How to keep your PC at top performance?

[Koko56]

I was just wondering what porgrams do you guys use to keep your PC's in top shape - becasue mine has been very slow in the last few days - i.e. - takes much longer to open some menus and generally it has not been very fast - I did disk difrag and virus scan - what else is there to keep it in top shape?

Please help.

[digital_exhaust]

CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) is a really nice, fast and reliable registry maintenance application.

[Koko56]

Thank you very much!

Just ran it and seems to be better already, though did have to re-login everywhere lol

[zacdl]

AdAware SE. (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10639408.html?tag=lst-0-1)
Windows Defender. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en)

[digital_exhaust]

SuperAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/) works extremely well, and has picked up nasties that the others have missed... And I don't know what your using for a/v but I strongly recommend NOD32. It's very lightweight and extremely effective.

Here (http://www.eset.com/) is a link to their site, you can download the free 30 day trial and see fro yourself.

[Koko56]

AdAware SE. (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10639408.html?tag=lst-0-1)
Windows Defender. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en)

Is that like AVG free or something? I've downloaded the Defender and it seems ok so far... hope it does not make it worse. lol

SuperAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/) works extremely well, and has picked up nasties that the others have missed... And I don't know what your using for a/v but I strongly recommend NOD32. It's very lightweight and extremely effective.

Here (http://www.eset.com/) is a link to their site, you can download the free 30 day trial and see fro yourself.

Might try it later, but I don't really like to buy much. :rolleyes: :D

[bbz_Ghost]

NOD32.
CrapCleaner.
A proper browser.
A lot of hands on tweaks and research.
A 5 year old laptop with a 13.6 second boot time.

Priceless. :)

[Mansize_tissue]

Seriously, downloading a multitude of tweaking programs isn't going to be very efficient since they will just make it worse. I have tried many of these types of programs and, quite frankly, they have made my laptop worse. CCleaner has now increased my boot times, from when my desktop wallpaper loads up to when the sytem is in a usable state, by about 20 seconds. Diskeeper has also had no positive effect on my system, and it's just another program that i've installed which further reduces the my computer's responsiveness.

Koko56, how full is your hard drive? And how many anti-virus/spyware etc. applications do you have installed? These are probably the reason you noticing slowdowns. I prefer to keep my computer "clean" and, when i build a rig later this year, the only programs going to be installed on it are games. I have no use for A/V software, i've never, ever, gotten a virus on my laptop, ever, and as long as you don't visit "dodgy" websites you'll probably be fine. Although, i don't suggest you completely give up A/V software, by any means. But installing more and more of it isn't going to help much.

[mista ting]

msconfig is all you need the rest is up to you

[Mansize_tissue]

msconfig is all you need the rest is up to you

I agree, although services.msc would probably be better.

[Taffy Apple]

All I use is TweakNow RegCleaner, keeps my registry pretty clean and thats keeps windows running nicely.

I also use Comodo Personal Firewall as well as a h/w firewall, AVG and spybot - which has some pretty good security features.

But I guess I don't really need all this crap, I swapped to Opera as my web browser over a year ago now. Since I stopped using IE, my virus & spyware sweeps don't really turn much up.

Wonder if that has anything to do with not having the massive security hole that is activeX built into my browser?

[Mansize_tissue]

Wonder if that has anything to do with not having the massive security hole that is activeX built into my browser?

'Would assume so. Firefox is my first and last line of defense. I dropped IE years ago, and haven't had any viruses etc. since.

[dekruyter]

Tuneup Utilities 2006 or 2007.

[Koko56]

Seriously, downloading a multitude of tweaking programs isn't going to be very efficient since they will just make it worse. I have tried many of these types of programs and, quite frankly, they have made my laptop worse. CCleaner has now increased my boot times, from when my desktop wallpaper loads up to when the sytem is in a usable state, by about 20 seconds. Diskeeper has also had no positive effect on my system, and it's just another program that i've installed which further reduces the my computer's responsiveness.

Koko56, how full is your hard drive? And how many anti-virus/spyware etc. applications do you have installed? These are probably the reason you noticing slowdowns. I prefer to keep my computer "clean" and, when i build a rig later this year, the only programs going to be installed on it are games. I have no use for A/V software, i've never, ever, gotten a virus on my laptop, ever, and as long as you don't visit "dodgy" websites you'll probably be fine. Although, i don't suggest you completely give up A/V software, by any means. But installing more and more of it isn't going to help much.


Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of - now that I have installed the Micorsoft Defender, (had before) AVG free and CCleaner. It seems ok, but still it takes longer now to start up and to load to usable state - befoer I could go straight away, but now it lags almost like my old P4 2.8 and 1 Gb RAM :( lol.

I have 174 GB left - I torrent non-stop so that could have something to do with it, thogh it all started when I was doing disk defrag and watched a moview at the same time - it froze with 'ripping' sound from the speakers - so maybe it could be a corrupted file somewhere on my OS?

[zacdl]

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of - now that I have installed the Micorsoft Defender, (had before) AVG free and CCleaner. It seems ok, but still it takes longer now to start up and to load to usable state - befoer I could go straight away, but now it lags almost like my old P4 2.8 and 1 Gb RAM :( lol.

