Don’t pay for software you don’t need — Part 1

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	TOP STORY[/size][/font] Don’t pay for software you don’t need — Part 1[/size]
	By Woody Leonhard If you’ve moved to Windows 7, there’s a raft of software — entire categories of software — that you simply don’t need. Why pay for it?[/size]

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2011/05/05[/url] (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Your article reflects exactly my opinion about security and maintenance of Windows 7 platforms, even that about MS Office. looking forward to Part 2.

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Hi Woody,

Thanks for the article, generally great, but as you wished “howls” for your view on Windows 7 backup, I’m only glad to help:)

I’ve been struggling with Windows 7 backup for a while now, and had to abandon it as not fit for purpose. I use W7 Ultimate, and wanted to backup my outlook pst files to a network drive.

W7 Backup simply consumes all the space available, then gives up backing up. The only solution appears to be manually entering the app and deleting backups. NTbackup was far superior and I really miss it.

Making software one click simple is for one click minds!

Many users need to actually configure the software, and expect it to function as configured. W7 backup has none of the necessary features any slighty interested user would expect, and when it cannot tell the available size of a network drive reliably, is utterly useless.

Sorry for the rant, and I really enjoy your articles, but this one point is way off the mark.

Cheers,
Donchik

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My sentiments exactly!
The windows backup utility is a joke. I tried it, just for the fun of it and to find out what it can do, after you pointed to it. (I use Acronis). My C drive has a used space of 413GB and I followed the Windows backup procedures. Not only took it some 5 hours to finish the backup, but it also filled my 1TB backup hard drive to 98%. I never even tried to find out if one can retrieve specific files if need to. I question if this possible.

Oskar F. Neuhold

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Thank you for ALL your articles over the years! I decided to take your advice and see whether my Defrag was working properly. However, when I first open Task Scheduler, I received the following message: The selected task "{0}" no longer exists. To see the current tasks, click Refresh. When I do, the msg box does a repeat performance. When I follow the Task Scheduler Library>Microsoft>Windows>Defrag tree, I get the same msg box. Although I have Win7 Pro (for the XPMode feature to run an old program), it is not necessary for me to manually log on as a User. The machine fires up to me as the default User each time I start Windows afresh. My WinZip backup software will not run a scheduled backup for this reason. Could this be the same reason my Defrag is not scheduled? This leads to a second question; Since this same message appears when I first open Task Scheduler, does this mean that many or all of Windows’ default tasks are not being run?

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Whether I agree with Woody Leonhard or not (agree mostly), I love the article.

Keep them coming.

Opinions with hard facts are great articles. We can agree to disagree.

What I cannot tolerate is ad based article, or article with copy and paste of printed performance and stuffs from device/software sellers. It hides the purpose of selling. That is, the article is biased to begin with (to praise the product).

I always think anti-virus software itself is a virus itself: hard to get rid of.
Maybe it has to be that way, I think, else virus itself could ‘neuter’ it first.
As Woody said, good luck to cleanse an anti-virus program from your system.

I start NOT using anti-virus now. At the most I use MS Security Essentials, especially on XP OS.
I start using Sandboxie, Virtualization, and VHD backup. If I get infected, I simply restore the last snapshot or restore the VHD, and I’d be OK again.

With that, and no extra software running in the background, the system runs faster.

There is a penalty though. You need more memory in a system running virtualization, for equal or better performance. The parent OS and the virtualized OS, each needs its own memory to run efficiently.

It is also a way to learn Linux. Linux as parent OS, with Win7 and XP as virtualized OSes, is a high performance system … and no more anti-virus.

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Thanks for the article. I’m new to Windows 7 Ultimate, have always used third party defrag/backup/AV/Firewall and so it was educational to learn where MS had hidden this stuff. I ran the defragger and created a backup drive image to an external HD with no problems. I was prompted to create a repair disc, which I hadn’t done, and so reading the Windows Secrets email has , potentially , saved me a lot of strife. Thanks again.

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I’m really looking forward to any debate which develops between Woody and Fred, two of the finest tech writers I’ve been reading for decades. Plus other contributors too, of course

I have Win7 Pro … it is not necessary for me to manually log on as a User. The machine fires up to me as the default User each time I start Windows afresh. … Could this be the same reason my Defrag is not scheduled?

Probably not. I have the same setup as you [Pro, auto logon] and my defrag is scheduled and runs.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Woody,
Thanks for the information on Task Scheduler. Because of your article I now have daily restore points being created at 5 AM after windows wakes the computer to take them, and I also will now have a weekly defrag at 2 AM and a monthly upload to Microsoft instead of a daily one in prime time! Your articles and other Windows Secrets contributors have enabled me to have a much better Vista experience if that’s possible with Vista! Also, one of the lounge members bailed me out of a mess a few weeks back when I lost communication to the BIOS. This is one of the best places on the internet to receive valuable information. Thanks again for your contributions to it.

