Upgrade PC-Doctor Toolbox for Windows for Win 8?

I recently upgraded my T500 from Win7 to Win8, but ThinkVantage is not supported. I was aware of that before I upgraded.

If I understand this correctly, PC-Doctor Toolbox is a part of or integrated with ThinkVantage, but it will not work as is. I can upgrade to the Win 8 version of PC-Doctor Toolbox for Windows for $19.95.

Do you recommend doing this upgrade, or is there an alternative that you would recommend?

Thanks much.

 

Don't waste your money on a bogus program.

Since you have win 8 you have windows defender (microsoft security essentials) already. If you're worried, download malware bytes anti-malware (don't pay for it, just do the free version), and superantispyware (again, just the free version).

 

Thanks for replying, but I don't think PC-Doctor Toolbox has anything to do with antivirus/spyware, does it?

This is what it says in the link I posted above:

More than 300 hardware tests for all major PC subsystems: storage, audio, graphics, networking, memory, CPU, systemboard, and peripherals
Detailed system information to give a clear picture of the current configuration
Comprehensive system history shows changes and events that have occurred
Status and settings for your backup and security solutions
Monitoring of Windows updates, system performance, and hardware health
Links to Windows tools and support resources​

Plus, it says: "If you are not buying an upgrade now, uninstall Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox from your PC."

 

My question would be: how much of this stuff you *really* need, use on regular basis, or even recognize it's there...

Personally, I always test hardware with non-Lenovo software, but that's me.

 

The primary reason is because I thought that this would "save" the ThinkVantage app. So you would go ahead and uninstall ThinkVantage?

 

ThinkVantage does nothing for me, and is not welcome on my ThinkPads.

But this is YOUR T500 that we're discussing...what works for me may not work for you and vice versa.

Out of sheer principle, I'd refuse to pay for an application that was free for the past decade, but it's your call...

 

Well I stand corrected on the spyware/virus portion. Every one of those things can be accomplished with a free and trusted tool. Never once in my 12 years as a pc tech has anyone recommended PC-Doctor. If it worked/or is useful, I'm sure I would have heard about it by now.

 

Thanks, guys. What "free and trusted" (I like both words!) would you suggest?

In the meantime, I'm uninstalling ThinkVantage since it's not supported in Win 8.

 

In terms of tools, it really depends on what you want/need to do.

Typically things like hardware tests are used to either benchmark your system or determine if something is wrong with it. There are lots of tools that properly benchmark/test hardware, depends on what you want to test.

SIW 2011 is a great program that shows system information including some of your applications serial numbers.

HW monitor will show you temps/battery health.

Windows keeps an event log that can easily be accessed.

Defender will tell you if there is an issue with itself. Backup solutions vary greatly, but most have some sort of a status/log/error notification.

Windows will let you know if there are updates. I'd like to know how it monitors system performance. Again, hardware health? It either works or it doesn't.

There are 100198208 links on google to windows tools/support sources. You already have a fantastic support source at your finger tips (hint, you posted to it already).

 

I presume you haven't worked on too many ThinkPads.

PC Doctor for DOS (sadly withdrawn by Lenovo some time ago) was *the* most trusted program for basic troubleshooting on these machines for a long, long time. Unfortunately, the final version doesn't work on the newer, post-T400 series units.

ThinkVantage was introduced by IBM a decade ago and is a decent set of utilities. That being said, it was ALWAYS free in both IBM and Lenovo days until now, which is an absolute disgrace in my opinion.

 

As a lenovo dealer, I've worked on a few thinkpads. I stand by my opinion. There are lots of old MS DOS utilities that were very good in their day that don't work today. Software constantly goes down hill (norton anyone)...

 

You're a Lenovo dealer and you haven't heard of PC Doctor in any shape or form? Wow.

It's only been there since R4x/T4x series and XP all the way through T420 and its siblings utilizing W7, on every single factory pre-load...

I don't understand how one can form an opinion on something that they've never been exposed to, but hey, what do I know...

 

We've only been a Lenovo dealer for a couple years now, so nothing we've received has PC Doctor (except for when a customer brings in the occasional HP or other laptop that happens to have it installed).

I can stand by that opinion because in all my years of fixing computers if it was any good at diagnosing something, I would have read about it by now. Instead I'll stick to the specific utilities that work.

 

Were you guys trained to actually repair ThinkPads? Or just sell them?

Running PC Doctor diagnostics on a "suspect" machine/component was an *official* Lenovo requirement until mid-last year...

