Best Buy “optimization” debunked

If you got conned into paying Best Buy to “optimize” your PC, you got conned.

There’s an excellent, in-depth analysis on The Consumerist site.

My only addition would be to ignore the final four entries in the list at the end of the article. You can use msconfig to control autostarting programs, but AutoRuns is better (as I explain in my April 23, 2009 Windows Secrets column). Add/Remove Programs in WinXP, Vista and Win7 are great, but you also need to learn how to remove programs in Internet Explorer and (occasionally) Firefox. And Microsoft Security Essentials does a fine job of antivirus and antispyware work, and it’s absolutely free.