Setting up a fast, stable and tweaked PC
This is an old article originally produced in 2002. I still feel that it has relevance today, but with new PCs having vast amounts of memory and even larger hard drives, the need for the applications below has diminished. That is not to decry the work - and I'm still writing this on my six year-old machine - so I feel it is worth keeping updated.
Getting the most out of your investment in a PC is not easy. It is constantly changing as I try out new applications to make my life easier. First a couple of pointers.
useful info to start
Go to goosee.com for some of the philosophy, (ie the "why bother"), read an article by Joel Durham on reducing boot time and visit tinyapps.org, from where most of the applications below have come. Miles Wolbe has put together an excellent collection of small, efficient and well-written apps.
Since a review of this page appeared on tinyapps, I have been sent referrals for alternative software and a request for my system specs. They are: pentium 2 400MHz, 128Mb RAM, windows 98SE 4.10.2222A, 98lite 4.7 micro
My recommendation is to use Windows 98SE. For a home/office PC you do not need to upgrade to XP or 2003, particularly if your PC is over two years old. You should then partition your hard drive into c: for windows only, d: for applications and e: for data. I used Ranish's Partition Manager 2.44 (60k download). This means that you can reinstall windows without having to backup all your apps and data, and by keeping all data on e:, you can easily backup, I use my gmail account.
Format c:, but read this tutorial first, and reinstall windows using 98lite 4.7 (319k download). This wonderful piece of software is by far the most useful application I have ever bought. It nails the lie that Internet Explorer is integral to windows, and using the "micro" install option, enables you to get rid of all the "optional extras" that windows automatically loads when installing. This creates an operating system that is small (under 50MB as opposed to 125MB for a typical install), fast, stable and just works. My machine boots in 16 seconds, closes down in less than 1 second and has not crashed in months.
Once you have your clean machine, I recommend the following apps:
backup
XClone 1.3 (20k download) will clone a whole drive or directory. I have cloned a clean, fresh windows directory on to d:\clone just after doing a 98lite install and having made all the tweaks to the file system and registry. This means I never have to install windows again, I just clone from d:\clone back to c:\windows. It takes under 3 minutes.
browser, email, rss feed etc
Opera 8.02 (3550k download) Opera is *the* browser for the power user. Small, fast, in continual development, user friendly and, using proxomitron, will access even those badly deisgned sites that require IE.
firewall
I use a simple, clean and secure firewall called Look'n'Stop 2.05 (473k download).
word processing
Atlantis 1.0.0.66 (760k download)
Atlantis is what Word used to be, small, simple, fast, unbloated... You get the picture.
spreadsheet
Spread32 1.20 (490k download) is the Excel alternative that will import and export on almost all platforms. It is a fantastic achievement by the author, Stephen Bye.
zip files
HJ Zip 1.0 (310k download) is the all-round archiver, unzipping beautifully and creating archives that are much smaller the the competition.
mp3 player
1by1 1.47 (57k download) is an mp3 player which is not only small, it plays whole directories without a playlist.
video player
VLC 0.8.1 (6700k download) small, fast, effective... works!
acrobat reader
Foxit pdf Reader 1.2 0101 (893k download) I hate acrobat because it is slow, uses an unbelievable amount of resources and the later versions are full of spyware. This application is the solution. You do not even need to ever load Acrobat for this to work and it is very fast in operation.
anti-virus
F-Prot 3.16b (1856k download) is the best anti-virus software in the world. It is free and updated religiously.
defrag
Speed disk and Disk Doctor 14.00.0.28 (1150k download) is a disc optimiser and defragmenter. I use a stripped version of the software from the original 2001 Norton Utilities. The advantage of Speed disk is that it optimises the windows swap file on c:, all of the directories and applications most often used, as well as the data. This makes a big difference to the speed of PC in everyday operation.
diary, calender, address book etc
Time&Chaos 4.95 (754k download) is my fantastic PIM. The link will take you to the latest version, but I am using the 16bit version, as it is still the best PIM released and of course works perfectly in a 32bit environment.
It is worth noting at this point that I do not necessarily use the latest version of my applications. In small apps run by individuals it is worthwhile as there are continual adjustments and improvements. But for large company apps, including Windows, newer does not necessarily mean better. I recommend you look at oldversion.com to find out more. Anyway, back to the list.
IM
Miranda 0.4.0.1 (239k download) In order to use Miranda you do need to load the MSHTML core from IE - which is not loaded by default in 98Lite Micro. Alternatively you can use eMessanger an online version, but be prepared to annoy recepients with ads - so it makes it a no for me.
drive cleaner
Dustbuster 2.8.1 (191k download) is a garbage removal system for windows that deletes over 1500 types of redundant and temporary files without effecting your data or installed apps. It is best used before using Speed disk.
registry cleaner
RegSupreme 1.2 (745k download) is designed to manage your Windows registry. You can search for items, uninstall applications, clear histories, clean your registry and more. What I tend to do is run regseeker and then drop to DOS and run regscan /fix and regscan /opt before exiting back to windows. This cleans, fixes and optimises the registry. (This is why my PC does not crash and why I have thankfully forgotten what a BSOD looks like).
notepad, html editor and ftp client
Editplus 2.11 (860k download) is an html editor, spell checker and ftp client. I use it to design, (if that is the right word for something deliberately un-designed), build and run my websites.
file sharing
BitTorrent 3.4.2 (2170k download) BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol designed to transfer files. Users connect directly to send and receive portions of a file, while a central tracker coordinates the action of all peers and manages connections without knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed. With BitTorrent, users upload at the same time they download, so network bandwidth is managed as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better than other file-transfer protocols as the number of people interested in a certain file increases.
These are the apps to create and maintain my PC, and the apps I use all day, every day. But this list is not exhaustive, but if you download all of these apps, the total is 13.6Mb. This compares with a download of 19.8Mb for IE6 SP1 from Microsoft. I will leave you to make the comparison.
Two last points, one, this list will always change (and if anyone knows of apps that are better, smaller, faster, more secure or just better written, please let me know). Two, a disclaimer, which I have lifted form tinyapps. You are 100% responsible for your own actions. Using this site, visiting a link, downloading a program, in short, living, is done entirely at your own risk (and joy). Thank you.