Stop Doing This To Your Computer

[@damianosplay9457]

haven't watched the vid yet but lemme tell you the people who have a hundred programs run on start up are the worst, bonus points if they got more than one antivirus software

[@CoMmAnDrX]

I had a client come in running AVG, McAfee and Norton Security. Their complaint was their system ran very slow and was unusable. Well yeah you have 3 AV's fighting over control of your system and all 3 want to look at your files as you open them. LOL!

[@CyberCPU]

I see that a lot too.

[@damianosplay9457]

@@CoMmAnDrX ah man and its always some old crusty laptop too, from my experience you cant explain that it's not healthy for the computer to those people, but hey I aint complaining they are my main source of income lol

[@chrisbaker8533]

The epitome of PBKaC.

[@706erRick]

@@CyberCPU Quick question I have a 14 tb external hard drive and I want to extend my c drive with it is that possible the 14 is brand new nothing on it... also if not is there a way to download everything directly to my external drive without even using space on the c drive it's full!!?

[@davedc6847]

I've been the local "tech guy" since Win 3.1... I could not agree with you more about ALL the points you made here. You validate my views 100%! Keep up the great work!

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

Completely agree that defrag is useless and even counter-productive on an SSD. But I do miss watching the little blocks reorganising themselves on Windows 98 !

[@cherylkern3288]

"But I do miss watching the little blocks reorganising themselves on Windows 98 !" 😅🤣😂

[@RandomTorok]

hmmm, I think I'll develop a little program called Defrag that moves little blocks around on the screen but does nothing to the SSD.

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

@@RandomTorok I'm in ! 😂

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

@@RandomTorok I'm in! 😄

[@kreont1]

​@@RandomToroksad do trim

[@michaelmonstar4276]

The only defragmentation-program I found helped HDDs back in the day was Diskeeper. It seemed light and it also kept the system more responsive by constantly monitoring and organizing the drives. - But as someone who grew up with HDDs and diskettes, I'm extremely grateful for solid-state solutions, especially NVMe-drives. - It's how "transparent" I always wanted storage to be. - No sluggishness, next to no latency, and no noise.

[@bengtl.5017]

Everyone talked about defragmentaion to be a solution but I never noticed any real difference. Of course fragmentation did slow it down to a degree but never to bog down the system completely.

[@lightechoes]

@@bengtl.5017 You'd be surprised, I had a few friends who had never defragged their old drives, it was nightmare to defrag them, and was so much better after it was done with scheduling set.

[@7spann]

I appreciate this info, being a mechanical engineer, I'm a computer dummy, I like tech talk that expose the bull that prey on ignorance

[@CareyHolzman]

Thank you! I thought I was alone warning people about these things. Nice that there are now two of us trying to share real knowledge with our viewers! Registry cleaners have basically paid for my car! As a computer technician over 30 years, the amount of money I've made from people self-inflicting damage from system optimizers like CCLEANER and SYSTEM MECHANIC would easily exceed what I paid for my car.

[@james.andrew]

Totally agree with you, when I install/repair I keep it clean. No crappy apps that you don't really need. Keep it simple no duplicate apps and download and install drivers from the manufacturer's website. You should include Tune-up suites that promises to speedup the performance but instead still precious system resources and even makes your computer more slower.

[@judebrad]

I worked in Gateway support back in 1999-2006 and we hated the bundled AV programs that came with the systems. This was back in Windows 95/98/2000 days before Microsoft Security Essentials later known as Windows Defender came about.

[@needsLITHIUM]

I remember back in college some of my friends in other majors would come to me because they couldn't get the paid version of AVG Internet Security Suite to uninstall properly, and I would have to explain that if it still leaves hooks in the system, that the only fix is to go in and manually delete the folders and registry keys, and some of the folders, somehow even the admin account couldn't delete them because they didn't have permission and there were DLL's in there that would autostart services, so therefor the only way to truly remove it is to boot a live ISO of Linux and delete the folders that way, and with all of this hassle it's easier to just back up everything important like school projects and license info for Microsoft Office and whatever else they needed and just reinstall Vista and all the drivers, because I could do that 3 times over in the time it takes to do all that other song and dance.

[@christopherp.8485]

Agree with all your points. When I went to study for IT support, the teachers were telling us to use these driver updaters and had most of the bad practices you often will see.

[@Zhyntil]

I used to tell people that Norton started out good... They were two dudes that didn't like all the crime and such in the local park. they put a rowboat in the pond and would hang out with their rifles. A few months later they wanted some more comfort, so got a bigger rowboat with a cooler. Then after a bit a fancier boat with a fridge and a grill on the back. Then they wanted to up their arms and put some heavy guns on it. After a while though it was a battleship and no one wanted to go to the park anymore because you couldn't even see the sun. and the battleship filled the entire pond.

[@stevenemert837]

@Zhyntil - Totally agree. I've had Norton a long time. It was good at first, but I've finally quit installing it since it slows down the system and is always getting in your face, especially when you're trying to get some real work done.

[@root4-all]

As a tech enthusiast myself, I appreciate all the tips/fixes and compilation videos you make. None however, am I more appreciative of than this one (not to detract from the usefulness of all your other videos). I'm glad you stressed the importance of each adherence. All too often I see people on the internet trying to take the easy route because it sounds easier. Now you have provided a constructive video explaining the flaws of each problem, I have something to quickly link people to. 👍

[@billyguthrie3176]

That take the easy route thing bugs me. I see a plethora of videos that promise to show you how ot do something but all they really show you is how to download a script that'll do it for you. That just drives me crazy!

[@dougware]

Theres a lot of snake oil out there. Your video is well researched and you cover the information well. Security Suites and Registry Defrag/Cleaners are the worst.

[@gillesgomez3091]

100% agree with the content of your video. I have so many customers who have installed stupid/unnecessary softwares, who complain their computer is running slowly. I am always uninstalling those crappy pieces of softwares as a first step. I am always recommending them to stick to Windows original functions, such as Windows Defender and to NEVER use a registry cleaning software without knowing exactly what they're doing. Unfortunately, most people don't trust me... and when they call me one more time some weeks or months later, I see they've reinstalled their crap.

[@KenjiUmino]

pretty much my experience ... when people complained about a slow computer, most of the time, they had a "fully loaded" systray ... and they would reinstall all that crap again the moment you left ....

