Nice Fast Fresh Install.. How to keep it this way.. Bad idea?

[Guest]

I have newly installed XP and it is SOOO much faster after fresh install..

Now how do i keep it fast. I realise some people will disagree obviously, but any feedback would be nice.

I am not a tech. My experience - fixing mine and friends virus problems, opening up pc's and fixing basic components, registry changes, etc..

OS is on separate partition. And i really dont mid reinstalling..

So this is what I am thinking to keep it running superfast:

1) No Antivirus.It slows everything down from boot onwards. I dont download questionable .exe's. I do not surf pornsites. I download .mp3's and programs from trusted sources.

Once everything is running - I am switching out of administrator rights.

I will also use autoruns, process explorer and rootkit revolver to keep an eye on things.

I realise this is controversial - but any opinions on this way of thinking?

Secondly and this I was only just thinking and dont really have a clue. Installing non essential programs lik foxit pdf and the like as portable apps and setting file associations only in registry rather than numerous registry keys ...

I really like my new superfast xp and if it means dealing with a virus here and there or formatting, reinstalling .. so be it!

 

[hang-the-9]

A good antivirus program does not slow things down much at all.

Test it out. Install a clean system, run a few benchmarks like 3dMark and PassMark. If you want to do a "good" test, run each benchmark 3 times with a reboot between each run, average the scores.

Install a good anti-virus (Avira Antivir is a good one to try ), run the same benchmarks. See if you get any differences. Keep in mind that +-5% is probably within error limits for the benchmarks.

The way you want to keep the system fast is not download anything you don't "need", no flashing fancy cursor add-on, no window skinners, no weather bars, etc... Don't upgrade hardware 5 times and not re-install the OS, keep up with driver updates, do a defrag once in a while, remove temp files (both user and from C:\Windows\Temp.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I'll tell you how I keep my system from getting crapped up; use it if you like and ignore it if you don't.

First of all, my operating system partition has only the OS on it. None of my data (well, my browser bookmarks). If I lose it, or have to roll it back, I don't give a hoot.

So after I install the OS, I take an image backup of it.

If I want to install a new program, I restore my last backup, install the software, install all updates to everything (since I probably lost a lot of updates when I did the restore), and do another dump.

Every few months, I restore my last backup, install all updates, and do full anti-virus scans. Sometimes I create a new image backup, sometimes not, as the mood takes me.

The result is that my computer has been running for over a year, but my OS drive has only been accumulating crap for a few weeks. Since I keep several of the recent dumps, if I break my OS, or get infested with crapware, I just roll back to before the problem.

And the machine doesn't suffer from gradual slowdown.

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Now, what not to install and what services not to run is another story. However, not running an antivirus program will make your computer slower over the long run. All those viruses, spyware, and adware will start eating up your cycles.