A lot of the old school PC maintenance type stuff, IMO is not needed these days. It's all voodoo mixed in with in with some placebo. Don't do stupid stuff, don't install crap you don't need, limit the amount of services you have loaded on startup and use the built in Windows Disk Clean Up tool to remove temp files and left over Windows Update files. Are registry cleaners really needed? The people that I know that use those things have more problems then you can imagine, probably from removing valid keys that are still in use. I know many many years ago there was a valid reason to keep the registry clean, which probably pre-dates me getting my first computer as 10 year old in the early 90s, but as someone who has never ran a reg cleaner, a system mechanic type application or any of that other nonsense, I've always had the best running PC of anyone I know.
For security, I used crappy Norton for a handful of years early on, ran naked for a big chunk of time in the WIN2K and early XP days. Used Windows OneCare or whatever that paid precursor to Defender was, ran MS Antispyware in beta right after MS purchased it from Giant, continued to use it as Defender and Security Essentials. For the past 4 or 5 years I've solely relied on Malwarebytes Premium. But the new version 3 has slowed things down a bit for me. At work we use BitDefender EndPoint Security and I love love LOVE being able to centrally manage security software and decide what modules I want to run. So I went back to where I started it with in the mid 90s and went back to Symantec. After the 60 day free trial ended I signed up for a year of Symantec Endpoint Protection Business for my three computers. If I stay satisfied with it, I'll renew it next year for three years for maximum savings. It does not slow my computers down one bit and I love being in control of how it behaves.