[@amurtigress_mobile365]

Thank you for making things so clear and understandable, which seriously makes my own life a tad easier. As a PC builder and freelance/hobbyist PC repair person (Been around since C64 times!), I would just like to add that people still rather blame Windows for being UNSTABLE, while I am convinced that it is usually not Windows that's unstable, but the HARDWARE or it's drivers. But people just see a Windows BSOD and blame the messenger. I realize it's hard to draw the line where exactly Windows ends and 'hardware' begins... PS: I am very picky about my subscriptions, but this channel really got mine from the first video that I watched. Very much on spot and useful; depite being the basics for myself. Still I want to see where this channel is going!

[@CyberCPU]

Very true. Most Windows stability issues are not the fault of Windows itself.

[@NiGHTSnoob]

I did have a major issue once where Windows updated and all of a sudden my system started crashing all the time. Tried to do a system restore and that failed. After a few days Nvidia released a driver update and after updating that my system was fine again. So, I guess you could argue that was Nvidia's fault. HOWEVER, the system was running fine before that Windows update and Nvidia wasn't the one that auto downloaded and applied an update, and then restarted my computer, all without my permission. So I'm gonna go ahead and continue to be miffed at Microsoft for that one. I understand why they want people to update constantly, but the fact that after it broke everything on me trying to disable it from applying automatically was such a pain in the ass and required following a guide is ridiculous.

[@brolinofvandar]

On more than one occasion, I've had Windows more or less self-destruct or fail miserably, yet rebooting that very same hardware into linux worked. In one case, it was a hardware failure involved, a CD drive. Booting to Windows, I had no idea what the problem was, Windows simply failed to boot (though the drive in question had nothing to do with that process). I discovered the failed item by eventually booting to linux, which worked just fine until I attempted to use that drive. Back to Windows, and it failed again. I replaced the drive. Thing is, linux dealt with it, Windows shit the bed instead. In another case, Windows developed a habit of randomly stopping dead in its tracks, completely freezing, forcing a power off to recover. Boot that same machine to linux, it worked just fine. I continued troubleshooting Windows for days, backing out recent changes, etc. Nothing changed. Random lockups guaranteed, within 2 minutes, 2 hours, etc., but it *would* lockup. Booted it to linux, and never looked back. So, yes, quite often Windows IS the problem, not the hardware. And, even if it is the hardware, Windows doesn't deal with failures very well. As a point of reference from where I speak, I spent 45+ years as an electronics technician. I've had a computer in my house since 88 (DOS 3.2), and after my second computer (around 90) I've built every desktop I've used at home. I also supported a Novell network with Windows workstations for five years. I've used DOS, OS/2, Windows, and now linux. I only say this to clarify that I'm not just a typical home computer user.

[@CyberCPU]

@@brolinofvandar Using a gen 1 Ryzen in Linux will give you tons of issues if you use one of the early ones. I had that setup years ago and I ended up having to upgrade to a gen 3 Ryzen to fix it. Wasn't worth the headache. The CPU is still in use on Windows 10 and runs as stable as a rock. I've worked on thousands of systems and have been using Linux for 20 years. Some of the strangest problems I've ever had have been in Linux. It's a great OS but ultimately on the desktop it's an enthusiast OS.

[@Zaphod0414]

The problem with Windows Update is not the content that it is delivering. The big problem is the automatic reboots. That makes using it a complete non-starter for me. An operating system should never, ever, be restarting a PC on its own whims. EVER!!! Besides halting on an unrecoverable exception - i.e. the infamous BSOD stop error - the OS does NOT get to decide on its own when a system reboots. No, popping up a little notification saying it's about to happen does not make it any more acceptable. What if the server is headless and never gets logged into interactively? Do you think that notification will be of any use? I have completely eliminated Windows as the OS behind any of my non-interactive systems as a direct answer to Microsoft's decisions around automatic reboots becoming increasingly aggressive and more difficult to suppress. As for my interactive systems, they all have Windows Update set to do nothing unless manually instructed to do so. This is the only way short of disabling it entirely to prevent Windows from automatically rebooting the system, and it is ridiculously convoluted to do so these days. It requires specialist knowledge and either the use of group policy (which only available in Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows) or a straight up registry hack to pull off. In other words, good luck to the average home user. I can forgive/tolerate many things in the design of an OS, but uncommanded reboots that are effectively nearly impossible to prevent is absolutely not one of them. Until Microsoft addresses this issue, which it doesn't look like they have any intention of doing, for me Windows Update will never again remain in automatic mode. If that ever becomes impossible, I will be disabling it entirely.

[@ruthlessadmin]

Linux & BSD would tend to disagree that the registry is faster than plain text configuration. There are pros and cons to each approach but all in all, systems are so complex these days, that doing deep customization to any OS is an overwhelming mess. I miss config.sys and autoexec.bat :(

[@MickeyD2012]

Keep fighting the good fight brother.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

So do I. I loved DOS back in the day.

[@stansova3138]

I will never forget the 1st time I had an MS wreck come to my area and try to sell me a SECURITY PACKAGE and said you will never get past this, so I watched as he installed it and then told me to try and get in. Now we are talking MSDOS here 1.1, so I turned the computer on and it asked for a pass word. So I shut off the machine and reached down into my desk drawer and took out a disk with MSDos 1.1 put it in the drive and turned it on, and would you believe it the machine came alive and I could use any program on my hard disk. Now I was Automatic Data Processing Security for this big company, and looked at Mr. Gates and Balmer and so no, it don't work to good, I will continue to have the hard drives removed each nite and turned into our big safe.

[@kloroformd]

I have had Arch on my kid's computer for 7 years and I still don't miss config.sys and autoexec.bat. But I look on both of those fondly compared to XF86Config.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@stansova3138 LOL…Today, computer security is a moving target. You are never totally secure. Your biggest threat is an internet connection. Today, few of us are left from the days before computers when everything was done manually. Frankly, most people are addicted to their conveniences and would refuse to shut down all the computers. This state of affairs is the social engineers dream.

[@BadWolfPlays66]

Before I switched to nvmes and ssds, I used to use crap cleaner and o&o defrag. But stopped using both after the switch to ssds and nvmes. Although, dropping crap cleaner took a whole lot longer to do. As for AV, I used to use Kaspersky back in the day and up until 6 months ago, I was using bitdefender, but dropped it. Now all I use on my Windows system is Defender and Ublock Origin. But I rarely use my Windows system these days. I basically keep it around to play with the new versions of Wiindows. Great video as always.

