Software we recommend

Software we recommend to use in providing support and general day to day usage.

Whitelist

Blacklist

Anti-Virus and Malware tools

Windows Maintenance

Disks

Disk & Partition Management

Verifying Disk Health

Reading Machine Temperatures & Voltages Whitelist

This serves as a master list of recommended and permitted software that we permit in the

community. Please see the 'how tos' that may be present for these pieces of software.

TypeNameNotesDownloadHowTo

File https://www.7- 7zip Archival zip.org/download.html

Gparted is a /GNU front- end to the parted tool.The It gparted Disk is package Gparted HowTo manipulationthein recommendedany methoddistro for manipulating disks when using a Linux live session. TypeNameNotesDownloadHowTo

Chrome , FireFox AduBlock , BlockerOrigin Edge , Opera TypeNameNotesDownloadHowTo

Ventoy

Linux

documentation . Yumi

documenation , make sure you Rufus select , the correctVentoy Rufus, tool, Ventoy, forbalenaEtcher balenaEthcher, your Image , YUMI, mountingmotherboard WindowsYUMI tools (BIOS Media, or Creation UEFI).Windows Tool TheMedia Windows Creation Media CreationTool Tool only works on Windows and for creating the Windows installer Blacklist

This serves as a master list of banned software that we do not permit in the community.

EOL OS

Any EOL OS is unsupported, it does not need to be listed here.

Name Notes

Windows XP

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Ubuntu 12.04 Name Notes

See

here to check if you are running a compatable verion. Windows You 10 can type "Winver" on the start menu to see your current version.

ETC

Unsupported OS

Name Notes Due to ReviOS TOS this is considered to have malware ReviOSincluded such as keyloggers. The vendor also provides support to users.

Debloaters

These break machines and are black boxes for troubleshooting. If you have an issue with an OS don't use it. Do not break it then expect help.

Name Notes

Win10DebloaterSycnex

Win10ScriptChrisTitusTech

Debloat- Windows-W4RH4WK 10

Tron bmrf Script

Utilities Name Notes

Use 7zip as Winrar a free alternative

Benchmark tools

Name Notes

UserBenchMark is UserBenchMarkbiased and untrusted

Driver finders

See here for our stance and instructions on drivers. All driver finders are blacklisted, it doesn't have to be listed here.

Name Notes

SnappyDriver Installer

DriverBooster

DriverEasy

System cleaners/optimizers

Cleaners have a long record of use in the Windows community but often times are abused, leading to broken systems and many wasted writes on an SSD. System cleaners or optimizers often do more harm then good, and don't solve issues. Always determine your real issue and solve it with a more direct method.

All cleaners/optimizers are blacklisted, it doesn't have to be listed here.

Name Notes

Advanced IOBit SystemCare

CcleanerPiriform

iolo Systemiolo Mechanic

Outbyte PC Outbyte Repair

Audio manipulation programs

Programs that use virtual cables often permanently damage Windows audio systems.

Name Notes

Voicemod

Voicemeeter

Clownfish

Third-party AVs

See here for our stance on AV Tools. It doesn't have to be listed here to be blacklisted.

Name Notes

Avast

AVG

Comodo Name Notes

Kaspersky

McAfee

Norton

Webroot

Precompiled Windows PE

The distribution of pre-compiled PE is illegal under TOS.

Name Notes

Hires

Gandalf

Vendors

This list of vendors offer nothing to the community or make multiple products that are considerd

PUPs/Malware.

Name Notes

All IOBit products Anti-Virus and Malware tools

For information about how to clean malware from your computer, or prevent it in the future, see this malware guide

Definitions

AV - Anti-Virus runs constantly in the background, scanning files on download, on access, or on a schedule

AM - Anti-Malware should be run on demand to check for residual PUPs or other issues.

