Thanks. Quite my sense about such stuff, too. balance . . .
Yeah, Norton and McAfee both have given me fits on more than one occasion. I like the utilities and GO BACK.
Daschund's AntiCrash software is wonderful but it's corrupted and I haven't been able to get it back shipshape yet. It stops a ton of crashes cold. Expensive but great stuff.
System Mechanic 5 is good but I paid for 6 only to discover that it had antivirus etc. and of course wouldn't work with any of the other. So I'm reverting to System 5
I started to install Microsoft's new FIXIT IT ALL whatever it's called. But they are worse--insisting on removing ALL others. I don't trust Microslop that much! Though I'd prefer to have a quality package the operating system writer cleared and tailor tuned to the operating system. I just don't trust Microslop that much.
I have System Mechanic 5 on one computer and have decided it is a good product. I will probably install it on my laptop this week.
I lean towards non Microsoft utilities, I just don't think they are nimble enough to keep up with viruses/spyware etc.