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it helped.

[@nIghtorius]

As a technician. I hate crap cleaner. Because it tends to delete diagnostic logs on startup (default configuration). Things as minidumps in c:\windows\minidump, logs in the c:\windows\logs\ folders, etc.

[@BadWolfPlays66]

@@nIghtorius It's not set as default cofig. You have to go in and actually check it to run on startup. Always been like that. Bleachbit and Glary had that turned on by default.

[@jamesyoung151]

I used to work in an Air Force lab and the policy was always wait 6 months after updates, especially on servers. That lesson was learned the hard way. A single update has broken several thousand systems at once. Not a fun job restoring all of those systems so that they were working again. Personally, I delay the updates. The hours I work and when the computer wants to update don't exactly agree. When I want to switch to Linux, I usually do the update before rebooting.

[@krisclem8290]

Not to mention modern Windows default defrag often does this automatically in the background if I'm not mistaken.

[@davinp]

Unfortunately most Windows PC comes with McAfee Antivirus installed. Get rid of it

[@CyberCPU]

It depends. Different big box stores or manufacturers pre-install different antivirus programs based on who they have a commission deal with. Staples use to be Norton, I'm not sure if they still are.

[@dapsonlonia]

How about bitdefender?

[@terrylandess6072]

I started using computers back in the 80's and this video justifies my decisions over the years. Thank You. I don't keep up with the tech like I used to and understand the core concepts haven't really changed. I never update anything unless forced to and those come straight from the manufacturer. The only problem I face ATM is the SSD used for Windows/Documents/etc. is beginning to get full and I'm having an issue trying to figure out what files/folders which would be recreated if necessary can be removed for space. The real storage drive used for the x86 files I can maintain easily myself, but the User Drive is daunting - because of things like you mention with the registry - I don't want to delete a file I need. I already move save games in and out to save space. I also move pictures, videos or any downloaded file OFF the C: drive onto another for the same reasons. NVM: I was motivated to learn I can move my DOCS folder :)

[@FlamingRobzilla]

I like the little little round Borg light on your computer case. It's a fun little add-on, and looks cool in your backdrop.

[@Wezleigh]

One of my grandmother's old laptops ended up with a nasty piece of adware that hijacked nearly every window that came up. McAffee was totally useless.I finally struggled through installing an ad blocker in chrome, and there was at least a dozen or more ads being blocked every second. After finding the adware process in task manager i tried unsucessfully to delete it because it restarted itself too quickly to actually delete it. Next up i went looking around and installed an auto clicker. I lined up the confirmation boxes to end the process and delete the file, and i activated the auto clicker. That finally worked to delete the adware and she was able to browse facebook in peace.

[@PeBoVision]

I'm tech support for all of my friends (have been since the days of 8-bit computing). I am going to include a link to this video with any repairs or builds I do moving forward. Nothing is more frustrating than handing a friend their zippy new or cleaned system, only to go back 2 days later to find windows takes 5 minutes to boot up and task manager is filled with dozens of resource heavy TSR's that I did not install (there is no reason for a casual game to boot with windows.) Worst offenders for bloatware: GeekSquad and other retail based tech support desks. Had a friend upgrade his laptop memory with them recently (a Dell Inspiron which has no easy access to memory modules without removing the mobo) and his system came back with all kinds of new auto-load software. Can't speak for all locations, but...um no, actually I can.

[@MrPazzerz]

I believe Defender was part of Sysinternals, which was exceptionally good, at least until Microsoft bought them out and 'tweaked' it. I used Sysinternals quite a bit.

[@rusticlogcabinlife9443]

Mr.Cyber In the past I've used Ausligics Disk Defrag I got as freeware from a disc in Maximum PC magazine It really does a good job at Defrag on spinning drives...I had to Google doing it on ssd and was shocked that AVG antivirus is trying to sell a defragger for a system with NVME drives

[@paulhansberry8168]

Very informative, I suspected this, but you confirmed it. Thanks.

[@paulm5935]

I agree with the other viewer's comments on diskkeeper. I'll add that it was good at a time when Windows Defrag wasn't rewritten to what it is today. With that said, Windows Defrag is needed, especially when you have a mix of mechanical HDD's and the Nand Technolgy SSD"s. I've usually had this mix more recently, and a nice thing I've found about the latest verion(s) of Windows Defrag, is that it does a great job on mechanical HDDs AND works well for SSDs as too, by avoiding a traditional defrag on these, but instead invokes that TRIM command you mentioned, that is occasionally needed.

[@theprior46]

Can't argue with any of this highly sensible advice. Thank goodness threre are people with inside knowledge who freely spread advice to keep others safe. This is a real eye-opener and I'm going to take the advice adhering to it closely. So very useful and thank you - got to give this a like.

[@lindah6954]

I agree with you. Getting Malware on a HDD you can re-format the drive and reload windows. With a SSD hard drive it's 50/50 if it can be saved. If the malware gets into the controller portion of the SSD, it's done. Back up your files often.

[@boomerau]

If you are running a SSD compatible OS - like Windows; you should be using "defrag" as the OS will use the "defrag" cycle to trim sectors of deleted for use thus making writing to the disk quicker as the erase step is complete. If you have non-OEM SSD like Seagate you can allocate part of the disk as a buffer for this work to happen at a hardware level in the background.

[@charleshines2142]

If I buy a computer already built like a laptop simply because those are impractical to build myself, I often just do a clean install of Windows. That gets rid of any bloatware that the manufacturer installed. I would also prefer to upgrade from the Home edition that comes on most prebuilt PCs up to Professional. I want to be able to edit group policies if ever a need arises. Also the professional edition doesn't come with those terrible bloatware games like Candy Crush. I honestly never play that game at all. I would not play it even if I was 10 years old!!

[@BadCarbNoDonut]

I will be getting a solid state PC for the first time soon, so it's good to know I should not defrag. I had no idea. Very glad I ran across this video. I've never had an issue with CCleaner, CleanUp!, or Advanced Uninstaller Pro. In fact, the computer repair shop I volunteered at used CCleaner and CleanUp! as part of their repair protocol.

