23 March 2006

Windows Live Safety Center

First scanning option shown in Windows Live Safety Center
This is a somewhat useful tool for users of Windows to check up on their systems.
It can check your computer for viruses, spyware, disk defragmentation, temporary files, missing updates etc.
And... it can ask you if you want to fix these problems if it finds them.
For the virus scanner, I usually disable this because even on Quick Scan, it still takes me half an hour to finish C:/ ... Otherwise, the other features can be really good for lightly cleaning up your drive and just 'checking up' your computer basically.
Scanning options shown in Windows Live Safety Center
News update! Live Safety Center can now also clean up your registry! You registry is where many of your settings for your programs are held, for software and everything for windows, it links your files together, updates locations and times, holds file version numbers and other data like permissions on folders.
After a lot of installing and uninstalling software, some 'keys' or 'values' could be left over, so Registry Cleaner is meant to delete these safely. Click here to read more.
Error report: I have run the Registry Cleaner twice now, the first time remvoing 1856 errors, then just 55. Here are the problems that I have had due to using Registry Cleaner. You may also come across them, so please be careful if you are using it. Always make a restore point on System Restore before making any changes to the registry of settings!!! Remember: this scanner is a BETA so it is more than likely that it might go wrong, so best be safe than sorry.
  • I had to reinstall Adobe Reader 7.07 and Windows Defender because they were missing installer files and could not load up properly.
  • I have had problems with FONTS. Most obviously, when I was in Word and using Times New Roman, when I chose Bold, it went Bold and Italic. I found out by right-clicking it and choosing 'Font...' that it only had Normal and Bold Italic available, so I knew that Registry Cleaner had changed it somehow. Fortunately, I have software installed called Fix Fonts Folder that scan for errors in fonts and then fix them. I have managed to fix all my fonts thereof :) Download it here if you need it.