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@Bradym –

This is a good one for the Windows forums. My guess is that you hosed your Scheduled Apps – maybe with a Registry cleaner?

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This article mentions shadow copies at 12 midnight and defragging at 1 am, but we typically shut our computers off overnight. What happens then? Do these functions ever get performed?

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Woody, GREAT job!

Have you ever considered that there is a BIG difference between an accomplished professional writer like yourself and “average Joe” home user? I would claim that LibreOffice (the spin-off from Open Office, thank you Oracle) is more than sufficient for Joe and his grandma.

I do have my own opinion about Micro$oft scheduling Automatic Updates to be checked at 3AM and Defrag scheduled at 1AM but I’ll keep that opinion to myself; I don’t want to get banned from the forum

24/7 may make sense in a corporate environment where the computers have to run 24/7 to enable admins maintaining them when the productive(?) workers are not there. But in a home environment? What a joke, IMHO at least. My computers are off at night and when I am not home.

I believe the discussions about technical merits of defragging and the programs that do it will never end; so leave it up to opinion and belief as long as the tool does not do any damage!

Despite these comments: Woody, keep going! For the “normal” non-geek home user your opinion is bulls-eye on the spot.

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Generally, a good article. As for the Office replacement, your comments read like one of Microsoft’s FUD pieces. The reality is that most Office users use very few of the non-compatible formatting codes, many of which older versions of Office won’t recognize either. As mentioned elsewhere, it is a very bloated, over-priced suite which, for most users, CAN be readily replaced by OpenOffice, LibreOffice or Softmaker (not free but reasonably priced). Other options exist as well.

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Woody; Thanks for the great article, it clears up a number of mysteries I’m still fighting with in W7. One question, you said that W7 automatically carries out several maintenance issues (defrag, ghost, etc.) on it’s own at various times late at night. Do I need to change the schedule as I shut down my laptop overnight to run those during the day?
Paul

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Good article, but Woody, but could you expand a bit on the auto defrag part. If my PC is not on at 1 am – and it virtually never is – is the defrag ever done? It’s great that you make these recommendations, but if your information is incomplete, you’ve not done any good.

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Woody, very good article. Thanks for taking the time to inform us Windows users that don’t have time to troll boards all day looking for the useful facts you’ve presented in such a clear, concise and easily understandable manner. The article even makes me want to upgrade to Windows 7.

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If you are using XP stick with it. I needed a new computer and had to settle for Win7 – it is the pits and would much prefer to go back to pen and paper.

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I never could get Windows 7 backup to work properly, because it just plain refuses to create a system image, claiming inadequate space — which, to put it mildly, is a vicious canard. My target drive is a new, EMPTY Seagate Goflex 1.5 terabyte drive, and the image can’t be more than 30 gigabytes without compression. Yet Windows backup states flatly that there is not enough space on the drive to create the image.

Can anyone explain to me what is going on? To date I’ve been using Rebit to manage my backups, but I would really like to make a system image as insurance for when things go south in a big way. Woody, any ideas?

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I never could get Windows 7 backup to work properly, because it just plain refuses to create a system image, claiming inadequate space — which, to put it mildly, is a vicious canard. My target drive is a new, EMPTY Seagate Goflex 1.5 terabyte drive, and the image can’t be more than 30 gigabytes without compression. Yet Windows backup states flatly that there is not enough space on the drive to create the image.

Can anyone explain to me what is going on? To date I’ve been using Rebit to manage my backups, but I would really like to make a system image as insurance for when things go south in a big way. Woody, any ideas?

This forum is for comments about the newsletter article not troubleshooting. If you want help with this issue please start a thread in the Windows 7 forum.

Joe

--Joe

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I agree with you for the most part. But how about someone who dual-boots win7 and ubuntu, and wants to image his c: drive. I dont believe the system image tool in win7 supports ext3. What do you think?

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I agree with Woody that there is no really good replacement for Microsoft Office. However, I am still using Office 2003, and will probably continue to do so for as long as possible. Office 2010 may be better, but not worth the price. One of many tremendous trifles is Microsoft Bug No. 744430 which disables hiding the header in Outlook reading pane view. MS apparently has no intention of fixing this bug.

For the same reason I intend to stay with Windows XP until it is no longer supported. For my purposes, Win7 is not sufficiently better to justify the major cost in both money and time to upgrade and reinstall everything.

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Good article, but Woody, but could you expand a bit on the auto defrag part. If my PC is not on at 1 am – and it virtually never is – is the defrag ever done? It’s great that you make these recommendations, but if your information is incomplete, you’ve not done any good.