[@CyberCPU]

Lots of shops do. I often see these programs on people's computers. I think sometimes they are installed by techs that don't know a lot.

[@iskandarzulkarnainsalleh8688]

Thank you for the great skills and knowledge you've imparted to me. I greatly appreciate your contribution on the video to my success in my work at my department. I consider I was lucky to have you as a teacher, and then I was even more fortunate to have you as a mentor. Thank you for always sharing your professional knowledge and expertise. It's so inspiring to have a master who helps others. thank you again. 😃😃

[@CyberCPU]

Glad to help!

[@xxxlucid]

@@CyberCPU bot comment

[@CyberCPU]

@@xxxlucid nope, it's really me.

[@washim-7867]

​@@CyberCPUi think it's the other way around...

[@DIYDaveOK]

I'm with you 100% on this. People ask me what antivirus I run, and I tell them just the default on Windows, no third parties. They're stunned. Defraggers are holdovers from a bygone generation. Reg cleaners were always oversold. While I want good updates, my gripe with Windows Update is when they *force* an update down and you don't know it's coming until your machine spontaneously reboots with no opportunity to defer it. Gotta be a better way to broker those. For users who need to do a short-term task, just need to fire up their machine for a simple task, but then see that update turn their objective into an hour-long effort, that's when we've lost sight of the trees for the forest. As I said, there's gotta be a better way to broker between the two extremes of *no* updates and *forced now* updates. Need a little Wisdom of Solomon to discern what that is.

[@philip6502]

Simply choose to pause updates for 1 week. You will always get a notice about the update. It will never update on its own.

[@CyberCPU]

I've never liked defraggers. Even back before SSDs. I've always thought they where a waste of resources.

[@LauraKnotek]

@@CyberCPU I never used them. Back in the day, I simply used the in-built Windows defragger.

[@doctorno3912]

God this resonates. I'm the tech enthusiast in my family with industry experience. I get these same questions from family and friends and it blows their minds when I saw I just use windows defender. I also use Pihole with a bunch of black lists and haven't had a problem in years. If I have a file I'm sus on I just upload it to virus total or run it in a vm.

[@kevinsteinman8967]

I'm in the camp of when I update it's on my terms and not Microsoft. I've always found it's always better to wait and see the whine and anguish after a bad windows update and then after that's fixed to update. So yea I have windows update turned off but I can go get the update if I want and that's a point you are missing in this video. My machines are always ready for use and do not shutdown or lock me out when I need them the most.

[@donatkinson1647]

Simple, sensible, and straight forward.... it's why I stop by. Thanks!

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Wow! This has been a trip down memory Lane. I’ve been a Linux/BSD user for a number of years now. I actually learned how to clean the registry myself when it became evident that packages that simply refused to uninstall, were doing so from the registry. The last time I had to do that was back in the Window XP days. I agree about the importance of keeping your computer patched. It would be even nicer if a home user could choose to receive security updates only and Microsoft would honor that choice. It would be even better if update were more efficient and reliable. The slowest update utility in Linux is faster than Microsoft update. How do I know? I still have friends who use Windows. Out of curiosity, how long does it take to install Windows 11 these days including the updates? Just a basic install. Anyway, you sound like a pretty cool dude. Your channel just showed up and I checked it out. I’ll leave a thumbs up but I won’t be subscribing, LOL. Take care and have fun.

[@kanna2515]

i've swapped between linux and windows a bit too many times, i can safely say that even the heaviest distros i've used are still faster to install than windows 11

[@arghyaprotimhalder5592]

​@@kanna2515booting matters performance matter what does installation time do

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@arghyaprotimhalder5592 I suppose it comes down to personal taste and preference. I tend to experiment and play with my systems these days. So, I end up reinstalling my OSs more often than someone who uses a computer for work alone. It always irritated me when it would take hours to reinstall and configure my system back to where it was, assuming I could even do so. I can’t count how many times I’ve added something new but never documented how I did it. Then, when I would reinstall, I would either lose that capability or spend time trying to find it again. I retired in December of 2019. This gave me the time to build an infrastructure for my systems. This involved a lot of trial and error as well as refactoring but today, I have a backup and restore system along with a documented installation system that permits me to completely install and configure my system in two hours. This is mostly a series of scripts that I execute. I recently reinstalled my FreeBSD system with DWM in two hours with only minor tweaks. I took the opportunity to refine the process a bit but I lost none of the functionality. I consider spending half a day on a reinstall a waste of time. My infrastructure allows me to quickly document changes and, easily incorporate them in my install process. This is a huge time saver and greatly diminishes my stress level. Having said all that, being retired has afforded me the time to create this infrastructure. I never had the time or energy to do this when I was working. So, I kept my systems as utilitarian as possible when I was working and kept my playing around to a minimum. My priority at that time was reliability and ease of use. So, it boils down to personal taste and preference and those change over time.

[@Deathwalker666666]

​@@donaldmickunas8552 With my personal experience with windows 10/11 update i decided to switch to Linux. On my dads laptop with windows 11 update that weights in 240 MB in pre download can take up to 3 hours to install while other times the update a major feature patch that weights several times more and it will take only 15 minutes. Other times it is the opposite or all updates will take min. 2 hours to complete. It basically a random number generator these days unlike the windows xp/vista/seven days where you knew bigger updates take longer while smaller took less time and don't get me started if you do a fresh install of windows 10. Which would be bad enough if MS did not went the "we decide everything for you" way of doing updates. This is why i switched to Linux Mint because it gives the same experience i had during using windows xp/vista/seven with few quality of life improvements like software manager or driver manager which freaking helps a lot if you have to do fresh install which for me took about 45 minutes to install, update and configure (which all three can be done at the same time and reboot the system just once)fresh linux mint install in comparison to windows average 2 hours and 48 minutes to do the same(both your account and that not so secret administrator).

[@BenCooke419]

You left Windows the same time I did. My last Windows was XP 64bit. After about a bazillion distros, I settled for Arch. Here I shall stay. It's a heck of an experience to actually have control of your computer.

[@leonjones7120]

Thanks for your helpful explaining. You come over well, and easy to understand.

[@shawnlowe1392]

This was a great video! You mirrored alot of the opinions of Leo Laporte (whom I watched on TechTV, so I am a little biased). But I feel you are spot on about add on anti-virus! Anyways, loving the channel, thanks for all the useful information! Keep Rocking!

