New machine with XP

[Detox]

OK - saw IBM having a nice deal with a couple throw-in freebies with some economy level desktops that were at sucha nice (employee purchase - sis works there) price and better than the 6 year old HP my wife's been using.

Long story short, it's XP home of course and I've so far installed Sygate (wow was there 500 MS and other apps bouncing offa there), SWB, AAW, and SB S&D. There's a four month trial on Norton but I've deleted that along with as much other garbage I could find I was sure I didn't need. My main questions to anyone are as follows (my first time using XP).

1) HOW can I uninstall and completely remove "MSN Messenger" or as they now call it "Windows Messenger" - it's certainly not in the add/remove programs >:(

2) Can .NET framework be safely uninstalled? On that note - I'm wondering if that's what's necessary to get rid of some other Windows bloat.

3) I've never touched XP before because I knew it was practically spyware in and of itself - I remember an application called XP Antispy or something; is that what I would need or what else (any suggestions) to "trim the fat" and keep the PC "honest" to me.

[Blackcat]

1. Removing Windows Messenger here;

http://www.pchell.com/support/removemessenger.shtml

2. Have you tried XP-lite to remove the bloat in XP;

http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

3. Unless you like all the fancy graphical effects, go to My Computer>Properties>Advanced>Performance and switch off what you do not want. This will also give you a speed increase.

4. Good, recommended tweaking sites for XP include;

http://www.tweakxp.com/

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=120

http://www.winguides.com/windowsxp/

Blackviper's site is also very good as he goes into detail on the background services you can safely disable;

http://www.blackviper.com/

And Tassie's sticky has some good sites listed;

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=6341

It takes awhile to get XP how you would like it, particularly when vendors load up the hard disc with lots of software you will never use. My main advice with XP is to load up as much memory as you can, as it is quite demanding compared to previous operating systems.

Good tweaking, Detox.

[Detox]

Wow! Thanks a bunch - I'll hafta spend a day or so to look over all that, but I imagine I'll get that machine working just the way I want it in the end. If nothing else, this is one more argument for my old Win2k... almost tempted to format and use 2k on those.. but might as well give Xp a chance.

[the Tester]

Hi Detox.

XP Antispy is helpful with removing MSN/Windows Messenger.
It's easy,that's how I did it. ;)
It's listed under "Microsoft Messenger"
You can disable error reports and services such as Messenger Service,Auto Updates,UPNP,and Balloon Tips.

[gkweb]

Hi,

you might want to disable services a lot used by famous worms you have probably heard of like Sasser or MSBlast :

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jugesoftware/firewallleaktester/eng/wwdc.htm

this tool allow you to disable these "worms hooks" or "worms doors".
Of course don't forget to apply all the Windows updates.

regards,

gkweb.

[meneer]

And patch the system.

Silly thing, this patching business. You'll have to do the same again whenever you rebuild a system ??? :-\

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "OK - saw IBM having a nice deal with a couple throw-in freebies with some economy level desktops that were at sucha nice (employee purchase - sis works there) price and better than the 6 year old HP my wife's been using.

Long story short, it's XP home of course and I've so far installed Sygate (wow was there 500 MS and other apps bouncing offa there), SWB, AAW, and SB S&D. There's a four month trial on Norton but I've deleted that along with as much other garbage I could find I was sure I didn't need. My main questions to anyone are as follows (my first time using XP).

1) HOW can I uninstall and completely remove "MSN Messenger" or as they now call it "Windows Messenger" - it's certainly not in the add/remove programs >:(

2) Can .NET framework be safely uninstalled? On that note - I'm wondering if that's what's necessary to get rid of some other Windows bloat.

3) I've never touched XP before because I knew it was practically spyware in and of itself - I remember an application called XP Antispy or something; is that what I would need or what else (any suggestions) to "trim the fat" and keep the PC "honest" to me." }-
A very good little app is safexp you can look at it here (http://theorica.click-now.net/safexp.htm)

[Detox]

Hmmm I put xpantispy on, seems quite nice and quieted down the internal stuff bouncing off of my firewall a good deal. Updates I will do momentarily - trying hard to remove Avast! antivirus b/c I installed it and went to register the thing for free home use and noticed it bouncing off the firewall with 3-4 different applications also. No need for an AV to call home all over the place in my mind, then seeing that registration includes my home address and name etc made me say "forget it" - uninstall asap! I'll check into safexp next and see if it is compatable or redundant with xp antispy. Still lots of links you folks have given me I need to look through - been a bit short on time today! I will do it asap also though!

[Mudd]

I didn't notice whether someone mentioned that XP has a Firewall (such as it is, but better than nothing) that is turnedoff by default. Suggest you turn it on even if you are running a another Firewall. It has no negative effect on my Zone Alarm.