 

We are just an authorized dealer, we haven't taken the steps to be an authorized service center. The machines that we sell if we can't easily fix them in-house we send them to lenovo. The systems that customers bring in that are out of warranty we fix in house of course.

 

OK, now I understand...makes perfect sense.

Well, enjoy making money on the new ones - they're all yours -:hi2:

I'm not touching them with a thirty-foot-pole...

 

Hah, well the old ones aren't coming back, so adapt and overcome...

For a cheap laptop it's better than the majority of them out there.

 

Nah...all of my customers were notified quite some time ago that I wouldn't be providing any type of support for the ThinkPads that sport 6-row keyboards...

 

Interesting conversation. Maybe I can help clear some things up. It is correct to say that PC-Doctor Toolbox is in no way an anti-virus or anti-spyware tool. There are lots of other products that handle that area. Thinkvantage Toolbox was an effective diagnostic tool for many years but unfortunately is no longer provided by Lenovo. PC-Doctor Toolbox is a newly released retail product containing the same diagnostics that have been available to OEMs for years. So if you are familiar with Thinkvantage Toolbox then you will be similarly familiar with PC-Doctor Toolbox. Along with the many hardware diagnostics the product scans your system periodically and alerts you of any pending hardware or system issues so that you can take action before they become catastrophic issues. Regarding System History, it goes way beyond what Windows provides. You might be able to piece together some functionality from the four corners of the internet, but who has the time for that

 

I still am far from sold on PC-Doctor.

I've had an HP laptop that had PC-Doctor installed on it. The laptop was blue screening due to bad ram. I would assume PC-Doctor could have caught something so simple? I guess not.

In terms of system tests: prime95 does a great job for testing the cpu, memtest 86 for memory, and seatools for the hard drive. There isn't a whole lot more to test (sadly PC repair isn't a very difficult task anymore). That's far from searching the four corners of the internet.

Monitoring the system periodically sounds nice, but what does it really do? Hard drive failures are often sudden and without warning (or tripping smart), in fact running hard drive diagnostics on a dieing hard drive is the worse thing you can do if you want to save data. Memory and cpu errors typically cause bsods and are easy to diagnose. Power supply issues are typically cut and dry as well.

What does it provide system history wise that windows doesn't? Windows logs tons of events and most certainly the important ones. Anything that logs more info then that probably is using system resources that could be better dedicated to something important...

Also, welcome to the forum.

 

I, as others here have stated, don't use anything paid for info. There are a lot of free and even built in programs that can monitor and diagnose issues as they develop. Do you really have time to worry about over 300 tests... and are you going to spend any time at all perusing the results of all those tests? And some, such as audio monitoring... Unless your deaf ( and this is not an insult) you will know if your audio is going haywire. Windows has a lot of tools built in including self tests. HWinfo will show you so much about your system. Windows update can be set to, well, update automagically. Mem test, chkdsk and a host of other tests are either built in or available for free. If you really want to master your computing experience, check out the Hardware thread on the main forum page. Very many people that are willing to share knowledge and answer questions. But once a company starts to charge for all these tests... Let them go.

In short, others have told you they would not pay for this. They are right. Anything you need is available for free, and usually is more efficient, less of a resource hog and better at what it does. Ask, listen and then apply your new knowledge. It is fun and rewarding to use all the resources this forum has. Now get out there and have fun learning.

 

I love my Tool Box! I "use" it daily, and I scan the hardware weekly. Also, I test all devices monthly. But what do I know, I've only been working on IBM systems for the past 30 years.

Maybe that "expert", who never saw the LTT Tool Box, would rather use a lot of the other tools he has available to him, while I'll do everything under my one LTT tool.:yes:

View attachment 91523

edit: I forgot to tell you, the LTT was free when I bought my system. I still pay squat for the license. I doesn't need any maintenance, or upgrades, as it's been working for years without a problem.

 

Lol, well I'm glad you know that your internet connection is not connected, your windows updates is enabled, and that it recommends you use windows backups. I don't think I could have learned all that without that tool.

I'm glad you like it, but I'll use my ubcd that is free and know that things are good.

 

FWIW I just did my 1st SSD (a clean install, with of course Win7, but odds are I can raise a few useful questions/comments on utility packages/software).

The key things that so far stand out (aside from the issue of greatly improved overall performance with a SSD) are that ThinkVantage is Lenovo's free utility package for ThinkPads??? Still not sure about that as ThinkVantage is the last thing on the Lenovo driver/software list that I've yet to try.