Mine is also set for 1 am, but seems to run at the first boot the next day. I wondered why the computer always spun the disk like crazy at first boot. To check when or whether your computer ran defrag, follow Woody’s suggestion:

choose Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. The Disk Defragmenter dialog box tells you when your drives were defragged and how badly they were fragmented at the last calculation point

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@Mikeeve –

Yes, exactly. For those of you who are asking whether Defrag runs when you turn on your PC, the answer is generally yes, but to be absolutely sure, follow the instructions in the article to see when Defrag was run the last time on your PC.

choose Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. The Disk Defragmenter dialog box tells you when your drives were defragged and how badly they were fragmented at the last calculation point

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I am having trouble with understanding what I find when I follow the instructions on how to check if your Win7 is running a Scheduled Defrag.
In the Result column of the display it shows 0x42B.
What does this mean?

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Woody,

Your humor gets me to read all your articles to my great benefit.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate and Office 2010 Professional. I have Pentium D (the fastest version) & 4GB RAM with 2 internal and a 1TB external drive. How can I get Windows 7 to do incremental and image backups to my 2nd internal drive which is set up to boot Windows 7 32-bit but I only use that drive as a backup unit. Running backups even using FW800 to my external drive is slow.

I used to defrag my thumb drives that contained books from the Library Of Congress to sort the files because the usual method of sorting (click on NAME column) wasn’t working for me under Vista. The Library only uses numerical file names, not the actual book title, and each book has at least 10 files. That method made it awkward to delete a book when I’d finished with it unless the drive was sorted. With Windows 7 I no longer have the sorting problem.

Thanks,

Norman

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BTW, when using Win7 Task Scheduler, if you get this annoying message “One or more of the specified arguments are not valid”, look at a possible fix here: http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/109517-task-scheduler-error-message-arguments-not-valid.html

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The same day that this issue of Windows Secrets came out, I saw an article on InfoWorld covering the results of AV Test’s recent report in which 22 AV programs were tested and compared.

Although Microsoft Security Essentials (barely) passed certification, was dead-last among certified products. AVG was highly rated.

I see no reason why I shouldn’t stick with AVG, and that’s still my recommendation to my friends and family.

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I took your advice and uninstalled my Acronis TrueImage Home 2011. I then went to the control panel to setup Windows 7 backup. When clicking the on Windows Backup nothing happens. The windows 7 backup will not start. I had to reinstall Acronis to be able to start windows backup. I tried this a couple of times with the same result after uninstalling Acronis windows backup will not start. Acronis does not seem to want help, unless I pay for tech support. I couldn’t find any reference to this problem on their knowledge base. And writing the correct search into Google was impossible.

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I took your advice and uninstalled my Acronis TrueImage Home 2011. I then went to the control panel to setup Windows 7 backup. When clicking the on Windows Backup nothing happens. The windows 7 backup will not start. I had to reinstall Acronis to be able to start windows backup. I tried this a couple of times with the same result after uninstalling Acronis windows backup will not start. Acronis does not seem to want help, unless I pay for tech support. I couldn’t find any reference to this problem on their knowledge base. And writing the correct search into Google was impossible.

I fail to see why you would uninstall software that you have already paid for and that is way much better than the original Windows 7 Backup software.

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I fail to see why you would uninstall software that you have already paid for and that is way much better than the original Windows 7 Backup software.

Different strokes for different folks. If you have paid for it and are satisfied with it, fine. But, what about users like me to have not bought and/or have different needs than you or others. Isn’t Woody saying that we may very well not need to buy some other piece of software because the alternative already available may be sufficient for our needs?

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Different strokes for different folks. If you have paid for it and are satisfied with it, fine. But, what about users like me to have not bought and/or have different needs than you or others. Isn’t Woody saying that we may very well not need to buy some other piece of software because the alternative already available may be sufficient for our needs?

Yes, absolutely.
However, I wouldn’t definitely uninstall software that I paid for, that is working without issues and that is superior to the Windows free version, which is what happened with the poster I replied to.

The title of Woody’s story is “Don’t pay for software you don’t need”. If you have already paid for the software, why not use it?! Even more so when it offers additional features and is working properly?

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I have had some issues with Acronis in the past. And they were not all that helpful. As it turns out I have to use Acronis until I find/figure out why uninstalling Acronis would disable Windows backup. I did fine a post on the web that someone installed a trail version and had the same problem after uninstalling Acronis. I don’t feel I should have to pay Acronis tech support for a resolution to the problem. If this is a problem with Acronis, I certainly will not use their software for that very reason. And if comes to the point of having to reinstall windows I’ll do it to be rid of Acronis.
Solution:
You have to go to the registry and go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}InstanceInitPropertyBag]. The problem is that Acronis took ownership of this location keeping you from updating the key. Follow the steps below and it will allow you to make the required changes. I had to change the ResourceDLL to “%SystemRoot%System32sdcpl.dll, as it pointed to the Acronis program location which no longer was there. And also change the ResourceID to “14” hex. This problem is has been going on for some time, Acronis put out a ‘reg patch’ that fixed an integration problem but the patch did not fix the uninstall problem that everyone will have when uninstalling Acronis be it a trial version or full version. This is no way for a reputable software company to act.

