pc performance improvement software

[CaptManiac]

I was looking into PC performance improvement software and was looking at PC Matic specifically.  However, after reviewing several topics in the forum and considering the fact that the PC Matic folks never responding when I asked them a pre-sales question, I decided against them.  I'm pretty sure the Malwarebytes does not have such software and does not plan on developing it in the future.  Is there a suggestion on a source for PC improvement software that coexists well with Malwarebytes.  I am happy with Malwarebytes and am not looking for a PC improvement software that also checks for malware, etc.

thanks

Mike

[exile360]

Greetings,

As long as you have a decent level of working knowledge you can use a tool such as Microsoft Sysinternals Autoruns to eliminate unnecessary startup items which can greatly improve your system's performance.  It's a free tool and creates backups of items you disable as long as you use the checkboxes in the program to disable them (in case you need to later restore them for any reason).

Other than that, you can use a temp file cleaner or just use the built in Disk Cleanup utility that comes with Windows to clear your temp folders, web browser cache and other unnecessary files to free up space which may improve performance and is also good for helping protect your privacy (because cookies and other files used by websites to track you are deleted).

You can take a look at this topic for more information that may help speed up your system's performance, but the main thing is eliminating software that runs in the background that you don't need to have running all the time (for example, if you play games through Steam but don't do so often enough for it to always be running in the background, use its settings to disable starting with Windows).  You may also try disabling unnecessary services, however I'd only recommend doing so if you know what you're doing as you don't want to disable anything essential to your system functioning properly.  You may consult a site such as blackviper.com as it provides a lot of info on services and which ones may safely be disabled.

Other than that, most of the products and information you'll find online about speeding up your system is bogus.  There are a lot of companies selling snake-oil claiming that their products will make your PC run faster but the fact of the matter is that most of these tools don't actually improve system performance at all, and many of them may actually make your system slower or even potentially cause errors and/or crashes by removing things that they should not.  If you want more detailed information on such programs, including many of the types of programs Malwarebytes detects and why, you may review the information linked to below:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/pup/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2016/10/malwarebytes-gets-tougher-on-pups/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2015/06/digital-snake-oil/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threats/registry-cleaner/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/12/why-malwarebytes-detects-pc-pitstop-as-potentially-unwanted/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2017/11/winning-the-battle-against-pups-on-your-computer-and-in-u-s-district-court/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/07/pup-friday-cleaning-up-with-5-star-awards/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/08/systweak-redux-our-response/ 

Regarding legal precedent, please refer to the following articles which cite two cases involving Malwarebytes and vendors blocked as PUP:

https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/11/section-230c2-protects-anti-malware-vendor-enigma-v-malwarebytes.htm
https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2018/09/section-230-helps-malware-vendor-avoid-liability-for-blocking-decision-pc-drivers-v-malwarebytes.htm 

The following links should also prove informative as to why many items are classified as PUP by Malwarebytes and address many myths with regards to these kinds of performance enhancement products and utilities:

https://decentsecurity.com/#/registry-cleaners/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities
https://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/
https://www.howtogeek.com/162683/pc-cleaning-apps-are-a-scam-heres-why-and-how-to-speed-up-your-pc/
https://lifehacker.com/5482701/whats-the-registry-should-i-clean-it-and-whats-the-point
https://lifehacker.com/5033518/debunking-common-windows-performance-tweaking-myths
https://www.howtogeek.com/198758/never-download-a-driver-updating-utility-theyre-worse-than-useless/
https://www.howtogeek.com/233115/the-only-way-to-safely-update-your-hardware-drivers-on-windows/
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1857635/good-free-automatic-driver-updater.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1974868/trusted-driver-updater.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/172839/10-types-of-system-tools-and-optimization-programs-you-dont-need-on-windows/
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/question1751.htm
https://lifehacker.com/5415355/do-you-really-need-more-than-4gb-of-ram
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/128130/htg-explains-why-its-good-that-your-computers-ram-is-full/
https://techlogon.com/2011/03/28/will-more-ram-memory-make-my-computer-faster/ 

[Amaroq_Starwind]

There're two tools that I'd recommend, but it really depends on what kind of performance problems you're talking about.

StartupLite is a program created by the MalwareBytes team that stops unnecessary programs from automatically starting up when you fire up your computer. However last I checked, it hasn't been updated in a long time, so it misses a lot of things and even gets a few false positives.

Process Lasso is a good program to check out. I have a technical background and understand the various concepts behind Process Lasso's operation, not to mention that I trust the publisher/developer. I can PM you a referral if you'd like!

To give you the short version of how Process Lasso works... it watches the programs on your computer, and whenever a program stalls because it is waiting on something that's not yet available, Process Lasso lowers the hung application's thread priority so that other programs don't have to wait in line (which is especially a godsend on CPUs with only a couple physical cores).

Process Lasso also has much of the functionality you'd come to expect from Windows Task Manager, and even expands on it quite a bit. On Windows 10, that's just a small bonus thanks to the updates that have been made to Task Manager, but on older versions of Windows, it becomes one of Process Lasso's selling points.

The program does have a free version which is surprisingly feature-rich (and ad-free), but the paid version offers even more features, and in my honest opinion is more than worth the investment, especially since you can choose a lifetime license and use it across all your computers.

By the way, Bitsum has great customer service. When I purchased a lifetime license for Process Lasso Pro while setting up a computer for my older relatives, I went back to my laptop half an hour later to receive a notification that I was being offered a considerable discount for the product I just bought, since I had been using the free version for a few months. I sent an email to Bitsum, and they sent me a response in minutes, giving me a partial refund so that I'd still get the discount.

If MalwareBytes were to ever make a performance optimization app, it would probably begin life in an acquisition of Bitsum.