PUP - Potentially unwanted program, this is a generic term for 'shitware'

Windows Defender

The built in solution for AV in is more than adequate for consumers. This is much better than running a free AV suite that is of lesser quality or plans to sell your personal habits for profit (MCafee, Avast, AVG, etc)

Free Alternatives

All free alternatives are considered shitware. They will sell you as their product and provide more a more troublesome experience. We do not recommend Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, McAfee or any other alternative AV.

Paid AV Suites

We do not recommend any paid AV suite for consumers, they do not provide significant advantages over Windows Defender and only increase overhead. Windows Maintenance

Cleaners

CCleaner

CCleaner and all other cleaners can be very destructive. The use of these to clean excessively can lead to increase wear on SSDs when temp file are constantly being written and deleted.

The use of any registry 'cleaner' can also be detrimental to a machine there is never a good reason to 'clean' a registry, it is not a source of load on the system in any way.

Driver finders

All applications are PUPs

We do not recommend any driver finder applications, this list includes but is not limited to:

Snappy Driver Installer

IObit DriverBooster

Driver Easy

Windows can natively handle most drivers during install, or directly from Device Manager. If you are seeking to update drivers outside of Windows Device Manager only seek them online from the motherboard, , or GPU manufacturers support page.

Defrag

Only use Windows built-in tools All third party tools, such as , are considered PUPs

Advanced Uninstallers

Revo Uninstaller

This is one of the few maintenance tools we can recommend, and it is for a specific need. If you ever have an app break and continue to misbehave after a reinstall you may need to clear out more items than Windows natively does.

Running this tool can clear residual configuration files and registry entries. The registry cleanup on this application has the same warning as , it can break the OS if something goes wrong.

Download Disks Disks Disk & Partition Management

Disk Managment

You can open disk managment by pressing Win+R and typing diskmgmt.msc .

Disk managment can only be run from a installed copy of windows, and has limits on what partitions and disks can be edited. For a more robust solution, consider using diskpart or gparted.

Creating a new partition

New partitions can only be created from unallocated space.

1. Right click on the unallocated space and choose "New Simple Volume".

2. By default, the size will be the entire unallocated space. Most of the time, this is fine. 3. You can assign your new partition any drive letter you would like. Assigning A:\ or B:\

may cause issues.

4. For file system, there are 3 options (you may have less depending on your drive).

Fat32: Desgined to be used with smaller USB drives, 32GB or less in size.

exFat: Desgined to be used with all USB drives, can replace Fat32.

NTFS: Designed to be used with hard drives and SSDs of all sizes, internal and external.

Label can be whatever you would like it to be, it will be displayed in explorer. Changing drive letter, file system, or label.

Editing drive letter

1. Right click on an existing partition and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".

2. On the open dialog choose "Add..." if you don't have a drive letter, and choose

"Change..." if you do. If you want to remove your drive letter, choose "Remove".

Changing file system

Note: This is a destructive action, all data on the drive will be deleted. 1. Right click on an existing partition and choose "Format...".

2. Most of the time, leaving allocation unit size at default and quick format selected will

work. When choosing a file system, reference this:

Fat32: Desgined to be used with smaller USB drives, 32GB or less in size.

exFat: Desgined to be used with all USB drives, can replace Fat32.

NTFS: Designed to be used with hard drives and SSDs of all sizes, internal and external.

Changing drive label.

1. Right click on an existing partition and choose "Properties".

2. From this menu, you can change your drive label to anything you would like

Deleting a partition

1. Right click on an existing partition and choose "Delete Volume..."

2. Click "Yes" to delete the partition. You will loose all data on this partiton.

Diskpart

Diskpart is a command line tool that doesn't have as many restrictions as disk manager. It is still limited on :\ , and not a good tool for partition manipulation. This tool can be run from the windows installation media, allowing it to operate on C:\

This is going to guide you through wiping a disk and creating a single empty partition using the entire drive. This will not securly erase your data, see wiping disks for instructions on how to do that. 1. To open diskpart, you will need an elevated command prompt. Just type diskpart and

diskpart will load.

