Mine loads up real slow , it has 512 mb of ram , I don’t want to tinker with it because I can end up with less than desirable results considering that it is the main computer in the house and supports another  with a shared internet connection, and is burdened by all the firewall /antivirus soft ware needed in today’s environment, I am considering getting a wireless router and out fitting all ours with wireless cards but have had a lot of trouble trying to use conventional cable routers, the drawback is the security issues created by the wireless system.

How long does your PC take to start up?” Our desktop, an HP Pavilion m7463w Media Center PC, 3GigRAM, has been on 24/7 since we bought it last year in May 2006. AVG-free, SpywareBlaster, Spybot-Search&Destroy, ZoneAlarm, AdAware SE and Windows Defender are all loaded and run in the background. No problems, so far. We do disable the wireless connection when the PC is not being used for ‘net access.

We agree that Norton & McAfee are total system hogs and should be avoided. Windows Defender is all you need for spyware (it does work very well actually) and it doesn’t seem to slow down my machine at all. For virus and worm protection, there is a program called Avast that is totally free for home use. I discovered it when I once had a virus that no other app would detect. Avast monitors email, web browsing, P2P file sharing, IM and general network access and yet starts quickly and has a minimal impact on system performance. You just have to re-register it every 6 months or so (for free) by confirming your name and e-mail address with them.

Ditch McAfee & Norton and you will free up several minutes each morning, and will also free up minutes during your day because the apps mentioned above won’t bog down your system.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Tech & gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.