[@JacobP81]

20:04 Actually NO people that say that are not completely wrong. Yes not doing updates leaves your system vulnerable, but Microsoft at times have pushed updates with bugs that have destroyed uses files or locked them out of them.

[@veespike]

19:22 - This bit here I kind of want to take issue with. I agree that disabling Windows Update completely is a mistake. But, Update as installed and configured natively on Win10 and Win11 systems is as much a risk as disabling it altogether. Win10 removed the ability for most users to hold updates and apply them upon approval. Now, for most users, they just get forced on whenever Windows wants to do them. You can put them off, and there's the whole trick of metered connections, but there should be (and used to be) an option for the user to hold updates until they are ready to install them. The reasons are two-fold: One - updates can be researched before being applied. More than once on my system alone, I have run into Windows updates that were broken upon release and had to be clawed back after install. Two - this prevents the user from being surprised by sudden shutdowns and lost work. If the user is in control of the update, this becomes much less of an issue. And I also know you can change this with certain versions or by hacking GPEditor onto the system - you should not have to. It used to be an option that was taken away for little good reason.

[@mickgunn4979]

Totaly agree, I have been telling my customers basically since Win 10 and Defender that they dont need the speed sucking bloatware anti virus suites but a few still think they need it as it must be better than defender, Harvey Norman (or Hardly Normal) have been selling Norton to customers telling them it will fix all there slow running problems which finally kills any opperating speed they had. We can't complain though as it keeps us busy. Cheers Mick

[@Jakiyyyyy]

Thank you for the awareness. Me myself uses ASC and Ccleaner long time ago for all the cache cleaning and stuff. It kinda add even more bloats on my system. I don't mind manually remove all the junks myself, I inherited that habit so it's not going to be a problem for me. After I stopped doing that, it makes no difference if I use those tools or not. Windows Update are important, however I would pause the automatic and manual update it myself but not too soon. At least wait for a week or so for the recent bugs to get fixed. Same goes for the driver updates. Sometimes I update them straight away, sometimes wait for few days. A simple driver update sometimes can boost your FPS in Cyberpunk, sometimes it don't. After all, it just fall into margin of errors. But I still do it since I play lot of recent titles. Those are "optimized" for and added support for said games.

[@kse3]

"Every supported version of Windows today should be using an SSD." Key word is "should". People are *still* buying new systems with Windows 11 and a mechanical drive as the boot drive... and then complaining about bad performance. Regarding driver updater programs, I 100% agree on "generic" updaters that claim to update everything; however updaters from the actual vendors, for example NVIDIA's updater for their drivers, or Intel's, or for OEMs like Dell their updater that just does the BIOS and the hardware they ship on a system, while some might argue how useful they are (even though updates often include security patches), chances are they aren't going to be malware vectors.

[@BigRonRN18]

You were echoing things I’ve been telling friends and family for years. I’m not a computer professional but I’m the resident nerd at work and around friends and family.

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

For what it's worth ... I've taken a practice of getting a system stable, then disabling *ALL* anti-virus, restore points, swap files, updates and defender tools. I ran win7 this way for over 8 years during which it ran perfectly without a single issue. Now, on windows 10 I will do the same thing and so far... not a single problem. A lot of the "security vulnerabilities" that we hear so much about just never become a problem if you run your system with just a little common sense and patching the OS can -- and often does -- tend to destabilize it. Just this morning, in another video, I watched a hardware tech fixing a laptop where the BIOS had been erased by windows update ... and that's not a risk I intend to take. The truth is that Windows Update started with the best of intentions. But now it's become a bloatware distribution tool that gives Microsoft way too much power over it's users.

[@legionofanon]

Common sense feels like it went out of stock years ago. those who got it are blessed and the rest... Yeah. If windows post 7 had the win 7 updater style where you could pick which updates to download and install, id still use windows updater myself (in a notify, do not auto download setting). But as it is, it remains disabled

[@KenjiUmino]

what business does an OS have messing with the mainboard's (or any other hardware's) firmware in the first place ? I mean, yeah, it was common to have some kind of firmware update tool that you needed to run from DOS or windows, but these days, BIOS updates should be allowed only from within the BIOS itself - think about it - if windows can "update" a laptops BIOS automagically, then so can any malware

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

@@KenjiUmino There always has been the chance that malware would overwrite the copy of the BIOS that is used during boot time. But to be able to replace the fallback copy stored in read only space should, as you say, only be possible from within the bios. Access to those addresses should be blocked from the OS and loadable software.

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

@@OfficialNull Nothing wrong with your approach, other than it's complexity. I just never saw the point in constant updates and an ever changing system. I have a pretty standard kit of software, some I've written for myself, most of it I've been using for years, and as long as the OS is stable, everything works as it should. Then, as long as everything is stable, I see no reason to be nervous about things that rarely happen.

[@JacobP81]

10:02 You can use defrag for physical hard drives, you DON'T use them for solid state. I'm not sure they are really even that necessary for physical hard drives because of the file systems we use now.

[@ashbuddy92]

the 1st snake oil i was "tasted" before is tune up utilities program..

[@NundedieCH]

Yeah, with Windows 98.😁

[@CyberCPU]

I should have included those. Great example.

[@Jimmythepin]

Many of us still rely on HDDs. Defragging is a critical maintenance operation.

[@waffle911]

That's why he advised to use the built-in defrag program instead of a third-party one, and that HDDs are still good for use as storage drives where performance isn't a concern.

[@MrPazzerz]

It is the 'Security Suite' that turned me off to purchasing many of the antivirus software. Some were so invasive as to be detrimental to what = I = wanted to do. Norton, I particularly hated and McAfee wasn't much better. At one point many of the vast number of antivirus software publishers started toning them down because of that complaint from consumers. I had one of the first IBM compatible computers (8086) and really didn't need an antivirus until sometime after purchasing my first Pentium. For that reason, I view much of the talk about antiviruses as more hype than anything. Even now, my logs show nothing. The Defender in Windows is pretty much all you need.

