Does Microsoft offer any free optimization tools for windows?

Windows 7 has numerous optimization tools built-in that work continuously.  Many people get too involved with this kind of activity and get themselves and their computers in trouble. Very few of the commonly seen tools on the web actually do any real good.  Many, if not most can make things worse.  Some are even guilty of making a mess of things.

The biggest single thing you can do to keep your system running well is to use a quality antivirus product -- some are way better than others, and use a scanner once in a while to clean out what is missed.  The second biggest thing you can do is to avoid installing programs that are known resource hogs that slow your computer down with out much benefit.  Here is list of a few:

• Garmin Express
• Roxio anything
• Skype
• uTorrent
• Frostwire
• Trusteer
• Dropbox
• Onenote
• Evernote
• All Apple products
• Quickbooks
• Spotify
• Pandora
• AOL desktop
• Some games, particularly online ones

Mostly, the performance of your computer is determined by the hardware inside.  If you do not have at least 4G of memory, increasing it can help a lot.  If you have to replace a hard drive, replace it with a 7200 rpm rotating one and you will see a noticeable improvement.  Other than that, there is little you can do about the hardware.

Which Antivirus to buy?

I am speaking from a great deal of experience.  I support 150 client computers.  I have been doing this for 14 years.  My clients NEVER have infections.  I want to emphasize that the only products I will use or recommend are strictly an ANTIVIRUS product.  Any product that is called complete protection, Internet security or deems itself to be a comprehensive security product is prohibited on my client computers.

I install only one product in my client’s computers.  My support comes as a condition that they use that and only that product.

Do not use any product that claims to make your computer run better.  Virtually all of them are either bogus, themselves an infection, or put your computer at risk. Remove everything that claims to be there to prevent infections or claims to make your computer run better, with the singular exception of just one antivirus product.

This is a controversial topic, but your choice of AV software may be something you want to take a 2nd look at.  I suggest you visit this web site to get a sense of which AV software does the best job, depending on what kind of user you are:   http://www.av-comparatives.org/   This is a non-profit that has been around for a long time and I trust their results.  Download and read the 2015 summary report. 

Bitdefender is at or near the top.  Microsoft’s is at or near the bottom.  These are not closely scored, but wide differences.  Note also that Norton (Symantec) declines to even participate.

When you interpret these results, keep in mind the difference between a product that detects 95% and another 99% of infections, is actually 5 times more likely to allow an infection.

Up until September 2014, the only AV software I would allow my clients to use was Norton Antivirus.  Please note well that that is not the same as any other Norton product such as 360 or Internet Security.  September 2014, Symantec (owner of Norton) decided they would no longer sell an Antivirus-only product.

After a lot of research, I decided on ***Bitdefender Antivirus 2015+.***I have installed it 120 of those PCs and there has not been a single infection, and this has been over a course of about 17 months now.  It is a better product than Norton.  It is not expensive. It uses very little of the computer’s resources.  One of the things I like most about it, is it silence and unobtrusiveness.  Especially if you silence its “Wallet” function.

My clients know well that if they install any “Internet Security” (IS) product, I will not work on their computers until it is removed.  I learned the hard way that the other components in these IS products (other than the AV itself) cause more problems than any benefit they bring and mostly work by shutting down the Windows component that does a very good job of that particular task anyway.  The problem was that when I started to work on a computer with an IS on it, I could spend hours trying to diagnose the problem, only to discover that by removing the IS product, the problems became much clearer and easier to solve.  The IS product will actually hide the problem.

Like I said, this is a controversial topic and you will find a lot of very strong different opinions.  I just know that mine is based on a pretty large sample over a long period, and these are typical home Windows computers.

Note well.  You should never have more than one protection software installed.  Always ensure that you completely remove any and all protection software packages before installing a new one.  That includes software that may have come pre-installed on your computer when new

You cannot fully remove most any AV software by simply using the standard Windows 7 uninstall tool.  Most of the majors also publish a “removal tool” that gets the rest of it.  If you do not completely remove it, it will cause very hard to understand and diagnose problems.