Getting my PC back up to speed (it has become slow lately)

[King$nake]

My PC specs are in my sig, and I built the PC myself. I'm running XP SP3.

Basically, what I have done so far is removed alot of unnecessary programs in the Add/Remove utility and Windows Install Clean Up Utility.

I also went to msconfig and removed alot of unnecessary start-up programs.

What else should I do? ScanDisk? Defrag? Or is that too old-school?

PC is running slower and slower just doing everyday tasks. How can I get it back up to speed?

Thanks in advance

 

[veg1992]

Try running CCleaner, have it clean up your registry... and since when is defragging old school!

 

[King$nake]

Try running CCleaner, have it clean up your registry... and since when is defragging old school!

haha, I don't know. I haven't been up to speed in the software world for years.

I'll try CCleaner - and then a defrag?

 

[eyeCpc]

There's enough memory installed ruling any need to add more in. One idea for seeing things improve when Windows starts to slow down over a period of time is the use of a good registry cleaner like Eusing found at Eusing Free Registry Cleaner - Download

That's a fully automatic cleaner without worry of removing the wrong registry entries while cleaning up the now useless values left over from software uninstallers. You would be surprize! d at just how much that will find on the first run.

In XP you simply select the analyze option when going into the Start>Programs>Accessories> Syetem Tools in order to run the defragment tool found there to see how how the fragmentaion level is. If you are low close to 0% there's no worry. But if you are seeing some 13-16% then you would run it.

 

[carnageX]

CCleaner does a registry clean too.

Can try going through our guide to make sure its nothing spyware related, as well: http://www.techist.com/forums/f51/spyware-removal-guide-osiris-updated-11-13-2008-a-165828/

Here's a registry defragging program, which can help boot times: Defragment and Compact the Registry to Speed Up Your Computer

 

[eyeCpc]

CCleaner is primarily a drive cleanup tool that also clears out the IE history if left checked off. The alleged registry cleaner is a simply uninstall tool not a full registry sweeper. Like they say "don't fix what isn't broke"!

Eusing is an excellent cleaner being what is an actual cleaner while CCleaner mainly finds and removes useless temp folders to free up drive space. RegCure, Registry Mechanic, and others are retail products while only a few good freewares are available.

Another thing to look at when a system starts slowing down is how much free drive space is now seen on the boot/OS primary partition/drive if only one partition. Once the OS primary starts to fill up you lose needed space for the paging file used for virtual memory as well as seeing it take longer to access things on the drive/partition itself. That's where CCleaner would play a role in cleaning up some clutter since it's nick name is the "crap cleaner".

 

[carnageX]

Yes, it is primarily a junk cleaner, but it has a build-in registry cleaner which removes old/unused entries that are remnants from uninstalled programs, etc. It also has an uninstaller section to uninstall/delete/rename program entries, and a startup entry remover.

 

[hrlow2]

I once made the sad mistake of using the registry cleaner part of CCleaner. Bad move. Remove I don't know what, but afterwards I could not access more than half of my favorites pages, folders wouldn't open and several other problems. Solved all by fresh re-install.

 

[carnageX]

I once made the sad mistake of using the registry cleaner part of CCleaner. Bad move. Remove I don't know what, but afterwards I could not access more than half of my favorites pages, folders wouldn't open and several other problems. Solved all by fresh re-install.

That's why you should make a backup of the registry before you use any registry cleaners. CCleaners asks if you want to back up the entries you are about to remove before you remove them...I always do the backup before I delete the entries.

 

[eyeCpc]

They simply tossed a reg cleaner to make it look more impressive with the extra feature without forethought of the end results when actually used. It's not anything to recommend as a registry cleaner only seeing the actual purpose it was written for mainly cleaning crap off of the drive itself.

Another older cleaner for all versions of Windows comes with a warning there of first opening up to a main windows revealing the main keys for all non MS programs installed.

The automatic and manual registry cleanup tools are tucked away in the menu bar>tools dropdown list for RegCleaner seen at Regcleaner

The warning on this one is that it's a tool for advanced users only who are familiar with editing the registry itself while the Eusing program is a fool proof fully automatic cleaner.