MZB wrote:
Hank:

Yes, I agree with you. I have to say, however, that one of my big pet peeves
is the amount of time needed for maintenance. I always update my anti-virus
and anti-spyware programs and run them regularly (although I generally
practice safe hex). I do the Windows Security Updates. I back up regularly.
This crap sure seems to be annoying to do and it takes a lot of time.

I hope you're automating a lot of those processes. There's no real need
to manually do most of those things more than twice a month if you're
not doing anything shady (like downloading random P2P apps).

But, regarding your other points, I do look at my startup menu and that
Startup tab within msconfig. I am not always sure what each program does so
there may well be some crap I don't need. Especially when I check the
running processes, there is always a sh&tload of stuff there, most of which
I have no idea about. I have checked at some sites which explain some of it,
but it's hard to be sure. And, again, this takes time, too. I do have some
time, but not loads of it!!!

Hopefully the added RAM will make this a lot less necessary. Pretty
much the only time I run msconfig is if I see a rouge process in
taskmanager or if I upgrade quicktime/real (probably the two pieces of
software I hate the most).

Incidentally, I keep reading about all the problems with Dell customer
support (and I just had problems with Turbo Tax support). But, my first line
of support is this very newsgroup!! You guys are great. And, given the
hassle of dealing with Dell at times, you guys are FASTER. I bet in the time
it takes being on hold with DELL, I can post the problem and get meaningful
replies here!

Probably a safe bet, but in the case of hardware failure I don't think
we can do much...