Making my Win7 really fast

DeaconFrost said:

Maxxwire said:

As for the performance, yes, I agree, we are derailing the point of the thread. But, if you recall, you were the one who first staed that a firewall sped up your connection speed...than backed off it when I question it.

Once again you resort to distortions of the truth because you have no actual proof that the Windows 7 Firewall is lighter and runs faster than the Comodo Firewall which only uses 5.2 MB of RAM according to Windows Task Manager. Can you provide documentation as to the RAM allocation of the Windows 7 Firewall? These are the Task Manager RAM allocations for the Comodo Firewall and Proactive Defense+ on my Win 7 x64 desktop computer...



This is the statement I made earlier in the thread...

Contrary to a slow down extremely light Comodo Firewall enabled faster performance across the board including good online performance which as a photographer who is continually processing and uploading photos to the internet is very much appreciated...

I was referring to the much faster desktop performance I noticed after uninstalling the bloated 300 MB 2009 Norton and turning off Windows Firewall and then installing Comodo which provided the "good online performance" which the graphic depicts which statement made no claims as to previous bandwidth and thus can not be misconstrued as a claim to increase in bandwidth, but rather that the Comodo Firewall did not impede Internet bandwidth as the Linksys SPI hardware Firewall that I mentioned which dragged the bandwidth down to 12 Mbps as I mentioned in yet another post.

So continuing with the subject of enhanced computer performance, yes the AV Suite on a computer can have a profound effect on a computer's performance because it is one of the main software components and replacing it with a lighter application that consumes many times less system resources can speed up computer operations because it has much less of a constant drag on resources especially on resource challenged computers.

In my case I replaced a $50/year 300 MB security program that let Malware through with what eventually evolved into 5.2 MB Firewall + HIPS security program with Automatic Sandboxing which employs File System and Registry Virtualization along with Cloud Based can of all unrecognized file, Cloud Based Behavior Analysis, Heuristic Command Line Analysis and Shell Code Injection Detection...all for the low low price of absolutely FREE.

In conclusion even despite the enhanced protection my computer is more responsive and performs much faster now with the lighter software in place as it would if you replaced any 300 MB program that continually consumes system resources with software that only consumes 5.2 MB.

~Maxx~
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Dear Readers of this Thread; As we used to say back in the day..."Different strokes for different Folks" and when it comes to computer security software there is certainly a wide variety of options.

Please understand that my computer security preferences are based on having to recover from a Malware infection that occurred using the OEM computer security software that my HP computer came with and I completely understand how those who have never had to face that nightmare may not fully understand the mindset of those who have recovered and subsequently armed themselves to the teeth with the latest State of the Art computer security software in an effort to prevent future Malware infections.

If you are completely satisfied and comfortable with the Windows 7 Firewall and the capabilities of the computer security software you are now using like the Frostman is then that's just fine please just remember that there are others of us and possibly some of you who are trying to learn from our own mistakes and prevent an ugly Malware infection from reoccurring as it did when we were using basic OEM security and telling others of the solutions we have found which can also speed a computer up in the process in hopes that...

A wise man learns from his own mistakes, but an even wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.

~Maxx~
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Greg- The Malware infection experience I described was on my HP Vista laptop which came pre-loaded with Norton and I learned the hard way about how inept it was.

A few months ago when I got my HP HPE 270f Win 7 x64 desktop computer it also came pre-installed with the Norton AV Suite and the first thing I did was to install Revo Uninstaller Pro x64 and remove Norton and all its 1,400+ Regisrty keys and values.

I know that you are a proponent of MSE/Avast with Win7 firewall which many other people on the Forum also speak well of, but as I said earlier I've been bitten before by Malware and because of that experience I prefer to run the most high tech, State of the Art, world's best testing computer security software I have been able to find which is the ultra-lightweight Comodo Firewall which must have some merit otherwise Brink would not have made a sticky post calling Windows 7 Forums Members attention to the Comodo Firewall's latest version update.

I also run my browser in the virtual space of Sandboxie which put any Antivirus I used to run out of business because the virtual space the browser runs in on the HDD is overwritten with the Schneier Algorithm in the Eraser software daily and several on demand traditional and cloud Malware and Spyware scanners including in addition to Virus Total and Comodo's Cloud Behavior Blocker are used to verify that the computer is completely and constantly clean.

From reading your many very intelligent responses to Member's computer problems you seem to be very astute when it comes to computer operation and functioning and I was wondering if you might possibly know what the computer resource allocations of the Windows 7 Firewall is in that I can not find it located either in Windows Task Manager or Sysinternal's Process Explorer.

~Maxx~
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Greg- I also have a great appreciation for light high performance software, but having become accustomed to using a light and fast Firewall that I have set to alert me every time a program that has not already been pre-approved wants to call up to the Internet to transmit information home I have learned that almost every time a program is installed it wants to report the information it has gathered back to its programmer which is something that I was totally unaware of when I was using the Windows Firewall.

There are also quite a number of Windows programs including System32\rundll32.exe and Explorer.exe that call up frequently to the Internet which I thought was quite innocent until Comodo Defense + recorded System32\rundll32.exe making a 3 hour long information gathering tour taking a leisurely 2 minutes to create the process and execute the image of each .exe and .dll for its pre-programmed routine report to Redmond.

I consider a 3 hour long information gathering session a very serious breach of my computer's security especially when the Windows 7 Firewall is programmed to ignore it and keep the owner of the computer in the dark and unaware of this extensive information gathering. I don't know about you, but I am not a big fan of spyware, MS spyware or any other brand that takes intimate information about the functioning of my computer and broadcasts it back over the Internet to whoever programmed the software. Here's the first hour of the event...



I really like Win 7 and its my favorite of any other Windows or MAC OS that I have run, but I can not abide a Firewall that is programmed to be compliant with the unauthorized gathering and dissemination of information from my computer and I know that I am not the only one who holds this basic definition of computer security. This is why I will continue to use the Firewall that called my attention to this blatant violation of my computer's security and my own personal privacy.

Having a lightning fast software Firewall is great, but if it compromises outbound computer security then it becomes less desirable than an equally fast software Firewall that only lets out what information the user allows to be let out.

BTW- Did you ever find the system resource consumption specs on the Windows 7 Firewall?

~Maxx~
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Greg- With all due respect toward you considering your breadth and depth of knowledge concerning all things Win 7 and all the very valuable help and insight you have freely given here on the Windows 7 Forum to so many from which I also have derived much deeper understanding of how Win 7 works the screenshot of the initial portion of the 3 hour long information gathering sessions which have no relation to Windows Update scans or problem reports was linked to directly from the Comodo Firewall Main GUI which displays the number of these kinds of intrusions openly just like it would for any other form of spyware sending information up to the Internet. In the past I've used Windows Firewall and I realize that one would seem to be security obsessed to dig for documentation concerning this kind of this kind of activity, but with the Comodo v5.0 Firewall it is just 1 mouse click away...



Sorry to have bothered all of you with this information, but the reason I mention it here is because this particular kind of pre-programmed highly detailed information gathering is new to Win 7 and did not exist in any previous Windows OS and I felt that the Membership should at least be aware of what is going on without the light and fast Windows 7 Firewall apprising them of it. See you in the System Security Forum...

~Maxx~.