2. To identify your disk, type list disk , then type select disk X where X is the disk

number. (Choosing the wrong disk will cause data loss)

3. To wipe all partitions from your disk, type clean

4. For disk type and partition structure, most cases will want basic and GPT. If this disk

needs to be read on older systems, use MBR instead of GPT. Run convert basic and

convert gpt .

5. To create the raw partition, run create primary partition . If you picked MBR, you must

run active after creating the partition. 6. Run detail disk and list partition to ensure that your disk looks correct and you have

both the partition and volume selected. You should have a star next to the volume and

partition.

If either the partition or volume is missing, type exit , reconnect your drive and startover.

If the partition or volume isn't selected (you can tell by the star on the right), type

select partition X or select volume X .

7. To format tbe partition, type format fs={FileSystem}. For what file system to use,

reference the following:

Fat32: Desgined to be used with smaller USB drives, 32GB or less in size.

exFat: Desgined to be used with all USB drives, can replace Fat32.

NTFS: Designed to be used with hard drives and SSDs of all sizes, internal and external.

You can also add a label at this stage, by adding Label=label to your command.

If you are using NTFS and want to enable file compression, add Compress to your format

command.

Adding Quick to the end of your command will significantly speed up the format time.

A full format command will look something like format fs=fat32 Label=Drive Quick . This

will do a quick format with a label of "Drive" and file system of fat32.

8. To assign a drive letter to the new partition, run assign letter=X where X is the letter

you choose. 9. Type exit to close diskpart. Your drive is formatted.

Gparted

This is used via a Linux live environment.

Gparted has the advantage of working on almost any disk, when in Windows you cannot operate extensively on your main C:\ drive but Gparted is booted from its own media and not running on

C:\ so it does not have this restriction.

Gparted can be downloaded from here and you can read How to use gparted Disks Verifying Disk Health

Definitions

S.M.A.R.T. - this is a monitoring system included in disk drives(HDDs and SSDs). Its primary function is to detect and report various indicators of drive reliability and health.

Sectors - these are sections of your hard drive that store data. Your hard drive has many many sectors.

Important SMART Values

If you ever read a SMART report from any of the below tools it is useful understanding the common ones that you want to watch for.

Current Pending Sector Count

When a sector is detected as bad it will be counted and the disk will attempt to move it. This value can go up and down as the disk moves or recovers sectors.

More info

Reallocated Sectors Count

When detected as bad your disk will attempt to move a sector. If it is moved successfully this count will go up.

More info

Uncorrectable Sector Count

This count goes up when the disk is not able to recover and move a sector. This indicates lost data.

Crystal Disk Info Crystal disk is the simplest way to get a reading on SMART within Windows. Download the application then run it to view every disk in the machine.

If a disk shows up as Yellow 'Caution' or Red 'Bad' we recommend replacing it.

Hard Disk Sentinel

Download

SEAGATE (SeaTools)

Bootable

Info

Download

Windows Application

Info

Download

SmartmonTools

For a GUI solution see here

You can check SMART in Linux using . The quick steps to get a report in Ubuntu are: (replace X with your desired disk)

sudo apt install smartmontools

sudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdX

More Info Reading Machine Temperatures & Voltages

Watching your temperatures is an important part of managing any machine, especially a gaming rig. There are several tools that can work for this, some may not work on all CPUs (Ryzen most notably).

When reporting your temperatures to people, please use Celsius. It doesn't matter what country you are in, everyone uses Celsius.

Speccy

This is an all around system reporting tool. We use this actively in the Discord to get a ton of information about your machine.

Speccy can have some issues reading Ryzen, if you temps are incredibly high please check with a

Ryzen specific tool.

Download

Ryzen Master

The go-to for ensuring you get proper temperature readings for your Ryzen CPU. If other tools show the same temperature you can assume they are accurate.

Download

HWiNFO

Like speccy this has a ton of info, but it is isolated to hardware. We utilize this for extended logging of voltages, temps, etc. during stress tests.

Download