ups close), it blocks access attempts on your computer, works hand-in-hand with your favorite anti-virus software, and sets up easily. Best of all, the program is made by some very talented hackers.

FIREWALL: ZoneAlarm Pro $40 ANTI-VIRUS: Don't need it w/ ZoneAlarm turned ON... use Ad-Aware SE Personal (FREE) every once in awhile until you figure out ZoneAlarm's settings. DOWNLOADER: What!?! I remember messing with that on dial-up. Yea, I guess a Cable Modem or DSL would be a good start. WINDOWS TUNING: TweakUI & FreshUI (FreshUI does a couple of cool things that TweakUI lacks) FREE DEFRAG: O&O (makes it brainless, but most people seem to enjoy vegging out watching their computer defrag for some reason!) $50 GRAPHICS: JASC Paint Shop Pro ($70 online) -- If just viewing, then Irfanview (FREE) @ www.irfanview.com EMAIL: Seriously, Outlook 2002 (on Office XP). Found that Outlook 2003 lacks rock-solid mail-merge with Excel & Word. You get what you pay for in this world.