[@gorrumKnight]

Valid criticism of auto updates would be laptops with Intel 8th-11th Gen hardware (Especially HP). At the shop we run into many that update to either too new of a version of Windows 10 or update to 11 and have serious issues. This is because ELAN, Synaptic, etc don't have a validated driver & without disabling touchpad, touchscreen, or another core component the system BSODs to infinity. Additionally we have seen recent Windows updates force incorrect drivers for GPUs causing serious issues (11 seems to have less issues in this regard). Solid general advice for the average end user. I would probably mention during the anti-virus section that an ad/script blocker is valuable probably moreso these days. uBlock Origin is one I highly recommend & for the more tech savvy NoScript or CanvasBlocker. And preferably stop using Windows (I use Arch btw). Overall good video, kudos my dude.

[@TogonzoMedia]

You can't even defrag an SSD anymore. The native AHCI controller in Windows -- upon detection of an SSD -- performs a Trim operation instead of a defrag and honestly Trim is useless until you perform a disk cleanup so that all that cruft from Windows Update (including previous versions of Windows itself), cached thumbnails, log files, etc are purged. That'll free up hundreds of megabytes and possibly gigabytes of space that can then be Trimmed. Since most Windows Updates land on Tuesdays, perform your disk cleanup and defrag/trim operations (defrag only happens on spinners) every Wednesday, and you'll notice your SSD drive health will stay above 95% for years because of a combination of trimming and wear leveling. Don't assume the drive's firmware will Trim the drive automatically on a weekly or monthly basis. Quite the opposite: the firmware won't Trim until the drive health dips below 10% and that's not good wear leveling practice and some distros of Linux don't even have the Trim service set up as a cron job - you have to start the service yourself in Root or with Sudo. However, I always recommend having ONE third party defrag tool in case you get into homebrew and emulation. As a former developer of OpenPS2Loader, a lot of people still use spinners and having your game ISOs stored on the disk in contiguous files is a requirement as fragmentation can break things. Because of that (and other reasons), Grim Doomer's OPL ExFAT support will eventually end up in the mainline branch and ExFAT can't be defragged.

[@Robert08010]

I remember adding an "efficinecy suite". One of the things it did was replace the windows trash can with its own trans can. I don't even recall if it was supposed to provide more thorough deletion or make it easier to recover files. All I remember is that when I went to remove the suite, it couldn't remove the modified trashcan. After that deleting files never worked right. Ultimately I got in the habit of doing a fresh install of windows about once a year just simply to accommodate the fact that I used to try out all sorts of odd software.

[@davinp]

Even Microsoft does not recommend using registry cleaners. They discontinued their own registry cleaner from Windows 95

[@CyberCPU]

I wasn't aware that 95 had a registry cleaner. That's interesting.

[@davinp]

@@CyberCPU Clarification, it did come with Windows 95, but as separate download called RegClean. But then Microsoft discovered that Regclean was actually deleting the correct keys and discontinued it for Windows XP

[@gotbordercollies]

Another Great Video - Hey Rich, where did you get the desktop on the computer to your left?

[@CyberCPU]

Are you talking about the desktop background?

[@gotbordercollies]

@@CyberCPU yes sir

[@CyberCPU]

@@gotbordercollies I found it on Google. Don't remember where.

[@gotbordercollies]

@@CyberCPU thank you Rich

[@InekoBK]

0:57 That's not entirely true. The original drink was definitely not snake oil but a mixture of wine and coca extract, designed as a painkiller and a treatment for nervous disorders, developed by John Pemberton, who was an actual doctor/surgeon. The recipe totally changed though because first the city where he lived banned alcohol so the wine was replaced by a sugar and kola nut syrup and in 1903 the coca extract was changed to an extract from coca leafs that were treated to take the cocaine out because at that point cola was no longer used as medicine but sold as a 'fruity soda drink with a kick' and addiction risks became a concern. A few additional tweaks to the recipe later and the Coca Cola we still drink today was born. I bet poor old Doc Pemberton would turn in his grave if he knew 150 years later his creation is considered as 'the snake oil tonic that became a popular beverage that makes you fat and rots your teeth' 😄

[@machdaddy6451]

I completely agree with you on the software that comes along for a ride in other software.

[@Max_Mustermann]

My father likes to install all kinds of free "optimizer" programs on his computer. The result usually being that Windows takes forever to start as all of these programs load on startup.

[@retr0life]

Regardless, we still need a little bit more control over Windows Update in 10 and 11, like in Windows 7 at least.

[@bluetheta]

I leave automatic updates on for security updates; I do set it to prompt me to restart so I can stop my operations. Remember that updates are not complete until the system is restarted (if prompted). Feature updates should ALWAYS be on manual as these might have the bloat that you might not want.

[@Zhixalom]

About 2-3 years back I had one of these driver update programs "kill" my PC's motherboard. it was steadily going through all the drivers and I just had to go to the toilet. I came back only to discover that it was in the process of upgrading the UEFI BIOS firmware 😬- and when it was done, it performed a hardware reset, only to do another, and then another, and another... yeah, really just a constant unbreakable resetting loop. This was a GIGABYTE motherboard, which means that it had an extra backup BIOS Flash-ROM. So, I took a peek in the manual for the key-press combination for activating the backup BIOS. But no luck, it was just completely unresponsive and stuck in this resetting gridlock. - To make matters worse, this was just 2 days before the Christmas holidays, so I had to find a WebShop which could send me a new motherboard from one day to the next, or I would have to do without my main PC through the holidays and I had been looking forward to doing some "winters day events" in my favorite MMORPG. Anyway I did manage to get hold of an ASRock motherboard and rebuild the PC in time. - So, fast forward to the present, or rather around March this year (2023). I wanted to build a new home-server and went and dug the old GIGABYTE motherboard out of storage. I recently added SMD soldering to my skillset and had build up the courage to try and fix it. Or as I figured, I really had nothing to loose, since it was more or less just a very fancy paperweight like that, and best case scenario; if I could get it going, I might be able to spare some money on this home-server project. So, I de-soldered the tiny Flash-ROM chip labeled M_BIOS, used my XGecu T56 programmer with an adaptor (it couldn't detect it while "in circuit") to dump its content to a BINary file, only for later investigations, downloaded the latest BIOS firmware from GIGABYTEs website, used the T56 again to flash it onto the chip, and soldered it back in its place on the motherboard. An operation I have already done a few times on some old vintage computers from the '80s, but never actually attempted on a modern SMD motherboard. - It must have been quite a sight; me standing there for 5-10 minutes, after hooking up the motherboard in my test rig, with my jaw on the floor, staring all googly-eyed in disbelief at a message going "CMOS corrupted, data has been cleared. Press a key to enter UEFI BIOS Setup." - I had not expected or even dared to hope that it would work. But I had actually managed to re-flash the BIOS in the most cumbersome and manual way. - Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went onto GIGABYTEs website again, and downloaded some BIOS firmwares from some other random motherboard models of the same era... and what do you know, one of them matched my BINary dump-file... So, the driver update had obviously just picked a firmware update for the wrong GIGABYTE motherboard. - Yeah, not touching any of those driver update assassins ever again, not even with an 11 foot pole.

