what are the mandatory programs i need for my computer to run?
kaitlyn. [: asked:
I mean what are the only programs I need to save all my running on the computer. the only things I want are: iTunes the mozilla firefox picasa AIM AVG zone alarm lime wire What else, apart from those needed in my add / remove programs so that my computer and all those running smoothly? I remember deleting something once and I did not feature the iTunes. I have a Dell Computer with windows.
I mean what are the only programs I need to save all my running on the computer. the only things I want are: iTunes the mozilla firefox picasa AIM AVG zone alarm lime wire What else, apart from those needed in my add / remove programs so that my computer and all those running smoothly? I remember deleting something once and I did not feature the iTunes. I have a Dell Computer with windows.
Tags: Absolute, Add Remove, Zone Alarm
January 19th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Those mandatory programs wont appear in the “add/remove programs” the important files are all neatly layed out inside the “WINDOWS” folder in the C drive.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:54 am
Do NOT go into Add/Remove programs and just start removing things. You really have to know what the program is before you get rid of it. That said, the computer will “technically” run with very little.
What you should do, if you want to clean up the apps on your computer, is to go down the list, and thoroughly google each application you see. For example, if you see “MS Word”, and you were to google it, you’d find out it was a word processing application. Knowing what a word processing app is, you should know you can safely remove it. If you don’t know what it is, and can’t find out, then leave it alone. Some of that stuff IS important. You can do serious damage removing stuff you’re unsure of, and potentially corrupt windows, forcing a whole reinstall.
As for program suggestions… You have AVG for virus protection (I would also recommend spybot on top of that), and zone alarm as a firewall. That’s great. I’d suggest ditching limewire for something else… as most files on limewire are viruses, and you’re bound to run into one eventually. Look into torrents, or try azureus. (Miro is awesome if you go the torrent route). Most other non-essential applications (that is, besides virus and spyware protection, and a firewall) is pretty unnecessary.
Just be careful about finding out what is essential.
EDIT: The last poster is WRONG. You will do serious damage to your computer if you were to remove everything but the programs you list above. Windows updates will sometimes show up in add/remove programs, just as one example.
EDIT2: This is a list of some of the apps I have on a testing computer I own. I put notes next to a few that I felt you might have, that you might be unsure of. This is by no means all inclusive in your environment.
Adobe Color Common Settings
Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit 2
Adobe Flash Player ActiveX
Adobe Flash Player Plugin
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Reader 8.1.2
Apple Mobile Decive Support
Apple Software Update
avast! Antivirus
Bonjour
CCleaner
COMODO Firewall Pro
DivX Codec
DivX Converter
DivX Player
DivX Web Player
FileZilla Client 3
GlashFish
GnuCash
Google Desktop
Google Earth
Google Photos Screensaver
Google Toolbar for IE
Google Updater
GTK+ Runtime
Handbrake
IBM Lotus Symphony
Intel(R) Extreme Graphics Driver
iTunes
Java DB
Java(TM) 6 Update 10 (DON’T REMOVE)
Java(TM) SE Development Kit
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (DON’T REMOVE)
Microsoft Compression Client Pack
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Feature Pack
Miro
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Sunbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Netbeans IDE 6.0.1
Opera 9.27
Picasa 2
Pidgin
PowerQuest Partition Magic
Privoxy
Quicktime (DON’T REMOVE)
RealPlayer (Removable, but I wouldn’t suggest it)
Skype 3.6 (Removable)
SoundMAX
Spybot
Tor 0.1.2.19
Vidalia 0.0.16
Internet Explorer (Removable, but I wouldn’t suggest it)
Windows Media Player (Removable, but I wouldn’t suggest it)
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (DON’T REMOVE)
YPOPs! 0.9.5.1
When I start up a computer, I run through and remove a few of these (just off the top of my head… there are more):
Anything that says “trial period” or “demo”.
Windows Messenger
MSN / AOL / etc
Some components in “Windows components” including:
All the accessories I don’t use (paint, etc)
“Internet Games”
Indexing Service
MSN Explorer
Outlook Express
Windows Messenger
Then, I run through the registry, and clean out all the unnecessary programs that startup with the computer. This will do that for you:
Then, I setup virus programs, spyware programs, and a firewall. Then, I install all the applications I want. I run a clean virus/spyware check after that, then run a defrag (right click on the C:/ drive in My Computer, select “Properties”, then “tools”, then “defragment now”.
That generally cleans up a computer for me. Just be careful if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Best of Luck,
-Jess
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Regarding the next poster, do NOT remove avg unless you’re using the professional (paid) version of ZoneAlarm. The virus protection on the free version is either nonexistent, or it sucks. I can’t remember which off the top of my head.
However, I thoroughly agree that limewire should go. I used to use it, and it never did anything but cause trouble. Having antivirus software running while not performing a scan *can* be useful, contrary to the last poster’s statement, but it isn’t necessary, and you should avoid it if your computer is running slowly.
As mentioned, cleaning out excess programs wont cause your computer to run faster in most cases, because they probably aren’t running. It will clean up hard drive space, but that’s better accomplished by purging old music, movies, and other documents and media.
The thing that’ll probably help you the most is to clean out your registry. Google for CCleaner. That’ll take care of any registry problems, and it’ll let you remove certain programs from starting up at boot time. Clean up your hard drive a bit, remove (or disable) avg IF you’re using Zone Alarm Pro. Then, run a defrag, and use the windows tool (right above it) to check for disk errors. That should give you a good start.
Best of Luck (last time, I hope),
-Jess
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:21 am
The reason that your computer isn’t running smoothly is the programs that are RUNNING are the biggest hogs of the memory. Your also causing some serious damage having two anti viruses running at the same time. Remove one of them immediately. Then go to the task manager and you’ll notice limewire is also running in the back ground using up massive amounts of memory, end the process. Get to know your task manger you’ll notice avg.exe’s running. Believe it or not but the only time any of that needs to be running is when it’s scanning for viruses, your firewall protects you the rest of the time. It’s not the amount of programs you have on your hard drive it’s the programs that are actually running in the background using up the memory that’s causung it to slow down. I got 256mb of memory which 60% is in use and if l leave limewire running everything else will barely open. AIM.exe are also there running and unless you got on line friends you can shut it off too.
January 24th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
If I understand your question right, the main program you need is an operating system. Everything else you can download, such as itunes, firefox, picassa, aim, avg, zone alarm and lime wire. You need an operating system such as xp or vista. Windows 98 is still usable but it’s not supported anymore. 2000 is still supported. But for everything to work, have a good os.