[Detox]

Replaced xp antispy with safexp - seemed to have more options available and didn't figure redundancy would be the way to go. I forgot to mention earlier that the machine will remain behind my router without DMZ - so Sygate is more than sufficient firewall protection.

It seems (upon primary examination) that most of the processes, etc listed here so far are covered by safexp, so I think I'm on the right road so far :-)

Put AVG on there since Avast was such a pain and I'm only gonna maintain NOD32 on my main PC which is in DMZ host.

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "Replaced xp antispy with safexp - seemed to have more options available and didn't figure redundancy would be the way to go. I forgot to mention earlier that the machine will remain behind my router without DMZ - so Sygate is more than sufficient firewall protection.

It seems (upon primary examination) that most of the processes, etc listed here so far are covered by safexp, so I think I'm on the right road so far :-)

Put AVG on there since Avast was such a pain and I'm only gonna maintain NOD32 on my main PC which is in DMZ host." }-
With safexp remember to tell it to allow windows updates or it will drive you nuts trying to use ms win updates. I hate to admit it but I learned by experience. safexp is a nifty little app. ;)

[Detox]

I've allowed that - updating it was we speak actually but I was sure to disable the auto ones.

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "I've allowed that - updating it was we speak actually but I was sure to disable the auto ones." }-
XP has a bit of a learning curve but after having it a while I would never go back. I hope you get the hang of it real quick and I believe you will really enjoy it. ;)

[Detox]

Well, I won't be using it really ;D I'm sticking with Win2k here on my machine - I'm just getting the other one ready for my wife - so hopefully she will enjoy it 8)

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "Well, I won't be using it really ;D I'm sticking with Win2k here on my machine - I'm just getting the other one ready for my wife - so hopefully she will enjoy it 8)" }-
And I am sort of going the other way I am going to partition my hdd and install 2000 pro and play with it a bit.

[bluekey23]

Detox and other XP users,
There are a couple of programs you might be interested in: FIrstDefense-ISR and Perfect Disk. I ordered these as a bundle from Raxco.com back in Jan of thiis year. FirstDefense backs up your system on your hd so that you have an exact snapshot of your "primary" and current system. All settings, configurations, etc are copied. To create a new snapshot takes me about 30 minutes(system size = 3gig). You can also copy/update as well as anchor data. If you're only updating an existing snapshot it only takes about 15 minutes. I've been very impressed with this program and haven't had a single problem. It has saved many headaches. Perfect Disk is a very sophisticated defragger which uses "smart" placement of files so that you don't have to defrag very often.
Just my 2 cents fwiw.

[Paranoid2000]

-{ Quote: "To create a new snapshot takes me about 30 minutes(system size = 3gig). You can also copy/update as well as anchor data. If you're only updating an existing snapshot it only takes about 15 minutes." }-That seems pretty sluggish to me - was this image stored on your hard disk as well or was it made on removable media? Drive Snapshot (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/iindex.htm) can back up a 20GB partition to another hard disk in that time (using 7200RPM disks with a transfer rate of 600-650MB/min). Acronis TrueImage could probably manage similar speeds.

Mudd,

XP's internal firewall can cause conflicts with others and really offers nothing beneficial in return. I would recommend only switching it on until you have the chance to download and install a replacement.

[Detox]

-{ Quote: " To create a new snapshot takes me about 30 minutes(system size = 3gig).
" }-


Wow! I think I'll stick to my Acronis Trueimage - took only about 10 minutes to create a full image of my smallest HD (40 gig drive with 4 gigs full) which has only my operating system - and this is while I was talking online with gaming friends as well. I'm new to Trueimage so far - but I'm very impressed with it as well.

[bluekey23]

When I created my first snapshot, it took about 30 minutes, which seemed slow to me too. But when I created another snap a month later as well as updates to my two snaps it went much faster. I just did an experiment creating a 4th snap(which I then removed). Time was 14 minutes for 3.4 gigs. The program seems to get "smarter" the longer it stays on my system.

[Hans 01]

Have you checked www.microsuck.com? Lots of interesting Ms info there, some of which I wasn't pleased to see (I use windows).
/H

[HandsOff]

everyone said my advice but i will say it too:

- XP-Antispy is very quick and easy to cut down the worst offenders (free)
- Blackviper's web page lists all of the XP Services and how to set them, it is in a table form, with different column for different types of users. very easy and useful (free).
- Perfect Disk 6: It cost money but is the best deframenter for XP.

do the first 2 and windows update and some security programs and you are off to a good start. Dare I say XP will win you over?

- HandsOff