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Woody,

I am a life time subscriber and this is the first time I have felt the need to comment.

1. I think that using a MS product for AV is not wise. I almost moved to MSE base on a previous article but chose to stay away based on the “eggs in one basket” principle. NOD32 from ESET has been awesome…though I cringe when I think that more people will use it and increase its target. The ESET record for detecting virus “in the wild” stomps on the young MSE. ESET also has a much smaller target on the back.

2. A major factor that shifted our family machines from Open Office was the need to coordinate between students. I have two high school students as well as my wife getting her Masters. They need to exchange documents and spreadsheets. It is very easy to do that between OpenOffice and MS Office, but…it takes effort. Once we were able to get a student copy of MS Office ($32), the need to fight it went away. Bottom Line: OpenOffice saves do not make it easy to share with MS Office users.

As a life time subscriber I have never regretted that cost. Great job to all of your team including Tony Johnston, Andy Boyd, Aaron Forgue, and Lindsey Dunagan. I am a dev and we are AWAYS in the shadows.

Thank you.

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In regard to defragging, almost always overlooked in the discussion is the difference between defraggers that simply consolidate files and those that actually move whole groups of files from one place to another. When I first installed Vista, I found that Vista was only willing to provide a tiny partition(a Drive D) when I tried to divide the original Drive C. The Windows defragger did nothing to solve the problem as it apparently refused to move files to provide room for a new partition. So I installed Perfectdisk which did move enough files so I was able to create a sufficiently large D partition where I could keep data separate from the programs in Drive C.

Of course I cannot speak for Windows 7, but if its defragger is no different from that in Vista, you may still need to use a defragger in order to make room for a large partition. After that, as Woody says, you probably do not need to bother about defragging.

I agree entirely with him about Microsoft Security Essentials used together with Malwarebytes. These work beautifully without disrupting anything else.

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Great article Woody, I backup Win7 once a week. I have had three occasions to restore from these backups and windows did a beautiful job each time. I’ve never lost more than a couple of days worth of data. (most of it was junk mail, ha ha) One time involved a new hard drive!

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I agree with everything you said. But I have a question that maybe you can help me with. I have been on the forum before with this question, and got answer’s that basicly didn’t solve my problem. It’s about Win 7 Backup. For some reason, I have lost the ability to make backups for my PC. I can go there via the control panel just like I use to, but when I get to the area where it say’s Backup and Restore, all the information, including check boxes…..everything is missing? I cannot perform anything in that area any longer. I don’t know how long this information has been missing, but one day, I thought well, I need to do another full “Ghost Backup of my drive again, and when I went there to do it, all info was gone. I did do one when I first got my PC, but have never been able to perform another one since. Can you tell me how I can get this info back in this area? I do have a SSD drive now, that is backing up my PC, but I would sure like to use my Win 7 Backup again. As far as I am concerned using it was very easy, and it worked well, or at least it did once? Everything else on my PC seems to work well, and I don’t seem to have any problems with anything. I do wish that I would have read your article before I paid for the new Diskeeper 2011. I had to save for 2 months to buy it. Thanks for your article. It sure makes alot of sense. I have alway’s thought that all the big company’s that sold Antivirus programs appeared as though they were really working hard for everyone, while in the back room of the same building, they were working just as hard at coming up with a new Virus, that we all needed to be protected from……and of course, their’s was the only one that could protect you from it. I wouldn’t be surprized if those company’s just thought of it all as though it was just a big game to play amoung themselve’s? I don’t know that for sure, but I bet I am not that far off from the truth. I wouldn’t care that much, but I am surviving on a smaill check I get from the government each month, and it’s getting to the point that people like me, can’t afford to use the web hardly. Thaks again for your story. I do feel a bit more releived, and feel a whole lot safer with what I have concerning my safety. Your friend; Eddie Nelson
(Iam4uJesus@aol.com)

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@Iam4u –

No idea. Go to Microsoft’s backup forum and complain loudly. answers.microsoft.com

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“Defrag, or not Defrag?” should not be answered with a blanket Yes or No. When I’m fixing a client’s machine, I analyze how badly fragmented his partitions are and DECIDE if they need to be de-fragmented or not. It’s the only way. On some Win7 machines, they are nicely un-fragmented. And others, Oy! Such a mess! My guess is some people leave their machines on all night long and others don’t, duh.

I set the scheduled de-frag time for a time when they are likely to be turned on and then start an immediate de-frag.

This is not a religious issue; just a common sense one.

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On a prior recommendation from Windows Secrets, I installed MSE instead of Kaspersky (which had been prone to eating up too much CPU time). Wrong move. Back to Kaspersky.