The great utility s/w of the distant past started with Peter Norton, which he sold to Symantec who still feature his name on their s/w products. Another great person/s started with the System Commander product, which expanded to multiple products and got sold to Avanquest and their System Suite line.

I've finally lost my trust in Avanquest and abhor their latest moves, so I've uninstalled (so far) on both my X220 and one desktop. i.e. revisiting Norton Utilities 16 as it only cost $20 from Amazon and is licensed for 3 PCs.

Two of the free (or even their non free "pro") packages that I may also try are, Glary Utilities and Advanced System Care.

Is that $19.95 for one PC or 3 PCs or what???

I rather like Lenovo's Power Manager, which of course makes me happy that I'm still staying with Win7.

 

You do realize that each of the main page options, have more settings, scans, and further information under each.

As I said, the hardware scan, and diagnostics, are well worth the price (zero). Also, the LTT is in my start up, and it's not CPU intensive. I still maintain boot times around 30 seconds, and that's from disk, as I don't have an SSD.

And yeah, I'm not "always" connected to the internet, or my network. I use my computer, for a lot more than being on the "net". Except for rare moments, I have my router's radio turned off. When I need to be connected, I do it via a 1Gb wired connection. I know my upgrade schedule, and I leave it connected during these times. In fact MS has a big update scheduled for this week. I think there are around 57 security based PTF's See this:

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for February 2013

Of course, whichever tool you run to maintain your computer, is the right tool for you. I just don't think you should disparage, the tool that many Lenovo Think Pad, or Idea Pad users choose to employ, because you've never "seen" it.

 

I haven't used "SIW 2011" but the one I have used and like is hwinfo64, currently up to version 4.12

See: HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools

I have used hwmonitor, and agree that it does a very nice job of showing "temps/battery health"

In addition to a decent free firewall, Microsoft has 3 related "virus/malware" type programs that Microsoft offers, of which Windows Defender is one. 2nd is the malicious s/w removal program (currently a 17.5MB .exe file that you can save to your computer drive). 3rd is Microsoft Security Essentials.

1 and 2 are gotten when doing normal Windows updates, but you need to know how to find and use them (1 can be found by left click on your desktop and then press F1 and then type the single word "defender" which is usually off and has to be turned on. Turing it on requires turning off Security Essentials (which I still haven't figured out how to do ). 2 (the malicious program) can usually be found in your user "downloads" folder. For 3 simply to to microsoft support and search for "security essentials"

 

That's a fast Windows boot time, especially from a HDD.

That is a cold boot?

If yes, then I assume you're using the Win8 "fast boot" option???

 

Command line is still with us and still robust.

But in general agreed when it comes to GUI operating system software.

 

Yes, it's a cold boot. I completely power down my laptop every evening, before I go to sleep. I have a Win 7 system, so I don't know what the Win 8 "fast boot" option is all about.

Background/Rant
In 1970 I enlisted in the US Army Security Agency, where I was trained to use NSA's on-line/real time computer systems to accomplish my critical mission. When my tour of duty was up, I transitioned into working on IBM mid-range systems, such as System 34, System 38, AS/400, I Series, Series I, and then the new Power 7 Systems. I retired in 2008 as a Senior Analyst/Administrator over the IBM Power 7 System. I think I learned a little, about how to keep a system running in peak performance! :GEEK:

The only reason that I'm tooting my horn, is because with the proper knowledge, anyone can keep their system up to date, and only run the programs that "you choose" to execute when your machine boots up. I'm definitely not a fan of a "clean install". In my hiring days, if a candidate even uttered those two words in an interview to fix a particular problem, the interview was promptly terminated. It's like "Duh, I don't know how to fix that, so I'll just reload the OS on a clean install". In a government, or business environment, you just can't wipe out a system because you can't figure out what's causing it to malfunction. Most systems, particularly these Lenovo's, have their OEM Win OS, tied into their "enhanced experience". If you want all their good gadgets to work, just look, and learn, what bloat ware can be deleted from the Lenovo OEM OS, and still maintain the One Key Recovery, On Screen Display, Power Manager, and a couple other programs that are quite useful.

