Recommend some Windows repair utilities

June 3, 2009 7:58 PM

If you were going to bring a USB drive to repair a bunch of workstations, what are some of the latest Windows XP/Vista repair utilities that you would put on it?

I used to do a lot of computer repair and recovery but my career has taken me in a somewhat different direction over the past few years. Sadly, I'm a bit rusty on the specifics.

I have a work assignment (volunteer) coming-up that involves both training another individual on standard computer maintenance and repair and assisting in getting a number of their workstations into a workable state. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the hardware information to prepare ahead of time.

I know that there have been questions in the past regarding recommended tools to solve Windows issues (viruses, rootkits, registry bloat etc.) but I can't seem to track any of them down. Also, they might be a bit dated.

Give me your best! Thanks.

A few I've come up with are:
RegMon
FileMon
ProcessMonitor
AVG (or ClamWin)
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
CCleaner

posted by purephase to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Tune Up Utilities, AVG/Avast, Ad-Aware and Revo Uninstaller take care of almost everything I run into.
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 8:07 PM on June 3

K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool and/or Filmerit for wading through DirectShow filter hell.
PowerMenu to adjust process priority and be able to set some windows on top or transparent while I work.
ImgBurn and a Linux disc image of your choosing OR an already-burned LiveCD of same.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 8:16 PM on June 3

To get a whole bunch of packaged, portable apps in a kit for what you're doing, check out this lifehacker article
posted by ijoyner at 8:34 PM on June 3

SpaceMonger is a good free utility if they need to free up hard drive space.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 8:36 PM on June 3

deezil's mefi profile looks like it has some links to good software for dealing with infected PCs. I just ran across it by way of his post in this thread.
posted by Balonious Assault at 10:06 PM on June 3

I'm just about to head out the door for this very reason. This is great.

What I had on my stick as of last night:
Firefox
- AdBlock extension
- IE Tab extension
AVG Free
ComboFix
- Boot Disk files for the various XP versions for use by ComboFix
CWShredder
HijackThis
MalwareBytes
startuplist (I don't know where this originally came from, unfortunately. It handily consolidates the various places where stuff gets started automatically into one window for review)
Windows XP Service Pack 3

I also take an Acronis bootable CD and a large USB hard drive. If you don't have internet handy it's nice to have an EVDO or similar USB modem.
posted by odinsdream at 3:48 AM on June 4

I would suggest some sort of Linux LiveCD for scoping out the hard drive without actually booting to it or running anything.
posted by aheckler at 5:12 AM on June 4