Switching to Windows 64-bit

[jumpy]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

...Norton...

The best 'performance tweak' you can have with norton is to uninstall norton
Almost anything is better than norton.
Hands down it is the worst and most obtuse av program I have ever used in any of its flavours.
I've used several others, both subscription and free versions - AVG free, NOD32 subs, Avira free, Avast free, Panda @work, kaspersky(?) @ work, to name a few.

Currently using avast and have had no troubles with it on my machine. Except for when I preform as scan, I barely know it's there at all.
If you go through a router, I wouldn't bother with any 3rd party firewall, just use the windows one.

More than once I've had registry cleaners stuff windows - I'd say that unless you know what you are looking for to delete, just leave it alone. If it's a specific problem that is recurring, then there's always information to be found regarding a solution - the only time's I bothered with windows registry editing was to remove something specific that I knew was causing trouble.

Sometimes I think it's best to leave well alone; if the computer is working ok, don't fiddle with it

The easier you can make it for yourself to perform a format/reinstall of your C drive, the better. It's why I have 2 hdd - one for windows and programs, the other for files and backups and anything I want to keep. If it's something really important, I burn it to disk.