Yep, see above. The bulk of my data files and all backups are on an external HD. One reason I didn't get a huge internal HD when I bought this critter... aside from My Documents and My Pictures, pretty much everything except the OS and program files are on the external drive. I never have gotten around to moving those two, and My Documents I wasn't sure about redirecting because of games that keep saved data in there... wasn't sure if that would affect performance when loading/playing.

Heh, Ultimate was only $10 more than Pro at Amazon.

So - it's ordered (via Subsim link of course). Downside is I will have to change out of my peejays on Monday afternoon and run down to the office to pick it up. I was gonna do a reformat/reinstall anyway over the holidays while I had the time - I'm taking all of next week off so I can tinker at my leisure. This will be more fun. Provided I can get it up and running by Wednesday when I'll need to get online to pay my bills. :O:

But with your charm, you can certainly arrange for you to get access to another computer, perhaps as someone else go in and pay your bills also, :D

I don't know....but I think she's all business today.

And they can peel me a grape while they're at it. :O:

I can always go to the office and use my computer there... but as I'm on vacation, it's not an option I really want to take advantage of!

EDIT: So, has anyone used this Windows Easy Transfer program to back up and restore files before/after upgrading to Win7? The pics and docs on my disk are easy enough to back up externally, I'm thinking in terms of settings and the stuff in Outlook (email, contacts, etc.). I seem to remember the process of backing up Outlook and getting everything back in there when I switched computers the last time was giving me fits. I prolly did something wrong when I was creating the backup, but still, if there's an easier way than the one that works from within Outlook that would be awesome.

I think x64 software don't have adequate security app as yet at least some security app won't protect a 64 bit environment as good as it protects a 32 bit one.

I'm using 64 bit Windows 7 myself.

No significant difference in protection if you use 64 or 32-bit, it is my experience, I personally use 64 - bit and have made comparisons between the two OS.

I have had trouble with AVG on my 64bit 7 system,with it running scans anytime it felt like it, result it crashed any game I was running at the time.I have removed it.

But it is of course to set the desired time as an example, I myself prefer a protection that allows updates at least once per hour, to obtain optimal protection, but I have not experienced that it has crashed.

Well that's interesting as I am looking to get off the Norton train after installing Win7 and downloaded the free trial of AVG Internet Security to try out. I've been using their free AV program on the work computer to see how I liked it and so far, so good.

But I don't want something that will start running scans willy nilly when I'm in the middle of a gaming session. Does it not have some kind of "full screen mode" that recognizes when you are running what is probably a game and then suspends background activity? Or some way to manually suspend that stuff before loading a game?

Well my problem is the machine is off -power -when not gaming so scans cannot be scheduled and it is only on line for drm so right now there is no anti virus program on it. but for the online machine[this one]avg works very well and there are no issues. it is on a schedule.

I use win 7-64 bit, for security i use Avira for AV and MBAM and SAS for Malware/spyware, but i 've heard/read microsoft security essentials (MSE) is rated very highly from independent sources and is Free.

Hope this helps

Kaleun

Thanks, I'll look into it!

I use AVG 2011 free and have no problems with it at all.
I also have many of the people I help around here (My real area) useing it.
I've never had to go fix anything for them where virus stuff is concerned.
And they seem very happy with it also.

You just need to set it up with a bit of sense.

Another thing I liked about Windows 7 was the install speed.
I've installed it on several systems now and it flew compared to XP on the same systems!

Basically I'm looking for something that will do the things Norton did that I liked, in the background, when the computer is idle (more or less), without hogging a lot of resources and without all the "extras" that Norton 360 had that I ended up never using. Anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, anti-spam, decent firewall (altho I suppose I could just use the Windows Firewall), basic maintenance to enhance performance and clean out unneeded files, that stuff. And I don't mind paying for a program that will do all that without a lot of hassle.

I put my old copy of Norton AV on my computer at work when I bought Norton 360 for the home machine - that was several years ago. Up until this spring I just paid for the subscription myself... I know we're supposed to have AV protection at the server level (?) for our network, but I don't know what it is or who maintains it (it ain't my boss, I can tell you that) and so I've never trusted it completely. So for as long as we've had PCs I've always kept my own AV program on my computer at my own expense and in the past when everybody else's PC ended up infected with some trojan or malware because of something stupid one person did, my computer was the only one in the office that stayed clean. :smug:

Anyway I got tired of paying the subscription fee so when it came due I uninstalled Norton and got the free AVG anti-virus and I noticed the difference in performance immediately - particularly in how quickly I get from turning the thing on to having Windows up and ready to go.

I'm just wondering if all of AVG's software is that easy on the system, even if you install their full internet security suite and the PC tuneup stuff. From the looks of it the two combined would do everything I want and if I can have that without adding a significant drain on resources I would be very happy.

Anyway I've a free 30 day trial of the internet security stuff so once I install it I'll know very quickly whether or not it slows stuff down too much.