I got infected by a rootkit this weekend despite MSE’s “protection.” Didn’t guess at this until I started searching the net for fixes for what I was experiencing (BSOD pointing at iastor.sys). Used Kaspersky’s standalone rootkit killer. Will be reinstalling Kaspersky Internet Security. I’m a beta tester for their newest version, which doesn’t have the CPU problem. Won’t be going back to MSE.

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Woody:
I love using Microsoft Office products and have for the past many, many years. However, I just had to reload my OS (Win 7) and all my applications. After loading my Office XP Pro, it will not let me activate any of the programs (Word, Excel, etc.).
I telephoned Microsoft and they want $50 to help me. I refuse to pay for something Microsoft is REQUIRING me to do, so I’m forced to hunt for a free office suite (which I tried in the past and none can replicate MS Office).
I think my next computer is Apple. I’d rather pay out thousands of dollars than give any satisfaction to Microsoft.

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As advised, I have just upgraded my Microsoft Security Essentials to the new version 2.1. Nowhere within the various MSE screens could I find any indication of the existing version number on on my computer, nor on the “new” version just downloaded (which appears identical) – where is that information. The MSE website has no indication that they have issued a new version, although the newly downloaded exe file does indicate version 2.1

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As advised, I have just upgraded my Microsoft Security Essentials to the new version 2.1. Nowhere within the various MSE screens could I find any indication of the existing version number on on my computer, nor on the “new” version just downloaded (which appears identical) – where is that information. The MSE website has no indication that they have issued a new version, although the newly downloaded exe file does indicate version 2.1

Try the white arrow at the right of “HELP”. Click “About MSE” at the bottom of the drop down menu.

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Thanks snowycars – I had just clicked on help and got directed to the MSE website – I did not twig that the down arrow would get me further help.

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I had just clicked on help and got directed to the MSE website – I did not twig that the down arrow would get me further help.

Nor would 99.999% of the planet’s population. Pathetic programming.

Bruce

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This reply does not refer to my question. I asked, “Why are you placing an ad for registry cleaner while you discourage to spend money on such software”.

Thx
Noor Motani

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Nice and informative article, but I am left a question.

How does LibreOffice compare to OpenOffice and MS Office?

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My experience is with OpenOffice, not yet LibreOffice, so YMMV but I find that it is compatible with Microsoft Office if you don’t ask too much of it. Examples:

* OpenOffice Writer is fine for simple documents, but the outlining function is way inferior — in a separate, small window rather than expanding and cotracting sections. Also, many of the familiar search wildcards are different — a real headache if you’re used to Word.

* OpenOffice Calc works fine with workbooks up to a certain level of complication, but beyond that it doesn’t display table cells correctly and I have had it corrupt a very complicated, multi-sheet workbook. I also couldn’t find a “merge cells” command. Beware.

LibreOffice may have rectified some of these problems, I don’t know. I will be installing and using it, and will find out, as I have one machine running Linux.

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Great article! BUT—“previous versions” isn’t working for me. AND…and quick Google search shows a lot of others having the same problem. In may case, I appear to be following all the rules, ie., services turned on, system restore turned on, selected “restore points and previous versions”, not looking for system files, administrative share not hidden, etc.

But alas, still no previous versions!

Anyone else experiencing this or have a solution?

J

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Great article! BUT—“previous versions” isn’t working for me. AND…and quick Google search shows a lot of others having the same problem. In may case, I appear to be following all the rules, ie., services turned on, system restore turned on, selected “restore points and previous versions”, not looking for system files, administrative share not hidden, etc.

But alas, still no previous versions!

Anyone else experiencing this or have a solution?

J

This forum is for comments about the article not troubleshooting problems. If you want help with this issue please start a thread in the forum for the operating system you are running.

Joe

--Joe

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@jgutman –

Usually if your shadow copies are disappearing it’s because you have a dual boot system. If you boot into WinXP, it gleefully deletes all of your Win7 shadow copies. There are other potential problems, though. See my general post below.

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GENERAL POST –

Thanks for the comments, keep ’em comin’! I read all of them, and try to respond as time allows.

GENERALLY – if you have a tech question (“My backup doesn’t work” or “Where are my shadow copies”) you’re in the right general location, but posting on the wrong forum! Switch over to the Windows forum and post away. There are hundreds – yes, hundreds – of knowledgeable people who help with questions like that, every day. (That’s why I started the Lounge 15 years ago – I can’t possibly handle all of the questions everybody asks!)

FOR ANTIVIRUS QUESTIONS – yes, I know AV-Test.org just published a test result that pinged around the Internet echo chamber, with at least one organization claiming that MSE isn’t worth its salt. I say balderdash. Look at the AV-Test.org test resultsand judge for yourself. MSE works fine. It only picked up half of the “retrospective” 0days that AV-Test threw at it, but the testing methodology there isn’t definitive, and experts disagree on the validity of the test. Come to think of it, I should write a column about that… It isn’t just MSE. The rollback/retrospective testing method has some benefits, but also some drawbacks.

