Computer question-Do any of these "speed up & clean up" computer programs work?

[dennis thompson]

I know virtually nothing about the inner workings of a computer. I have an older laptop that is very slow & I'm wondering if any of these "speed up & clean up" computer programs work?
Thanks
Dennis

[Curt Harms]

I'm pretty skeptical of them myself. You could try a couple things for free. A pretty well regarded 'clean up' program for Windows is CCleaner -- here's the publisher's web site:
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
After running that you could run Windows' disk cleanup and defrag utilities. I've heard defragging doesn't help that much with NTFS but I don't know if that's true or not. I'd probably go ahead & defrag. See if it helps. It's sorta gospel that Windows needs to be wiped and reinstalled every year or two but that can be a real pain if you don't have restore disks.

Disclosure: I haven't used Windows for 2 years and don't miss it.

[Bill Davis]

See if this (http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/putting-registry-system-cleanup-apps-to-the-test/) article helps. I trust this source of such information.

[Dan Hintz]

Defrag works no matter what file system is in place. It takes a finite amount of time to move that head back and forth across the disk surface (a lot slower than the spinning disk beneath it), so putting files in a contiguous area helps.

Although I use registry cleaners from time to time to clean up detritus, current OSs do not slow down because there is junk in the registry.

There are a slew of possible causes, and I find that simply wiping the drive (after grabbing your precious data) and reinstalling fresh is the fastest way to get performance back up to snuff. If you're always backing up your data, this process can be finished in a day (after reinstalling all of your programs). If you use a backup program, like Acronis, to make an image of your fresh system, re-installing the OS and all programs can take as little as 30 minutes. I highly suggest this method.

[Peter Elliott]

I've used CCleaner for about 4yrs now. I do notice a difference. Set the level to the highest scan level. also manually do the registry clean too. I like the fact that you can unistall programs that seem to not have their own uninstaller program.. good way to get rid of the junk programs.

also, you can check on your start-up programs. in ccleaner, you can disable or delete them. So if your bloated with a ton of software that likes to run in the background but is NOT needed, turn them off by clicking disable. If you feel comfortable, you can actual delete the startup file but make sure you don't delete Windows file or say your print server file.

Defraggler is another great program. I like this one because it works fast and seems to do the right job.

Both are found here, free!
http://www.piriform.com/

When installing they might ask to install google chrome, etc. just keep an eye out. when you install and not fly through the setup.

Maybe it's been 5yrs now using both, so pretty good stuff for free.
-Peter

[Phil Thien]

Be very careful with defragmenting. A hard drive that has a couple years of runtime may crash and burn during defragmenting. If you must defragment your drive, make CERTAIN that you are fully backed-up before doing so.

Defragmenting a hard drive is akin to taking your car on the expressway, punching the gas all the way to the floor, and then driving cross country without letting up on the gas. It is very hard on a drive.

I would say about ten to twenty percent of the drives I see for recovery were just defragmented. The additional heat (which can be substantial) generated during the process causes the drive to do all sorts of funny things. Once the drive cools down, the user often finds it will no longer boot, and their data is often unreadable.

[Eric DeSilva]

I'm more in favor of backing up your actual data files, then occasionally wiping the entire thing, reinstalling the OS, and starting fresh. Think of it as spring cleaning for your hard drive.

[Sean Troy]

I've been using Advanced System care for several years and love it. There is a free version and paid version. You can download it at Cnet.com.

[Michael Weber]

I just tried to run defrag and all that happens is a black box flashes on the screen and then disappears. Ive defraged in the past so is something wrong with my defrag.exe file? I have Windows XP

[glenn bradley]

I find that simply wiping the drive (after grabbing your precious data) and reinstalling fresh is the fastest way to get performance back up to snuff. If you're always backing up your data, this process can be finished in a day (after reinstalling all of your programs).

Being a windows user since back when it hardly worked at all, I do the format, reload OS, reload data method about once a year. I backup weekly.

[Ryan Mooney]

Sadly the number one cause of slow computers is still (imho) malware (viruses, trojans, etc..) and while you can get rid of most of them its generally safer to wipe an reinstall unless you're pretty savvy. The number two cause is of course the computer just being slow - thats a lot less common than it was a few years ago, processors haven't been getting faster the same way they used to.

Generally good advice above. Depends on what you do with the computer, if you don't need windows switching to another OS can eek a few more useful years of use out of a computer (linux is generally somewhat less resource hungry, although this also is less true than it was a few years ago..). I would figure on the computer being "down" for you for a few days either way so its nice to have a spare machine :D

[Curt Harms]

Sadly the number one cause of slow computers is still (imho) malware (viruses, trojans, etc..) and while you can get rid of most of them its generally safer to wipe an reinstall unless you're pretty savvy. The number two cause is of course the computer just being slow - thats a lot less common than it was a few years ago, processors haven't been getting faster the same way they used to.

