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Keeping your system safe and healthy

Microsoft® Windows® is a complex environment that allows a greater level of functionality, ease-of-use, and power that also can be a challenge to manage. Systems can be affected in a variety of ways ways each time software is installed and uninstalled, as well as in-to-day activities of using your computer.

To help you manage and maintain a healthy working system, there are several tools a system administrator can employ to improve ease of use and better satisfy the needs of users.

Disclaimer:

SolidWorks accepts no responsibility for the use of, or any subsequent damage or loss of data, due to use of non-SolidWorks applications. Several solutions outlined below are third-party applications which carry their own warranty and are therefore not supported by SolidWorks Corporation or by SolidWorks value-added resellers. Use of third-party applications is done strictly at the user's risk.

SolidWorks Rx

SolidWorks Rx is included with SolidWorks® software and performs the following functions:

• Runs and records basic system diagnostics (enough hard disk space, RAM, and more)
• Records a video of your SolidWorks session to send to your support representative
• Package the information needed by a support engineer, optionally including SolidWorks files, so they can eliminate the 20 questions about what you have and were running

Anti-Virus

Anti-virus and anti-spy ware are two areas that should be addressed from an IT side to balance protection from virus/spy ware and performance for the users. The main issues with anti-virus are:

• Blocking the installation or update of system components. This is the reason the note was displayed during installation on turning off the Anti-virus application. Even if you turn off anti-virus during the installation, there are times when the computer needs to be rebooted and the component is registered at that time.
• Real time scan can time out, block open or saving files.

Important issues to address:

• Updated virus definition files. If the definition files are out of date, your protection is limited at best.
• The ability to real time scan files, web pages, email, and more as they are being used. The disadvantage from a SolidWorks user's perspective is that it will take longer to open a document if it needs to be scanned. One potential solution to this is to omit .SLDPRT, .SLDASM, and .SLDDRW files from the real time scan. The risk in doing so is if a SolidWorks file would become infected. The SolidWorks files could be scanned at nights and over the weekend to reduce this risk.
• Keep your Anti-virus application version up-to-date. The versions listed below are recent versions. If your organization is using an anti-virus application that is a number of years old, this could be the source of your anti-virus issues.

SolidWorks is tested using the following anti-virus applications:

• Norton Anti Virus 2005
• McAfee Virus Scan 9
• eTrust ezAntiVirus 2005
• Alwil Software AVAST 4 (64 bit)

Spy ware tools scan for and detect items added to your computer when installing application (freeware and shareware in particular, and when browsing on the Internet. There are a number of applications that can do a scan of your system and return and fix a list of issues found.

CheckIt Pro

When evaluating system problems or determining the general performance of a machine, not directly related to use of SolidWorks software, CheckIt can be used to perform burn-in and diagnostics testing. This utility can be used to test new machine and ones that may be problematic.

To find out more, visit http://www.smithmicro.com/default.tpl?group=product_full&sku=CPRWINEE

Ace Utilities

Ace Utilities, performs a wide range of system clean-up functions. Outside of disk de-fragmentation, this utility can perform a wide range of system maintenance functions. This utilities functions and disk de-fragmentation should be set as a regular, scheduled task using the Windows Task Scheduler and the scheduling options in this utility.

For more information, visit http://www.acelogix.com/index.html

Notes:

• Always have a backup made prior to using these types of utilities. (see System Restore)
• Turn on System Restore (My Computer\Properties\System Restore)
• One additional application is the registry compactor (de fragment)  http://www.acelogix.com/regcompact.html

Download Accelerators

When downloading software from the SolidWorks Support download pages, the use of a download accelerator significantly increases the speed of a download, recovery from lost connections, errors, and more.

SolidWorks recommends and has been tested with the Internet Download Manager and Download Accelerator Plus

RegistryFix

RegistryFix is an application that will scan your system registry and
hard drive for invalid file and system references. These invalid references cause system instability, PC errors, constant crashes, and general system slowdowns.

For more information, visit http://www.registryfix.com/overview.htm.

Conclusion
These tools and utilities can be employed to make SolidWorks users more productive and lessen the support requirements.

Copyright © 2005 SolidWorks Corporation. All rights reserved.

Do not distribute or reproduce without the written consent of