ON BACKUP – I know some people have problems with Win7 backup, but in my experience it’s very unusual, if you get things set up properly. Pop over to the Windows forum and vent a spleen. Microsoft is watching…

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I was able to edit the scheduled defrag task to a time when I know my computer is on, but I won’t be using it. You can edit the settings by clicking on “Properties” on the far right once you are at “Defrag”. Under the “Triggers” tab, there is an “Edit…” button where you change the various settings.

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Backups at midnight, defrags at 1am. What was MS thinking. It has taken years to get everyone to turn off their computers at the close of business everyday and not let them run all night. Not only is it a huge waste of electricity but resulted in major fire damage to one multistory building due to a computer catching fire when the power supply fan failed at night. Why didn’t they set it for noon and 1pm? Sometimes I wonder if there is any common sense at Microsoft.

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A couple of points on old windows backup – best backup program ever. On a severe crash or drive swap I would install Windows XP, get it up to date on it’s patches, run old windows backup and presto – running system just as it was. I did this many times to many machines. It never failed. At the time it was the most reliable windows software (of course it was written elsewhere and modified by MS for newer versions).

New windows backup – poorly implemented – it does a block by block backup comparing blocks (for differential). So any kind of defragmenting changes the block order. So backup now sees a far different disk for the differential backupl. What was MS thinking? Block backup of a system requiring defragmentation! File by file is the only way to do it. If it does the job by file it doesn’t save the system information.

There are no suitable alternatives – others want to write zip files and take forever. They compress files smaller than the destination disk block size which is a waste of time.

Degragmenting never made sense – spending hours to save milliseconds. Linux never had a need for it. But the foolish MS devised file system does. I have seen good performance increases on Windows machines when a severely fragmented machine was fixed. Never found that Linux slowed down after years.

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“There are no suitable alternatives — others write to zip files and take forever.”

Yes, backing up a few hundred gigabytes to zip files can take days, while hogging your computer. But there are some very suitable alternatives.

Seagate FreeAgent drives, available in sizes up to 2 TB and probably soon even larger, back up your data files without doing compression, essential for very large files such as video capture files. Files transfer at the full speed of the hard drives, and you can use the computer (except for very data-intensive tasks) while running the backup. There’s no sense in compressing video files in any case — they’re already compressed. You can select what to back up, down to the level of individual folders. Another advantage: the backup files are stored individually in their original form and can be read directly from the backup drive without using the backup software and without delay.

FreeAgent Drives will push older versions of files down into as many as 10 “history” folders, deleting the oldest files if the drive fills. My solution for archiving is to buy another drive to make a copy of the contents of my backup drive every now and then, which I store at a separate location. As noted in the article, disk drives are inexpensive.

The FreeAgent drives do not back up files with the system and hidden attributes, but backing up the system can be accomplished with a separate, ghost backup.

There may be other brands of drives now that back up uncompressed in Windows, but avoid the Western Digital Smartware drives. These do compress, and they give you some very limited and dumb options as to what you can back up.

Another good option is to install Linux as a dual-boot with Windows, and to run a backup in Linux using BackInTime. This does not compress, and it can back up everything in your Windows installation. If Windows goes belly-up, except in the case of a massive disk failure, you can still use your computer, read and work on the files in your Windows partition(s) in Linux! That option saved my hide once.

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The article refers to schedules that conflict with the power saving (and security improving) practice of powering down the computer upon departure from the “office”. Businesses purchase system management software, including such products as “1E NightWatchman and Wakeup” to shutdown and start-up PCs. This software provide the means to reduce power consumption, but still bring computers on-line for maintenance activity. Note, such power management software cannot start laptops that use full disk encryption software that requires a password to initiate the boot process.

I am not a Windows 7 user, yet. Woody, please include discussion on Windows 7 power mangement features that provide the capability to start the computer prior to initiating such scheduled maintenance, AND to shut it down thereafter to reduce power consumption.

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Hi Woody….great article as usual…

..in your paragraph about Defragging > With Windows 7, you don’t need to run a defrag. Ever. Windows runs one for you, by default, one day every week at 1:00 a.m. You can double-check to make sure that your machine’s running defrags automatically: click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Task Scheduler. On the left (see Figure 1), navigate to Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows, Defrag, and look for the ScheduledDefrag activity…

I believe Accessories could also read Administrative Tools…and the Task Scheduler is there as well (one less folder ) ..just an FYI

Randy

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“OpenOffice is not a slam-dunk replacement”

Great article generally, but you left out what to me is the most important consideration about MS Office. Perhaps some of you saw my letter to Walter Mossberg, published in the September 16 Wall Street Journal last year, in which I termed the Office 2007 ribbon user interface “one of the great abominations in the history of personal computing.” I stand by that assessment. Lest you think I am some sort of Luddite who opposes all change, know that I started writing computer programs in 1969 (mainframe and punchcard days), and I bought my first home computer, running DOS 3.1, in 1986. I have seen a lot of software come and go.