Generally good advice above. Depends on what you do with the computer, if you don't need windows switching to another OS can eek a few more useful years of use out of a computer (linux is generally somewhat less resource hungry, although this also is less true than it was a few years ago..). I would figure on the computer being "down" for you for a few days either way so its nice to have a spare machine :D

Depends on the distro. There are one or two that will run on a 486 and 32 MB. RAM. I've been running Lubuntu on a 10+ year old laptop. PIII 1 ghz. processor & 512 MB. RAM. It's perfectly acceptable for web browsing and doing run-of-the-mill office tasks. It even does a pretty good job with Youtube videos if running the Opera browser or probably Chromium -- not a chromium fan though. It uses 120 MB. RAM with Opera running so it'd probably be okay on a 256 MB. machine. It's a nice way to get a few more years of life out of an older machine or to speed up a Netbook class machine.

[Jim Becker]

I'm pretty skeptical of them myself. You could try a couple things for free. A pretty well regarded 'clean up' program for Windows is CCleaner -- here's the publisher's web site:
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
After running that you could run Windows' disk cleanup and defrag utilities. I've heard defragging doesn't help that much with NTFS but I don't know if that's true or not. I'd probably go ahead & defrag. See if it helps. It's sorta gospel that Windows needs to be wiped and reinstalled every year or two but that can be a real pain if you don't have restore disks.

Disclosure: I haven't used Windows for 2 years and don't miss it.

I also use CC Cleaner on Windows machines. Religiously. It's the only way I can keep my work machine (which is still on XP) usable...

[Myk Rian]

I bought and use PCtools Registry Mechanic. Great program. A #1 reason for slow machines is all the registry entries that point to programs that have been un-installed, and files that have been deleted. When the computer starts up, it's looking for all this junk that isn't there.
CCleaner is also a great program. I use them both.

[Chuck Wintle]

Be very careful with defragmenting. A hard drive that has a couple years of runtime may crash and burn during defragmenting. If you must defragment your drive, make CERTAIN that you are fully backed-up before doing so.

Defragmenting a hard drive is akin to taking your car on the expressway, punching the gas all the way to the floor, and then driving cross country without letting up on the gas. It is very hard on a drive.

I would say about ten to twenty percent of the drives I see for recovery were just defragmented. The additional heat (which can be substantial) generated during the process causes the drive to do all sorts of funny things. Once the drive cools down, the user often finds it will no longer boot, and their data is often unreadable.
+1 for a backup. In fact it may be better to backup all important data and then do a clean install of the OS.

[Greg Cuetara]

one interesting thing that my work does with my computer is that i have no admin rights. With no admin rights no malware can write to my system...or at least that i what i am told. It causes a problem because any time i need to install something i need to get someone from it to log into my system and do it for me....kind of a pain but again they say with no admin rights it solves like 90% of the problems out there. An interesting thought would be to have 2 accounts on your own personal system. One account which has full admin rights to install and do anything you need to and then another account where you do not have admin rights. Log into your computer on a daily basis with the 2nd account which has no admin rights and then when you need to install something etc. you just type in your admin rights account with user name and password. Again I am no computer expert here with PC's but I have been told the admin rights with a typical user account screw things up royally.

[Brad Adamson]

I also use CCleaner for windows and defrag as well. I have never had any problems, but my system is completely homemade so that may be the difference.

I also use Spybot Search and Destroy to help and both work well together.

[Curt Harms]

one interesting thing that my work does with my computer is that i have no admin rights. With no admin rights no malware can write to my system...or at least that i what i am told. It causes a problem because any time i need to install something i need to get someone from it to log into my system and do it for me....kind of a pain but again they say with no admin rights it solves like 90% of the problems out there. An interesting thought would be to have 2 accounts on your own personal system. One account which has full admin rights to install and do anything you need to and then another account where you do not have admin rights. Log into your computer on a daily basis with the 2nd account which has no admin rights and then when you need to install something etc. you just type in your admin rights account with user name and password. Again I am no computer expert here with PC's but I have been told the admin rights with a typical user account screw things up royally.

I do the same. I'm sure running as a restricted user is not a 100% guarantee of being malware-proof but it helps. If I look at Windows patches a great many of them talk about preventing "privilege escalation" or whatever the phrase is. I think this means that there are flaws in the OS that allow specially formed code to grant administrative privileges to restricted users thus allowing installation of crapware. No single step is a cure-all, it's a process. Do not click on questionable email links, be aware of where your software is coming from, keep updated on patches etc.