Here's my tip for keeping the boot time so low. I use the EE Boot Optimizer weekly. I have very few programs in the start-up tab. I only allow the services that I need to get airborne, to start Automatically. All other services I've set as Automatic (Delayed Start). Most third party programs I set to Manual. When I want to use their service, I manually start it. When done using, I end the service. I firewall everything coming down from the internet, and scan the files. I don't install any executable, until I completely understand what it contains, AND what it does to my system. Then I ask myself "Do I really need this program"? If I'm completely satisfied that I know what the ramification will be, I create a restore point, back up the registry, and install the program. After the installation, I test, test, and test again. If the tests are up to par, my last step is a registry scan, and compare it to the scan before the program was installed. If I don't understand, or like what's going on in the changed registry, I go back to the restore point. I scan the registry AGAIN, and do another comparison to the pre-install, just to make sure there isn't any left over entries. Yeah, I know this looks like a lot of work, but I've done this so many times, it's become second nature to me. Also, I'm retired, so I have a lot of time on my hands. Plus, as I said, this was my job for over 40 years.

I don't think that most PC users are as paranoid as I am. Heck, most PC users don't have the ability to tell you what any of the programs in their start menu do, or why they're in there. Forget about them knowing, or understanding, what impact their running services, and processes, have on their system.

Once again, I said "most.

"According to Gartner Dataquest's statistics, in April 2002 the billionth personal computer was shipped. The second billion mark was supposedly reached in 2007.
But how many computers are actually in use? According to a report by Forrester Research, there were over one billion PCs in use worldwide by the end of 2008.
And with PC adoption in emerging markets growing fast, it is estimated that there will be more than two billion PCs in use by 2015, Forrester predicts. Therefore, whereas it took 27 years to reach the one billion mark, it will take only 7 to grow from 1 billion to 2 billion."

How many of the "billion" users have a degree in IT? How many started out in the trenches in 1970, and have >40 years experience in analysis, and computer administration, such as I have? You can call me paranoid, in fact we ALL should be paranoid, if you saw what I was doing for the secret squirrels!

END RANT

MODS: I'm sorry if my reply was so wordy, and if I brought this thread off topic. I had some things to embellish, and get off my chest. I feel better now. I'll take my meds, and go to sleep.

 

OtherSongs,
windows defender is installed on all win 8 systems, and functions as the "microsoft security essentials" for that OS (you can't put MSSE on there). Also I know command line is still in use, lol, I was just using that as a point that things change.


Dragnoak,
After reading all of that, I figure you would be all for free utilities that you don't install on your system at all. Having something running all of the time in the background doing things for you with questionable reliability seems to clash with your general theme of being able to control every little detail of your machine.

I'm not arguing with your experience, but when you look at what enthusiasts who overclock and technicians who repair computers for a living recommend for hardware diagnosis and system information, it isn't PC-Doctor. Booting these simple, free, and reliable tools from allows me to not only know a customers hardware is good, but has zero impact on their system performance.

And yes I agree that a user should use what tools make them comfortable, but I was trying to make the point that 20 bucks could be better spent than on a program that in my opinion could be easily replaced by free tools.

And thanks for your service, I've only done a few years and am actually switching over to the dark side (the air force) when I start med school (I'm ready for a cushy life after spending some time in less than desirable conditions).

 

No problem. :laugh:

My rant wasn't directed at you. I participate in some other forums, especially that darn Lenovo forum, where I come across some pretty, shall I say "challenged" users.

I agree, why pay for something, when there are a lot of free tools available. I still really like the LTT. Mainly because, believe it or not, I'm also lazy. This one tool does everything I need, and I trust it's accuracy. When I do my weekly hardware scan, it generates a comprehensive report that lists every device, driver, and installed programs I have in the system. It also gives me historical information such as boot cycle counts, lifetime CPU/disk drive maximum temperature, and a plethora of other data. I save these reports in HTML, and I have a complete record of every change to my system. Did I forget to tell you that I have a lousy memory? :confused2: :yes:

So lets say we agree. Tools are tools. The only thing that matters, is that the user knows how to accurately employ them.

 

I'm glad you pointed out the system history aspect of troubleshooting. As we all know, not every issue, blue screen or otherwise, is related to hardware. The system history in Toolbox is pretty cool in that you can see exactly when your system started having problems (unexpected shut downs, blue screens, etc.) and you can then see exactly what changed on your system prior to those events. You can roll back to the known state before the issue started occurring, or roll back to a prior driver version. Or perhaps you may notice a diagnostic failure that started around the same time. Bottom line is that there is more to troubleshooting than just looking at hardware.

Regarding free vs. not free you need to look into whether a free utility is baked into the cost of the PC! For my personal use, I usually find that if a tool is useful and saves time it is often worth paying for.