need help with old pc

[eyeCpc]

For a program that takes care of the drive itself Diskkeeper will perform the maintainance like keeping a drive from getting fragmented. XP was like lightning when going to run the defrag tool compared to how that was in 98SE.

When in the msconfig utility there are a few pointers to avoid making mistakes there. Besides the startup group you also have to go into the services section in order to see any antivirus program put on the disabled list. The option for checking one box can prevent you from disabling an essential background service by checking off the "hide all microsoft services" box seen when first going to open the tab. The only items then seen with that checked off are 3rd party items like those for video and sound cards as well as the AV program you are running if it sees email scanning and other features included.

 

[Trotter]

My bad. I meant the Startup tab. Services would take a lot more explanation.

Clearing out the stuff that starts up with Windows will speed up the boot and let the computer run faster because it doesn't have all the baggage.

 

[eyeCpc]

That's for sure! You simply have to exclude the things needed for video and sound softwares while being able to neutralize startup items for tv tuner cards and portions of IE security, antivirus, and other items that you won't need auto loading but can easily startup manually at request.

Besides the msconfig however there are some free tools like CCleaner and RegCleaner that also provide a useful service with each. The CCleaner will clean up now useless temp folders and IE offline content to free up drive space for the ease of defragmenting.

The RegCleaner includes an automatic registry cleanup tool that locates and removes leftover entries in the system registry still trying to load drivers and other things no longer found. Sometimes that reduce conflicts as two sets of driver for example one video card replaced still seeing drivers left trying to be loaded causing issues with a new card.

RegSeeker is one tool that can be used for specifically removing individual drivers as well as the reg values if you know that "orphanned" values like that are remaining. A periodic run of the Windows check disk tool is also a good idea for making sure startup of Windows goes smooth there.

 

[Trotter]

CCleaner will also clean the registry. I used to have a registry defragmenter that I used, but I don't remember its exact name. I downloaded from majorgeeks, though.

 

[eyeCpc]

CCleaner does have a limited registry cleaner in that sense. I use it here often enough as well as having tried various other programs. What is seen mostly there however is a cleanup of log files, memory dumps, temp folders. and other clutter that slows drive access time down.

But for an effecttive tool that will run on Vista as well as 95 plus display anything you have installed even without knowing like adwares the "new" entries will show up in the main window seen in the image below.

Once you clean up a drive things seem to run faster. That's another thing that people often don't realize when copy, creating, deleting, and then even downloading, moving more files, and repeated deletion as well as creation along with storing them. clutter and fragmented files will remain regardless of what tool is used there.