Computer People-Help!

[Richard in Smithville]

I have a feeling that my hard drive is slowly filling up with junk. Everything is slowing down. I know there are some programs that really arn't uninstalled and they are cluttering up the processing speed of everything else. I was in Future Shop today looking at software cleaners that are suposed to do all sorts of amazing things to clean out the cobwebs. Are they worth the money or should I try something else? I have run Housecall and Adaware and even though they seem to pull stuff out, I still have some speed issues.
TIA.

[John Hunter]

When was the last time you defraged?

[drumpriest]

If your drive is getting close to full, your system will slow down. As John mentioned defrag after doing a disk clean-up. You can run spybot as well, that may find a bunch of stuff and it's free.

Additionally, clear all of your cookies out of your browsers. Software that isn't uninstalled correctly typically just leave behind entries in your registry, bloating it a bit, but they shouldn't leave stuff behind that actually runs, that would be bad. You can use the task manager to see what is running and taking up a bunch of CPU time. If you don't recognize stuff, google it.

[justaguy]

My cleanup routine is as follows:

I run CCleaner and use it to delete the temp files and the like. Then I use the registry option to cleanup the trash in the registry.

Next up I use Auslogics registry defragmenter.

And I finish off with Auslogics disk defragmenter.

While you are at it you can use the trial version of Auslogics boostspeed 4 to tweek out a bit more speed.

All of the programs except boostspeed 4 are free.

[Alex Franke]

I set up windows to automatically defrag every once in a while.

Other than that I usually re-image the hard drive when spooky stuff starts happening. Don't do this, though, unless you're absolutely sure you have all your data/profile segregated and you're willing to start fresh.

[herb fellows]

CCCleaner is a definite, it's like an enema for your computer. It does seem, though, that no matter what you do, short of wiping the hard drive, it's inadequate. The problem is that there's so much garbage out there that you would have to run twenty programs to catch even most of it.

[mmcduffie]

First, I'm running XP home on a Dell Dimension 5100 with 4Gb ram, two sata drives totaling 570Gb and an old 13Gb drive.

I've had really good luck with the free version of Advanced Windows Care Personal from Iobit.com. Shut down and start up took forever and one run of this program shaved at least half the time off. I wouldn't bother with the paid version, the difference is auto update and auto run.

I also use Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy, but not often.

For Registry cleanup, I use RegVac and WinRescue from superwin.com. RegVac cleans the registry and WinRescue will backup, restore and compact the registry.

My defrager, PerfectDisk 2008, is from Raxco. It will look for duplicates and get rid of them. It will also defrag system files which most others can't do.

By far the biggest bang for the buck was going from 512Mb to 4Gb of ram!

I also run Zone Alarm and AVG antivirus.

Michael

[gychang]

CCCleaner is a definite, it's like an enema for your computer. It does seem, though, that no matter what you do, short of wiping the hard drive, it's inadequate. The problem is that there's so much garbage out there that you would have to run twenty programs to catch even most of it.

thanks for the reference to CCcleaner, seems to help my computer. I use Adaware and Spybot in addition.

gychang

[Wood_workur]

CCleaner is a great program to use. I use that and tuneup utilites to clean stuff up and defrag it.

[gychang]

anyone know of any good antivirus that is free?

thanks,

gychang

[khf314]

Avast http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html and AVG http://free.avg.com/ are both well rated and free. I've used AVG in the past with no problems, but Avast is currently rated higher by Gizmo Richards http://www.techsupportalert.com/ who I consider the guru of freeware.

[crokett]

With the speeds of modern PCs and the amount of RAM in them plus all the changes to the Windows Registry, registry cleaners will have minimal impact on performance but do introduce additional risk in mucking it up and rendering your system worse than when you started. With 4Gb of RAM I can't see why you think you need to compact it.

That's just my opinion though.

[LinuxRandal]

With the speeds of modern PCs and the amount of RAM in them plus all the changes to the Windows Registry, registry cleaners will have minimal impact on performance but do introduce additional risk in mucking it up and rendering your system worse than when you started. With 4Gb of RAM I can't see why you think you need to compact it.

That's just my opinion though.

Crokett,

I haven't been using Windows for some time, so I don't know all the current specs, etc.

But I thought I read him saying XP home? I thought only the pro version was 64 bit and could use 4gb of memory (until Vista anyway)?

As to the original poster, this is more of a future thing then a current thing. When I used to use Windows, I did three partitions. Partition 1 the OS, Partition 2, all installed programs, Partition 3, all my saved data, backed up bookmarks, etc.
With kids, depending on their interests (AKA computer gaming), when you get a new pc, keep the old one. With the new one (I hope Vista is better), set different users, and log on names, etc), after you have made sure you no longer need anything off your old one, I would redo it, and use it as a office type pc. Keep the important stuff away from the gaming/net access/kid, virus/ prone pc.

[crokett]

Crokett,

I haven't been using Windows for some time, so I don't know all the current specs, etc.

But I thought I read him saying XP home? I thought only the pro version was 64 bit and could use 4gb of memory (until Vista anyway)?

I think XP Home can use that much. That is moot anyway - he was just the first one to quote his RAM stats. My home machine has 1Gb (that is as much as it supports) and my laptop has 2Gb. I don't plan to run any registry optimizer on either one, short of SpyBot or similar to clean bad stuff out. The amount of space taken up by extraneous registry entries and the time it takes to load them is negligible in today's computers. Remember you are only loading your registry when the machine starts and how often do you reboot? It is not worth the risk of corrupting your registry IMO. I've seen that happen more than once.

[mmcduffie]

With the speeds of modern PCs and the amount of RAM in them plus all the changes to the Windows Registry, registry cleaners will have minimal impact on performance but do introduce additional risk in mucking it up and rendering your system worse than when you started. With 4Gb of RAM I can't see why you think you need to compact it.

That's just my opinion though.

I tend to install/uninstall a lot of programs and some don't cleanup after themselves very well.

Winrescue reports that my registry has grown by 3064kb since the last run 71 days ago.

I didn't have 4Gb until earlier this month. I put up with only 512Mb for 3 or 4 years. And yes, XP home only sees 3.7Gb. The way the Dell needs the slots filled combined with the fact the the BOIS can only see 4Gb anyhow combined with the pricing structure at Crucial led me to stuff 4Gb in a machine that can only see 3.7Gb


Michael