There is simply no possible excuse for Microsoft to have ever let Office 2007 see the light of day without including a classic-look option that shows the menus and toolbars, and I will not even consider upgrading from Office 2003, or advising anyone else to do so, until they correct that situation. They seem to have backpedaled somewhat on Office 2010, and yes, there is a third-party add-in that solves the problem. Quite apart from any technical issues, however, the utter contempt that Microsoft continues to show for its end-users is intolerable, at least it is intolerable to me.

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I agree completely with the idea of dumping as much third-party software as possible. If it’s already built into the system, why risk incompatibility? Simplicity is always better.

With Windows 7, I was able to dump Norton Ghost. The Disk Image capability is now built into Windows 7, and is quick and easy. I do an image backup to an external hard drive every month after Patch Tuesday.

Your article led me to look at the Check Previous Versions option again. I discovered that Norton Ghost had taken over that function (I always wondered why there were no files listed), so you are forced to use the Ghost file backup facility, as the Windows 7 one is suppressed. Now that I have uninstalled Ghost, the Check Previous Version has information from Restore Points (I have not set up Windows 7 Backup and Restore as I back up active files onto a USB drive frequently and to DVD weekly).

Good article! I look forward to the sequels.

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Overall a good article, and wisely prefaced by the term “personal biases”. Because at the end of the day, we have to be comfortable with what we’re doing to maintain our own systems. I do agree with much of what has been said, especially when it comes to the free part!

However, I still find Windows backup to be clunky. I find Robocopy (also free and part of Windows) to handle file level backups much better, as I do also find 3rd party imaging tools better and more reliable.

As far as Office, well I know many who would say that MS Office isn’t a good replacement for MS Office. We use OO at work on about 70% of our workstations. We’ve had some challenges of course, but we’ve had as many complaints about MS Office 2010 as we have about OO. I personally have found that OO often handles files from older versions of MS Office much better than Office 2010 does.

I look forward to part II. Keep it coming Woody!

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I must say that, even respecting the author’s opinion, I don’t really agree with it on many counts.

Backups can be a serious issues, when a problem occurs. Even though the basic functionality is there, it can’t beat the convenience and reliability of the best imaging apps. I use TI and won’t be replacing it for the Windows native functionality.

I have also used a 3rd party defragmentation app – PerfectDisk. Windows own defragmenter, better as it may be than previous incarnations, can’t beat it. I will stick with it as well.

On the AV front, yes, I use MSE. It seems it’s the only point of agreement with the opinions expressed in the Newsletter.

Not only I think that app by app, the real Office beats anything else, but there is one aspect that no office emulator can achieve: interoperability among all the suite’s apps. If you then need to use a database, it’s really a no brainer. I do admit that most regular users won’t have my needs, though.

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Hi Woody.. It is articles like yours that have converted me to a non paying subscriber. “Don’t pay for software you don’t need’ Be honest.. would this include Windows 7?

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@Ralph2 –

The one piece of software every Windows user needs is Win7. Seriously. Get together with two of your friends and buy a Family Pack. Win7 works out to $40 per license. Best $40 you’ll ever spend on software.

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Thank you for this article.

I was not aware of the scheduled de-frag ‘feature’.

I have a Solid State Hard Drive and defrag is not only unnecessary, but can be harmful.

I followed your lead to the scheduler and disabled it after a right-click.

Art

edit:- see this thread:

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//134242-De-Fragging-SSDs?highlight=solid+state

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Thank’s Woody, a great article reflective of these times.
I’ve been gradually coming to a similar conclusion with regard to disk defragmenting in Windows 7. (hardly ever needed anymore)
The Windows 7 disk image option is sufficient for my [simple] needs, but others’ needs will vary based on extent and complexities.
So 3rd party disk imaging applications are still highly relevant to many people. Thus far I have been very pleased with the Windows 7 imaging app. & MSE.

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I disagree about not to bothering with any backup software other than what Windows 7 provides. That is, at least if you care about security of backup files.

The problem is that Windows Backup provides no encryption when you do a data backup. Anyone else running Windows 7 could read those backup files. I consider this a fatal flaw. Ghost, Acronis, etc., all provide serious encryption to their backups.

Sure there are workarounds. (Ex: After each backup, drive to your bank and put the backup drive in the vault, or encrypt with TrueCrypt.) But I really can’t tell everyone who asks me about backup to go through a multistep procedure. Nor can I automate the process easily with Windows 7 backup. I can with any of the alternatives.

