1 minute read
System Monitors
from 2009-07
by Hiba Dweib
Symantec’s Norton products are superpopular but not always perfect. Getting rid of one to try a different security suite is so hard with the built-in Windows tools that even Symantec had to admit it and built this tool with only one job: Uninstall Norton 2003 to 2009, and a few other titles like SystemWork and Norton 360. Free
SyStem monitorS
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Disk Usage Analyzer
www.extensoft.com/?p=free_disk_analyzer
This program does one thing: It creates a list of all the files on your hard disks and tells you which are taking up the most room. Put it to use when running out of disk space, to quickly determine what should get tossed, or at least given permanent berth on a backup drive. Free
FreeMeter www.tiler.com/freemeter
When monitoring performance, your performance monitor should not impact performance. FreeMeter’s 888KB free version fills the bill, looking at drive space, CPU usage, memory usage, system up time and five more stats; the Pro version has 19 different monitors. Free; Pro version, $22.95
Process Explorer
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 .aspx
This extra from Microsoft is a major step up from the Windows built-in Task Manager, especially for power users. Rather than just show processes alone, it also displays handles or DLLs in use by that process. Use the search to find problem areas, or to skip out to Google and look up what a listed process does. Once you’ve downloaded it, it’s fully portable, or you can run it right from the Web. Free
SHUTDOWN/BOOT
Edison www.verdiem.com/edison.aspx
A truly green utility, Edison helps you adjust the power settings and schemes for XP SP2 and Vista, so your hard drive, monitors, and CPU all power down after a certain amount of inactivity. It will also calculate how much you’ll save, in money and energy. Free
SpyMe Tools
www.lcibrossolutions.com/spyme_tools.htm
Sometimes things happen to the Windows
