NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, July 2012
Windows 7 has it All
By Vinny LaBash,
Regular Columnist, Sarasota PCUG, Florida December 2011 issue,
Sarasota Monitor
http://www.spcug.org
labash (at) spcug.org (click to email author)

OK, maybe Windows 7 doesn’t have everything, but it has many great features that make your computer experience easier, safer, and more reliable than any previous version. Windows 7 is different enough to make obsolete much of your ideas about why you need third party utilities.

You don’t need a separate disk partitioning utility anymore. Windows 7 does an excellent job even though it is not a complete disk portioning package. The vast majority of people sitting at a keyboard simply don’t need more than what Windows 7 provides, and Windows will not mess up your disk drive. If you are running a dual boot system with multiple operating systems, Windows 7 won’t measure up, but those folks comprise a small fraction of one percent of the computer community.

The only drawback to Window 7 partition manager is finding it. Click on the Start Orb, select Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, and double click on Computer Management. Wait a few seconds for Windows to gather information, and when the Computer Management window appears, click Disk Management located under the Storage heading.

If you are not sure of what to do, click the Help icon. It looks like a question mark on a blue background. The help section will guide you through any disk management task including troubleshooting. The partitioning tool won’t be of much help if your disk drive is too full because you won’t be able to keep and move files during partitioning. The obvious solution is to clean out your disk before partitioning. Unless you are a computer professional, you probably don’t need a third party program for portioning your drives. With today’s disk drive technology, you may not need to partition at all.

In the Accessories folder open the System Tools folder, and then select Disk Defragmenter. The dialog box on the screen displays the defrag schedule, the last time the disk(s) were defragged, and the degree of defragmentation on all your disk drives. If you have an SSD drive, Windows 7 will not defrag it which is a good thing.

Defragging reorganizes data so the operating system can retrieve information quickly without having to reassemble files that may be broken into pieces and stored in separate disk areas. Only highly defragmented disks will show any noticeable operational slowdown. There is great controversy in the computer community about the value of defragging your disks, making the purchase of an outside program of dubious value. Windows 7 defrag tool is all you need.

At last Windows has an engine that performs search operations quickly and efficiently. Most search programs outside of Microsoft came about because Vista search routines often resembled someone rummaging around in a dark room with their eyes closed, and then coming up empty. Indexing now works properly in the background without bringing your system to a crawl. There is no longer any need for third party services.

Registry cleaners may have been useful, even necessary with XP and Vista, but happily that is no longer true. The Windows Registry is a giant data base on your hard drive where Windows makes records of information it may need in the future. The Registry contains important information that Windows requires about system settings, user profiles, applications, and hardware among other things.

Vendors who sell registry cleaners are fond of pointing out that your registry gradually becomes out-of-date with invalid information because of everyday actions like removing applications, changing drive letters or simply moving or copying files. These errors gradually accumulate and corrupt the data base causing everything from a slowdown to a complete system crash. To take care of these problems and avoid having them in the future all you need to do is buy their PC registry cleaner. Hogwash, I say!

A registry cleaner is the most useless and potentially the most dangerous program you can install. Most of them do nothing to reduce the size of the registry, which might result in a slightly faster PC, but only slightly. If you removed a program last year, and the registry still contains a pointer that no longer points to anything, you can remove it, but why take the time, trouble, and effort? There is no longer any action associated with the pointer, and it’s completely harmless.

People may disagree, but registry cleaners have become infamous for trashing systems. Be cautious with sites that invite you to perform a free Registry cleaning, and then claim you have been the victim of some kind of mal-ware. Ponder, if you will, that Microsoft has stopped using its own registry cleaners, but has remained mysteriously quiet about the reasons why.

Windows has had a firewall capability since XP was introduced. In Windows 7 the firewall is straightforward and works well at keeping mal-ware out. Some critics say it’s inadequate because it works inbound only. Is an outbound firewall necessary? When an unauthorized program tries to send data out of your computer, an outbound firewall alerts you. That’s the idea, but reality is far different. Many outbound firewalls give incessant alerts usually with indecipherable warnings. When you track them down it’s almost always some obscure Windows service attempting to complete an operation. When the annoyance becomes unbearable, people turn off the outbound half of the firewall, totally defeating its purpose. In practice, an outbound firewall turns out to be severe overkill, and it can easily be defeated by a sophisticated mal-ware program.

Windows Firewall is present in every Windows 7 installation, is thoroughly integrated with the operating system, works well, doesn’t cost extra, and is turned on by default. Use it and don’t pay for a “full function” firewall that in all probability you don’t need.

You can make Windows 7 work better, but not by buying superfluous utilities. Get a faster internet connection or a more reliable one. Take the money you saved by not buying unneeded software and get a 24” monitor for a real “WOW” experience. Another good use for saved cash would be an SSD primary drive for true blazing performance. An ergonomic keyboard and mouse wouldn’t hurt either.

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