[@mrgeebee1622]

CCleaner never failed me. And have great future to update drivers.

[@CyberCPU]

Just like the game of Russian roulette. You're always a winner, until you're not. 🤣😂

[@MichaelHedegaardJensen]

Great videos and greetings from Denmark. I used to download CCleaner and all those programs more than 10 years ago, and hated when you had to unclick all those extra programs. Since then, I only update drivers and programmes from the manufactures programs or sites directly.... and yes, I have had to reinstall windows multiple times before... Now I do it maybe twice a year, just to have a fresh machine. :)

[@jhoneviccasana1871]

Just wow, I just brought new computer and i'm glad this video recommend me first before I do something like spending for anti-virus. Thanks for making this clear to me. You have my subs bro

[@GarysGeeks]

I've been working on computers since 1985. I have my own IT repair business for 20 years and recently retired. I remember the Norton Commander and writing batch files for system maintenance to run windows defragger and virus scans every morning. Windows update has been a pain in the butt at times when an update BSOD's a system, but for the most part it has been a good thing for security updates and sometimes for driver updates. Windows has been good to me because it provided me a paycheck but at times IE. Windows Me creating 10's of thousand files on it's own sucked. I have used Norton since 1985 when i worked for the Government and I have no regrets, it has saved countless computers from viruses. I have used McAfee and several others and agree for the most part the big guys in anti-virus are about the same. In the old days I had to chase the files and reboot in safe mode or run Norton from a Floppy boot disk. I agree today Windows is much better about it's security and updates which saved me countless hours nowadays on my systems. I enjoy watching your videos and agree on most things but sometimes you get it wrong as we all do at times.

[@CyberCPU]

I have had systems in my shop infected running every antivirus on the market. That's why I recommend the ones that use the lest resources, because they all do a pretty comparable job in stopping viruses.

[@lokelaufeyson9931]

if the tool works for you you can use it, i have got my computer hijjacked by microsoft a few times too many when they dont like me say "no" to them so i use a good 3rd party tool for specific purposes and to achieve specific goals like adding a little bit security that i require in windows (it only apply in windows 8 and above). Other alternative systems dont require those tools to be used. One issue that i still have even after many years is a bug that kill and murder my sound over hdmi, it s a"security update" that microsoft push in peoples faces by default and i have to uninstall it to get my sound back. Told MS about it and the bug is still there and destroy my life even after many years. I can allow updates from that point if microsoft can fix their bugged update, i have to uninstall that specific update and stay at that point to be able to watch youtube with sound.

[@coffeegrinder6319]

Yes, Windows Update is important. Its just as important that Windows does lab tests before releasing them. I remember Windows Update breaking printers, and even deleting or hiding documents on the drive. I mean C',om. That is why i dont trust the Updates, and will wait 2 weeks, then install them, after they have the bugs gone

[@JPTech933]

I truly enjoyed watching your video on my Windows 7. I don't do anything important on it, but it's perfect for watching videos and streaming music.

[@craigconway4093]

"Snappy Drivers !" is a free driver updater. I have used it for many years with good success. Though I often still download the video driver suite manually.

[@craigconway4093]

Oh nice, it is the very one you recommend. But maybe someday it will be trendy to hate on it, lol. We'll see.

[@needsLITHIUM]

Security suites and 3rd party Antivirus software that installs at the admin level actually put hooks into the system the same way malware does, so it's arguable that if someone codes malware to target that and hijack the methodology that your AV software employs during installation, it actually makes the system MORE vulnerable by presenting another attack surface.

[@peterdobson3435]

You're absolutely right. I find no fault in what you say.

[@oszakira]

very informative, thank you 🙂

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it was helpful!

[@KishinMukito]

This is one video I basically fully agree with every word said. Two things I have to say though: 1. Yes registry cleaners are very bad software that shouldn't be used. But if you use an uninstalled software such as revo or iobit during their uninstallation process they can search for specific registry paths that the program you uninstalled used and deletes them for you along with other paths that the program leaves behind. And more often than not they show the registry items to you and ask you if you want to delete them or you can untick ones that you think you'd like to keep in 2. For windows update i usually just use a program from Christ Titus to set windows update to install security updates only and to skip out on the feature updates until I feel like those feature updates are something I would like to use

[@padders1068]

Thanks for sharing! 🙂🤓

[@Angular777]

Thank you, this really is a public service announcement, I wish that all users watched this video...

[@Snowdragon.]

Just wanted to thank you for all your educational videos - you rock !

[@marcopolitical7571]

Pffff I could bring on this info in less than vice minutes without leaving out anything useful. But you are a perfect metaphor for explaining how much a pain a Windows system can be. It makes you feel you need to go through the hassle to do what you want to do with it.

[@legionofanon]

I used to use cCleaner, but not for the registry. I used to to empty and (hopefully) securely delete items I had in the recycle bin. I remember it had Guttman level of write passes for deletion. I never tried to confirm that it did its job, but I had liked that feature. Then the last time I looked into it, it felt "sell out" type and I gave up on it

[@---le3ba]

Windows updates sometimes install/update your device drivers without asking you and sometimes it give you bad drivers for your devices and thats why I disable this part of it.

[@CyberCPU]

I did a video a while back on how to stop that for specific devices. It happens but it's very rare.

[@---le3ba]

@@CyberCPU also by defoult updates use your internet band to send to other people updates from you. If you have mobile limited net, than your GBs will be gone or pay more bills.

[@fookingsog]

Before SSD's came on the scene and somewhat fast hard drives were available, I "discovered" that if you maxxed out the RAM you could install and *THEN* put the Windows System Swap (Virtual Memory File) on a Hard Disk Drive secondary to the drive that the Operating System was installed on a Primary/Main Hard Disk Drive, you could *CONSIDERABLY* increase performance and reduce access times!!! All this due to the fact that the I/O of a single Hard Disk Drive wasn't getting hammered by system calls *AND* VM/Swap File calls!!!

