Must have software

Congrats

You ordered your new DS system or you just got it, now its time to download some software that I believe are must have software:

1. CCleaner great tool to have, you can do manything from this tool, clean temp folders, uninstall, edit startup apps, manage restore points and etc.

You want the CCleaner - "Slim" installer here.

You can view my CCleaner settings here

2. Malwarebytes this is a great anti spyware, yes your anti virus has a anti malware/spyware (which is different they your anti virus) but Malwarebytes is king in the category which makes it a must have.

You want the free download here without the anti virus. After the 30 day trial just tell the prompt you are not interested and it should not bother you anymore.

3. ESET Smart Security this is one of the best, lightest, fastest Anit virus/Firewall with the least amount of false positives around and IMHO its a must have.

It has a 30 day full free trial, give it a shot you will love it, if you need help with settings have a quick look here its all set for you

4. HWMonitor HWMonitor is a great app for checking your various temps.

5. CPU-Z CPU-Z tells you a lot of info about your cpu/mobo/ram and gpu mainly used for info on cpu and mobo and ram tho.

6. GPU-Z GPU-Z gives you detailed info about your gpu and also provides info on fan settings and etc, yes MSI Afterburner tells you some of this info with control but I think GPU-Z still is a good app to have for gpu.

7. MSI Afterburner MSI Afterburner is must have for your gpu fan/clock/voltage settings this is a must have for sure.

Download latest version of MSI Afterburner here

Below are stability testing software and debugging software, use one or more of these apps to test your system or figure out stability issues:


1. MSI Kombustor MSI Kombustor is a nice little app to test your gpu stability and temps underload.

here you want to click the "download" tab to take you to the download section where you will see msi afterburner and kombustor

2. Heaven Heaven is another gpu benchmark app to test stability / temps of your gpu underload.

4. MemTest MemTest is a memory/ram test to see if your ram has any issues, this test is done in windows itself and its a first step to trouble shoot memory issues.

Its saved me a lot of time manytimes but it can't read all sectors to do that you need to test the memory before windows boots, to do that you will need a different app which I will mention below this one.

Go here but to my post for directions on how to use MemTest

5. MemTest86 MemTest86 is a stress test for memory/ram this app runs before windows boots and it will check all sectors of your ram.

To do this you need to burn it to a cd or usb and boot off of the usb or cd drive.

here look for the MemTest86 Vx.x.x Free Edition and then look for the image file to download and burn, there is an image file for burning to a cd or one for the usb, choose which you like and download and burn.

If you need help with how to burn an image to a cd or usb let me know. IMHO usb is the easiest and best.

6. AS SSD Benchmark 1.9.5986.35387

Originally posted by AS SSD Developer AS SSD Benchmark determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains six synthetic and three copy tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD. These tests are carried out without using the operating system cache. In Seq-test the program measures how long it takes to read a 1 GB file to write respectively. 4K test the read and write performance is determined at random 4K blocks. The 4K-64 corresponds to the test Thrd 4K procedure except that the read and write operations are distributed to 64 threads. This test should SSDs pose with Native Command Queuing (NCQ), differences between the IDE operation mode where NCQ is not supported, and the AHCI mode. The additional compression test can measure the power of the SSD in response to compressibility of the data. This is especially for the controllers that use to increase the performance and life of the cell compression, important. In the first three synthetic tests and the compression test, the size of the test file 1 GB. Finally the access time of the SSD is calculated, wherein the access to read over the entire capacity of the SSD (Full Stroke) is determined. The write access test, however, is done with a 1 GB big test file.

7. Speccy Speccy gives you detailed information on every piece of hardware in your computer. Save time trawling through your computer for stats like CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics cards and more. See everything laid out for you in one clean interface. (Thanks to ArkansasWoman777)

8. BlueScreenView BlueScreenView scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table. (Thanks to bprat22)

9. WhoCrashed WhoCrashed shows the drivers that have been crashing your computer with a single click. In most cases it can pinpoint the offending drivers that have been causing misery on your computer system in the past. It does post-mortem crashdump analysis and presents all gathered information in a comprehensible way. (Thanks to bprat22)

10. Best way to troubleshoot bsod or other problems that involve crash dump files (Debugging) is WinDbg, WinDbg is a Debugging Tools for Windows made by Microsoft, its a very powerful tool and very complicated to work thus I'm not leaving the download link here. Even downloading it is not simple. Instead if you have crash/freeze problems and have arrived at a dead-end, then please make a thread with your problem and I/we will help you solve it with WinDbg.



Edited by Alex - 04 Aug 2016 at 11:15am

@DST4ME,

Great list. Thank you.

Good to have it all in one thread. Thanks, DST.    

Can I run them all at once ?    

Aida 64, paid, has been used by DS for some time, with Alex recommending it over other more intense tests.   Never used it myself.

SpeedFan was a popular one.

I've used intelburntest and prime95 in the past to really stress the CPU.    Pretty punishing, though.



Edited by bprat22 - 15 Jun 2016 at 4:59am

Yeah, I took out Speedfan. Lots of other options.

What about your old favorite......FAH tracker ?    I used it a lot when I first got my ODE.   Haven't done much stressing in the last couple of years.    

Speccy is also good imo to have

BlueScreenView and WhoCrashed for easier access to dump files, etc.  when BSOD and crashes rears its ugly head and nowhere else to look.   It can take some getting use to, but gives one something to Google. 

Thanks for the list!

I got the link DST4ME Thanks

I've got CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and CPUID HWMonitor. Any other must-haves I should download? Not really into the stress testing unless its a necessity.

I have McAfee that came with the computer but haven't installed it yet, probably not planning to based on the feedback from these forums.

I guess that means I still need a good anti-virus?

Edited by lucKykev - 09 Jul 2016 at 12:03pm

Originally posted by bprat22 Those are the big 3 for me, minus stress testing.

Great thanks! :)

In CCleaner, under utilities, what does 'NVIDIA Install Files' delete? Same question for 'Custom Files and Folders' under Advanced?

Win 10 will also pull HWMonitor and CPUID from your desktop with every update.


Use eset (I prefer avast!) for your antivirus...

Originally posted by Snaike Win 10 will also pull HWMonitor and CPUID from your desktop with every update. Use eset (I prefer avast!) for your antivirus...

I personally haven't had that problem.   Lucky maybe.

Also grab afterburner to monitor your gpu and control its fan/clock/etc.

OH that one is for the files and folder you put in the "option" section of ccleaner where it says "include" here you can include files and folders you would like wiped clean that are not listed in the cleaning section.



for AV you gonna get different advise.

I'm on eset and have been for years and will put it up against any av.

Just so you know I used to run a software site and used to personally infect and test different av and anti spyware/malware in a virtual environment.

in the old days it was nod32 av and spysweeper that were one of the best if not the best in my test, later spysweeper went to hell and malwarebites appeared and it was the top dog for spyware, with nod32 on top for anti virus.

Which is why you see me recommend the two, there are other good anti virus out there but the one I trust and recommend is eset.

Avast is not a bad anti virus at all, in my tests it did miss a few minor things and had a few false positives. But over all it was one of the good ones.

Edited by DST4ME - 09 Jul 2016 at 2:03pm

My pleasure

Our pleasure

DS does not install anything like bloatware on our pc. If you are talking about the os boost, that is not bloatware, in the old days with slower processors and very little ram we needed to lean down the system if you will so that we could keep every little bit of recourse. Now in days, you can run like 5 win 10 pro at the same time on these systems and you would never know it, so OS boost or disabling some services that you may need later, don't really help to begin with anyways.