Another problem with Windows 7 backup is that the option to create a system restore CD or DVD simply does not work on many systems. This is the subject of many threads on different forums. It turns out (and I’ve posted this on several forums) that you may have to activate the hidden Administrator account and log on to that account to make the rescue disk. Until I found it by futzing, I had never seen this solution posted anywhere. Ghost and Acronis don’t seem to create the same problems.

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In principle MSE sounds like a good option. However, the reason I went off Avira a few years ago was that it did not have email scanning. Does MSE? Is there a good freeware email scanner? Or isn’t a seperate email scanner necessary? My F-Secure finds a problem every few weeks (with Eudora 7 as my email client).

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In principle MSE sounds like a good option. However, the reason I went off Avira a few years ago was that it did not have email scanning. Does MSE? Is there a good freeware email scanner? Or isn’t a seperate email scanner necessary? My F-Secure finds a problem every few weeks (with Eudora 7 as my email client).

I believe MSE does do AV/AM scanning of email, at least WLM which I use. It only scans attachments, which is what all AM scanners will do. I know it integrates nicely with the IE9 download manager and scans all downloads prior to ketting them be used. I cannot say for certain it scans Eudora 7. Have not found anything yet.

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While Windows 7 may have a good backup software, backing up solely to your own hard drive or to another computer in the same building is Ok. What if a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood visits your home or office? Or what if your computer and external hard drive gets stolen? That backup to your own hard drive or external is not going to do you one bit of good! Backing up to an external hard drive is good but Windows will not always tell you if it can be read back unless you manually do a verification. I replace hard drives all the time and many gave the owner no warning it was failing.

I tell all my clients and friends to use an off-site backup service such as Carbonite or Mozy. In a total disaster you will have to reinstall your OS and programs, your important data (documents, photos, e-mail, etc.) will be easily restored. Carbonite will keep up to 3 months worth of old versions of the files in your backup. Carbonite and Mozy will work on Windows XP and up. Carbonite will also work on the Mac.

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@Mike-H –

Mozy’s certainly valuable. I wonder how well they protect your data? See my column coming up this week (on Thursday) for some eye-popping info on why that may be a crucial consideration. Okay, at least it was eye-popping to me.

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Woody,

I have used Mozy Free a couple of times and it did the restore OK.

I have a client who had a laptop stolen while on a business trip. They had Carbonite on it. They bought a new laptop, I installed all the needed programs and told Carbonite to restore everything. After a couple of days, it was like there never was a stolen laptop. All the directories, files, profiles, user accounts, etc.

Recently, I had my 500 gb data drive go out. I was not able to recover anything off of it. But I had Carbonite and was able to restore everything. Took several days but it was better than no backups and CD’s/DVD’s. A external hard drive backup would be quicker to restore, but I know with Carbonite everything gets backup without errors and not having to remember to do it.

Carbonite is affordable insurance ($55 per year unlimited) against losing everything. As the axiom goes, “Don’t ask IF my hard drive will fail, but WHEN.” I have read that drives today because of the storage size in the same size case, are more prone to failure because of the tight tolerances needed to make them work.

Mike

@Mike-H –

Mozy’s certainly valuable. I wonder how well they protect your data? See my column coming up this week (on Thursday) for some eye-popping info on why that may be a crucial consideration. Okay, at least it was eye-popping to me.

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I tell all my clients and friends to use an off-site backup service such as Carbonite or Mozy.

That’s fine if you can trust the offsite service:
1. to stay in business
2. to guard your privacy

Acronis’s license says they can decript your offsite backup data to look for child pornography or in response to a government subpoena. If Acronis can decrypt it, then so could a hacker who got into Acronis’s system.

Maybe all the offsite services have backdoors into your data. That would make me nervous. I’d want to put my data into a TrueCrypt container file before backing it up offsite.

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@Jonricho –

Yes, MSE has real-time scanning, including email contents and email attachments.

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I had to laugh at the next newsletter I recieved (12 may Windows Safety Net) – there’s an ad at the top saying MS Security Essentials is ‘inadequate’!

Just to contradict everything Woody has been telling us!

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Yeah I got a kick out of that too since many of us here advocate the use of the free MSE program over paid solutions.
Everyone has an opinion on AV/AM software and they are all subjective,:innocent: including mine.

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Woody,

The test of any backup program is its ability to restore files. In this regard, Win7 image backup failed miserably on two computers. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe, but why should I bang my head against the wall trying to figure out the problem. In short, Win7 backup doesn’t work for me and Ghost does. So I’m going back to Ghost.

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This is my first post. I just enrolled. My question is that – Here you say don’t pay for software do don’t neen with empheses on registry cleaner. Yet you advertise registry cleaner thet requires payments. Do you support these ads or where is the disclaimer? This is quite a confusion. I also want all responses to be emailed to me. How do I set that up?

Thanks

Noor Motani

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