Ok, this is what  I was talking about. Some say it's perfectly safe, others have had nightmare experiences. This is why the general rule (At least in the circles in which we work) for an Avid system is to limit the amount of "Freeware" apps you put on your avid system.

Not eliminate, not "Don't use", just be smart and don't load up on untested software.

Please go and delete the thread as I told you BUT those statements are not true.

CCleaner is the best freeware application ever made.

It can do no harm at your system. There is no way of doing it so.

Please delete this thread BUT there is nothing to indicate that using applications on your Avid or whatever system can mess things.

 

First of all, the moderators will choose what threads will be deleted and which won't. 

There is no reason to remove this discussion because that's all it is, a discussion. Freeware is fine in many cases. Users simply need to have the caveat added in addition to all of the great freeware suggestions.

sverkalo:

there is nothing to indicate that using applications on your Avid or whatever system can mess things.

 

Hi George,

Something you have to understand is that the vast majority of users in these forums, whether as independent operators or as part of a post production facility, use Xpress Pro or Media Composer to make a living. 

Their systems must run all day, every day, or they don't get paid.  They don't have time to play around with untested software to see if it is or is not compatible with Avid.  Every hour they are not editing is an hour's worth of money lost, and depending on the person or facility, that could be in the hundreds of dollars.

I've noticed over in the Liquid forums that there's great value placed on trying out different processors, video cards, and other components to report back to the group how they work with Liquid.  While I think that's a cool thing, you won't find that same exploratory spirit to the same degree here.  There are people here who build their own systems, but they're building them to edit for money rather than for testing, so we suggest they go with Avid approved processors and video cards, because we're trying to get them up and running as fast as possible.

To put it bluntly, I don't care what cool freeware applications are compatible with Avid.  I'm a freelance editor, and if I kill a client's system because of a freeware application I downloaded, they're never going to hire me again. 

good luck,
Carl

 

I am a freelancer director and editor too.

I just want to know what's happening and what can be wrong in a system I am working on because I can help myself and other by doing so.

You can't let Avid alone to do all the testing about millions of systems.

But there are over thousand of examples that we managed to help users to something the companies didn't have the time to research.

Having said so both of you, you are right to what you said.

 

I use CCleaner without a problem.  Very thorough.  Besides, it gives you the option to save any registry changes you make, which you can merge later if a problem shows up.  2 cents.

JohnnyReboot:

I use CCleaner without a problem.

 

...Yeah, well it totalled our (lone) system ! As already expressed in this thread, when our editing system is down, then we are out of business ! We tried CC cleaner and it chipped away at files in our system. CC cleaner saw hardly accessed files as unecessary files our system could do with out, but they were essential system files who's absence began to show up as random errors and a slowly increasing overall instability. It took us several weeks to finally pinpoint the actual cause.

....A kind word of advice: Want to get rid of junk files in your system ? Stick with the Win XP disk cleanup tool. This tool is the only guaranteed safe way to remove those junk files.

Laptopeditor:

JohnnyReboot:

I use CCleaner without a problem.

 

...Yeah, well it totalled our (lone) system ! As already expressed in this thread, when our editing system is down, then we are out of business ! We tried CC cleaner and it chipped away at files in our system. CC cleaner saw hardly accessed files as unecessary files our system could do with out, but they were essential system files who's absence began to show up as random errors and a slowly increasing overall instability. It took us several weeks to finally pinpoint the actual cause.

....A kind word of advice: Want to get rid of junk files in your system ? Stick with the Win XP disk cleanup tool. This tool is the only guaranteed safe way to remove those junk files.

 

Just curious, how did you finally pinpoint that CCleaner was the cause of your problems?

Looking at this another way: I spend the time getting my home-built systems stable and then avoid connecting to the internet, don't use Windows Update, and keep my system as a dedicated NLE.  Why on earth then would I want to put on my PC software of unknown provenance that is known to operate on system level files?

cCleaner and any other system cleaning tool has the potential to damage your OS.  That's why they offer you the choice to backup before you change anything.  You use it at your own risk.  If you're happy to chance losing paid work because your system has developed the weird nebulous faults that Laptopeditor has had a history of, go for it.

JohnnyReboot:

Just curious, how did you finally pinpoint that CCleaner was the cause of your problems?

 ....By slowly checking and eliminating step by step all possible hardware driver issues, then software configuration, then finally re-installing the entire OS and NOT re-installing and using CC Cleaner. All random errors and malfunctions disappeared and our editing system is now 100 % solid. I am 99.99% sure it was the CC Cleaner slowly chipping away at my OS files by mistaking them for "junk" files. What I noticed about CC Cleaner and Easy Cleaner would be another one we tried, is they don't descriminate enough between essential files hardly accessed files.

I have had CC installed on several pcs, none of them NLE machines, and never seen criticial files listed as unnecessary in reg clean or file cleanup. That said, I wonder what was the usage and condition of the pc in question that prompted the user to install it in the first place? If the box was used as an isolated editing appliance, there should be no need for security and utility applications.

raspago:

.- I use a lot of freeware.

Many of them are equvalents to commercial software, some of them are even better than their commercial counterparts.

These are my favorites:

2.- Open Office instead of Microsoft office. Forever and ever.

 

Great to see another using Open Office. I'm converted. Once a colleague was e-mailed a power point presentation she couldn't open. I tried it in Open Office, opened up perfectly. I resaved it and then she could open it up in her copy of power point. Probably a versioning issue but was impressed that Open Office managed to do that. It's an incredible app since it's only at version 2.

Gimp, Blender and Audacity are cool free apps useful to creating things. Gimp can save on photoshop licenses on a convenience basis on some machines that don't need the full Photoshop app. I haven't personally tried them on the same Avid machine though.

They are out there. A second machine for this stuff can come real cheap these days. Then all that stuff I just listed could be run on Ubuntu with the Compiz Fusion and all its graphical magic. Some people's Ubuntu desktops really blow Aero away.

And with that note it's kind of tailed off topic, but it might be interesting to someone out there.

We use Open Office here too. It is an excellent freeware application. OE doesn't do anything funky to your system either, since it's essentially a word processor. There is a free script writing software we're trying out now called CELTIX. You can download it free at http://celtx.com/download.html .

 I vote this topic gets moved to the General forum - it's not Avid specific.. it's not Media Composer specific.. all it talks about are freeware applications.

Yes but it brought out something really interesting.

What some people think about using some apps with MC.