I have 174 GB left - I torrent non-stop so that could have something to do with it, thogh it all started when I was doing disk defrag and watched a moview at the same time - it froze with 'ripping' sound from the speakers - so maybe it could be a corrupted file somewhere on my OS?

I honestly have no clue why people keep referring Spybot. It used to be one of the better softwares, true. But no longer.
What you have is great. The only thing I would add is AdAware, and run that weekly.
There comes a point when you can have too much scanning equipment for your own good. I used to run three or four different programs (Spybot and Webroot I used at one time), but I found out that Windows Defender and Adaware caught everything I had- the other softwares didn't have anything to find.

Windows Defender is great because it doesn't just scan for Adware. It can notify you when OS files try to change and stuff like that (with Vista its not needed though, as it already does that).
Windows Defender is currently ranked #1 in Adware scanning programs, and #2 is Adaware (By ConsumerReports).

Ever since IE7 came out, CCleaner really hasn't done much for me. IE7 deletes all the stuff CCleaner does in one step. Doesn't have a registry scanner, I'll admit.

I get ZERO spyware now with my current setup. I use Windows Firewall and IE7 to prevent anything from getting in in the first place (And AVG for Viruses). Ever since I have switched to this setup- I get nothing. Neither AdAware nor Windows Defender pick anything up anymore.
I know all the Firefox supporters will be having a fit over this, and I'm not getting into it: But with Firefox, I had way more spyware problems than IE7. The only thing I really miss about Firefox is the extensions. I also can care less what anyone says, when coding a webpage, I have more problems trying to get it right in Firefox than IE7 anyday.
I have friends that still swear by Firefox, and say they still have better results with it, but I am just telling you the way it is for me. I used to love Firefox. Probably about the time it started constantly crashing, or hogging all my memory even after it was closed, was about the time I switched to IE7, and I was ASTONISHED (I didn't expect it) at how much less crap it picked up. I still have Firefox, mind you, for web design purposes, it has some good extensions I love. And every time I use it, I am amazed at how much slower it is than IE7 in every aspect, though.
When I switched to using Microsoft stuff (IE, Defender, Firewall), the crap decreased (granted Defender isn't a MS program though).

I don't run 10 different little programs to keep my PC maintained, and I don't run all these third party applications, and yet my PC is cleaner than most everyone's I have seen.

Just my opinion. Take it or leave it, I am not getting into an argument about it. That is what works for me- and I don't get a bit of spyware on here.

[Koko56]

I honestly have no clue why people keep referring Spybot. It used to be one of the better softwares, true. But no longer.
What you have is great. The only thing I would add is AdAware, and run that weekly.
There comes a point when you can have too much scanning equipment for your own good. I used to run three or four different programs (Spybot and Webroot I used at one time), but I found out that Windows Defender and Adaware caught everything I had- the other softwares didn't have anything to find.

Windows Defender is great because it doesn't just scan for Adware. It can notify you when OS files try to change and stuff like that (with Vista its not needed though, as it already does that).
Windows Defender is currently ranked #1 in Adware scanning programs, and #2 is Adaware (By ConsumerReports).

Ever since IE7 came out, CCleaner really hasn't done much for me. IE7 deletes all the stuff CCleaner does in one step. Doesn't have a registry scanner, I'll admit.

I get ZERO spyware now with my current setup. I use Windows Firewall and IE7 to prevent anything from getting in in the first place (And AVG for Viruses). Ever since I have switched to this setup- I get nothing. Neither AdAware nor Windows Defender pick anything up anymore.
I know all the Firefox !!!!!!s will be having a fit over this, and I'm not getting into it: But with Firefox, I had way more spyware problems than IE7. The only thing I really miss about Firefox is the extensions. I also can care less what anyone says, when coding a webpage, I have more problems trying to get it right in Firefox than IE7 anyday.
I have friends that still swear by Firefox, and say they still have better results with it, but I am just telling you the way it is for me. I used to love Firefox. Probably about the time it started constantly crashing, or hogging all my memory even after it was closed, was about the time I switched to IE7, and I was ASTONISHED (I didn't expect it) at how much less crap it picked up. I still have Firefox, mind you, for web design purposes, it has some good extensions I love. And every time I use it, I am amazed at how much slower it is than IE7 in every aspect, though.
When I switched to using Microsoft stuff (IE, Defender, Firewall), the crap decreased (granted Defender isn't a MS program though).

I don't run 10 different little programs to keep my PC maintained, and I don't run all these third party applications, and yet my PC is cleaner than most everyone's I have seen.

Just my opinion. Take it or leave it, I am not getting into an argument about it. That is what works for me- and I don't get a bit of spyware on here.

Thanks for taking your time and giving the useful info.

I actually think (touch wood) that CCleaner has fixed my probelms, well at least R6V does not crash anymore. :D :D

[GJSNeptune]

Thank you very much!

Just ran it and seems to be better already, though did have to re-login everywhere lol

Go into CCleaner's options and look for the Cookies button. You can have it ignore certain cookies so that websites you visit frequently don't have their cookies deleted. This way you won't have to login again whenever you run CCleaner (which should be quite frequently :D)

And yes, Spybot isn't very necessary anymore. In fact, I just reinstalled Windows on a new hard drive and I don't think I'm gonna install Spybot. I do have SpywareBlaster though, for its immunization. Basically I just have CCleaner, SpywareBlaster, RegScrubXP, and NTREGOPT.