[@prayan72]

You're a very wise and pragmatic person who knows the matter! Thank you!

[@rickyrobinson2662]

I agree, with you some people think so what I use an old system. Using old software makes it easy for the bad guy to wreak havoc. One sick computer can infect many.

[@Richard-mz7qu]

Outstanding!! Thank you sir

[@TheForce_Productions]

I take more than 10 years now using AVG Internet Security + AVG PC TuneUp (pay versions) and until now I've never had a problem with them. By other hand I read several reports that Windows Defender is quit a bit weak regarding some viruses and malwares detection, if I could I think I'd uninstall Defender and just leave the AVG.

[@CyberCPU]

All main stream antivirus programs are about the same in regards to viruses. I rate them based on system resources that use. Norton is typically the worst but AVG has historically been second after Norton with how many resources it uses.

[@TheForce_Productions]

@@CyberCPU I'll take that in count; which one you recommend?

[@CyberCPU]

@@TheForce_Productions I just use defender. I've had systems in my shop infected with every antivirus on the market. I don't see a benefit to retail AV programs. I just use the free one that comes built into windows.

[@WhitentonMike]

I've been in I.T. for over 35 years. I can attest to what is in the video. With a couple of points to add. Most New PCs have SSD drives and should have NVMe drives. However, if your system was originally a Windows 7 system and you upgraded it to Windows 10, it likely has a hard drive and not an SSD. Rather than bother with defragging the HDD, pick up a drive duplicator and a SATA SSD. Even though it isn't the latest, the PC will likely perform better than it did when it was new. The one issue that registry cleaners are fantastic at is removing disconnected parts of old drivers and software so the DLLs don't load and tie up system resources and CPU time. And there is only one I use, it is CCleaner. I don't use all the features, just the cache cleaner and registry cleaner. It works enough of the time to be worth using it on poor running systems.

[@JV-pu8kx]

A problem I have with the registry is that more and more programs are instead keeping their settings, etc., in c:\Users\user\AppData, i.e. text files.

[@ProcessedDigitally]

12:05 a better answer would be: "every currently supported version of windows automatically defrags harddisks when not in use and windows does not support the defragging of ssds" instead of saying they should be using ssds.... some ppl do have hardisks - most likely as secondary storage. I totally agree on not needing 3rd party anit-virus software (for advanced users) and the other bloatware driver updaters and reg cleaners, etc.

[@DJaquithFL]

Trying to be as polite as possible 20 maybe 15 years ago this video made sense to a point. No legit technician uses any of that stuff or does any of those things. What would have been helpful is about a video of best practices and things that do work. Examples: Periodic Windows backups, enabling system restore, using RAID and NAS, best practices especially for DIY PCs to update (drivers, BIOS, software, Windows, etc). Just to mention a few ideas.

[@GizmoFromPizmo]

The Windows Registration Database is what they called it under Windows 3.1. I worked with a couple guys who were actually certified in Win 3.1. I was cool, tho, because I went out and got certified in Windows 95. That was actually my Workstation cert for my MCSE.

[@bengtl.5017]

The movie scene at 8min50s, from what movie us it? I watched this oast winter but don't remember the name.

[@mikecrane2093]

There are six computers in my house. The newest came with Windows 11. Five of them run Windows 10, and four of those are "officially" unable to run Windows 11. All run well and do the jobs that are needed of them. Am I going to junk 4 of them just because Microsoft decided that they aren't good enough? Hell no. There is a reason that people still use "unsupported" versions of Windows, and it isn't to "stick it to the man".

[@politicallyincorrect4452]

First off modern windows recognizes if you installed an SSD and switches from defrag to TRIM mode. Even then it defrags it takes a lot to kill an SSD from a defrag process. Good vid as usual...

[@davinp]

I agree that you don't need a utility software such as iolo's System Mechanic because Windows 10/11 comes with a built-in cleaner and other utilities. They advertise they will make your PC faster but that is not true.

[@CyberCPU]

They typically make it slower because of the resources the program itself takes.

[@earlt911]

Do you let Windows OS update device drivers or is it better to use the manufacture drivers? Thanks!

[@unclerichard6729]

I disagree with you. :) Has there ever been a Windows update that didn't need to have bug fixes and get released at least 1 more time? My stance is to wait for Microsoft to use other people as guinea pigs and only download the update once I think it's at least fairly safe and stable. Most of the time the bug fixes are minor but here is a HUGE example. A few years back Microsoft released an update that reset the location of basic folders, such as Document, Pictures, Video, ect... In this case the update would place empty folders back to the default locations, C:\Users\account\..., and then delete the folders that had been moved, but it did not move the contents of the folders. Everyone who had moved the folders to other locations and then applied the update lost every document, picture, video,..., they had stored in those folders. Waiting before applying the update saved me from being one of those victims. This is why I refuse to apply an update until enough people have used it that I can trust that it's safe.

[@Pabliell]

Considering aftermarket defrag on HDD, all commercial defrag software sucks. Because defrag should rewrite the files to work faster AND to reduce fragmentation in the future. So free space consolidation is required, which is not done by Windows or most of the software out there. What worked for me best is Vopt 9, old software, but really reliable.

[@SgtFluffytheoriginal]

I really enjoy logging into a PC that wont print/connect to Wireless/you name it and finding Windows 10 at 1909 or earlier. Updates are important.

[@CyberCPU]

That happens a lot.

[@machdaddy6451]

I really like your bench/table. Plenty of space!

[@charlesroberts9675]

Good Video, Thank You!

[@CyberCPU]

You're welcome!

[@rationalbushcraft]

I remember my first AV. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it. But all it did was check the crc of an executable file before running it. It was a pain because everytime a piece of software updated it would pop up an error and ask if you want to update the crc. It was a huge pain and I uninstalled it so I didn't have to deal with it.

[@CyberCPU]

I believe my first antivirus was Norton corporate AV. It was around 2000. It was a bootleg copy a friend gave me.

[@rationalbushcraft]

@@CyberCPU well you are younger than me. The one I am talking about was early 90s maybe mid 90s. My first hack was a gopher server at UoM. 😂