Boot up and general speed tweaks?

[wagsg]

Office max is offering 20% off their $40 service to speed/clean up computers. This involves removing OEM add ons that aren't used, like free trials and such, as well as approximately 60 OS tweaks. The guy's claim is that this will help speed up boot/shutdown and overall speed and reliability.

Does this type of service do what they claim or is it hype? Are there good readily available instructions for a non-tech person to be able to do this... without completely hosing up the PC? We have a desktop (WinXP) and two laptops (Win7) in the family and everyone complains about speed and lock ups (not usually internet related).

Thanks for any help!

 

[SLCraig]

Their service is probably basically running the utilities that you already have at your fingertips already.

I would just:

Remove any un-needed programs using add/remove programs.
Delete any un-needed files or clutter type stuff you do not need. (Temporary files for internet, etc.)
Run a disk cleanup under accessories-system tools.
Run a disk defrag after everything else is done.
Run a virus/spyware scan assuming you have software for it. If not, Microsoft Security Essentials is free.

Should help a lot if none of this has ever been done before.

 

[Volvohead]

CCleaner is your friend.

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

Start with that and a defrag before spending any money.

 

[bepperb]

If you go to start -> run and type msconfig Windows has a utility built in to control what things run at startup.

If you want things faster after that, take that 40 bucks and somehow* make it 100 and buy a SSD.

*( I believe step 1 is to collect the underpants, then step 2, and step 3 is profit)

 

[Jeffy_D]

Go to www.piriform.com and download ccleaner and defraggler. The first will clean all temp/junk file in windows and many 3rd party software, also has a built in registry cleaner, uninstaller, and startup utility. Defraggler better optimizes the files on your hard drive than the windows defragger. Run both of these, and delete all startup items accept for antivirus.

Update internet explorer, or download google chrome. Make google your home page, your browser will start faster because its not loading an image filled site like MSN or Yahoo.

Right click on my computer, choose properties, click on the advanced tab, choose performance then choose " adjust for best performance". Click apply, then ok.

Now OPEN my computer, right click on the c drive, and choose properties, UNCHECK the box that says " allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching". It will take a few minutes to apply that setting.

Reboot machine.

 

[azjake]

How much memory do you have in your desktop and laptops? I'm not familiar with Win7 requirements, but I run XP and I know 2GB minimum is needed for reasonable performance. Even more if you do heavy gaming. The good news is memory is cheap. When I bought my current PC, I bought an extra GB for $30.

Here's the problem. A lot programs don't do a good job of cleaning up and freeing up memory they use. After a while you can have a fair amount of memory not being used, but also not available to your OS.

 

[wagsg]

XP desktop has 2 GB ram and 7 laptops have 4 GB ram each. I know this is minimum for each OS and I'm probably going to up that soon... and should have done it before.

I do run disk cleanup and defrag fairly regularly and have anti-virus/spyware running. I will try the other suggestions, but playing around in msconfig scares me a bit. Can't I screw something up fairly easily if I don't know what I'm doing?

I also think part of the problem is pre-loaded junk which I think, in part, resides on the OEM partition. Can I uninstall/delete unwanted items from the partition? I know this is where all the Windows OS back up and recovery things are as well.

Thanks for the input!

 

[azjake]

It sounds like you're doing the right things with the anti-virus software, defraging the drive, etc. In your initial post you said the slowdowns and lockups are not usually internet related. So when you're having these problems do you reboot the PC? If so does that make them go away at least for awhile?

 

[buickman50401]

Originally Posted By: wagsg
I will try the other suggestions, but playing around in msconfig scares me a bit. Can't I screw something up fairly easily if I don't know what I'm doing?

I also think part of the problem is pre-loaded junk which I think, in part, resides on the OEM partition. Can I uninstall/delete unwanted items from the partition? I know this is where all the Windows OS back up and recovery things are as well.

Thanks for the input!

Use the utility built into CCleaner to disable startup items. Its much less daunting for someone nervous about using msconfig.

OEM partition has nothing to do with any startup program currently running on your computer, nor are windows restore or backup files stored there. Its just a factory image of how the computer came setup new. Windows doesn't access it at all. You could nuke that entire partition with disk management from within windows or using G-parted or EASEUS and it would have no effect on your current windows setup as windows doesn't access it - it is accessed only via the bios at startup if you press F8 or whatever your designated key is to start a recovery operation.

 

[Volvohead]

Don't wipe an OEM recovery partition unless you have, or have burned from the OEM utilities, a set of recovery disks. Otherwise, you lose the OS install program if it ever needs to be re-installed.

The first thing I do with a new system that doesn't have them is burn the recovery disks.

Once you've got the recovery disks in hand, by all means, delete the recovery partition and recover the wasted space.

As mentioned, CCleaner has some useful free utilities, including registry and disk cleaners. Run them all first, defrag, and see if things improve before going further.

 

[sleddriver]

Here's a guide on how to tweak both XP & W7: Click Here

I was recently given two 5yr old LT's that the previous owners complained were too slow. Their kids had been using them, dwnld'g all kinds of junk and they were short of memory. Task Manager revealed one had ~ 55 processes running in the background. That's why it was slow!

To enable task manager, rt click on the taskbar and choose it. In the bottom left area of the window, you'll find "Processes:____". Then click the "Processes" tab and you'll see what those are. You can sort the columns by CPU & Memory to see what process is using how much.

 

[demarpaint]

CCleaner is a very good program for cleaning windows junk. Use caution with any Registry cleaners including the one that comes with CCleaner, they can do more harm than good.

 

[wagsg]

Thanks for the follow-up info. I will try CCleaner and other suggestions on my desktop and go on to the kid's laptops when I'm confident I've made thing better... not worse.

 

[antiqueshell]

You should not use ANY automated registry cleaner on ANY
Windows OS.

This is the recommendation offered by MS Experts over on MS Answers. Most of them are MS certified as well.

Unless you are an expert you should only make changes to the registy with the help of an experienced professional and make sure you fully understand any instructions given.

It is always a good idea to backup your system before altering any registry keys.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Unless you are an expert you should only make changes to the registy with the help of an experienced professional and make sure you fully understand any instructions given.


Why would you mention experienced professionals in the same post as you mention MS certified people? Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[wagsg]

Just a quick follow-up. I began using CCleaner a while ago and LOVE IT. Started with default settings and slowly started tweaking from there (deeper cleans, disable start ups, etc). I even downloaded/used their defrag and did a free space wipe and it's been much better.

I also bought a 1 TB portable HD and moved all our photos/movies off the computer HD. Not sure if that will help anything, but it was a good excuse to give my wife to buy one.

Finally, I added RAM yesterday. I realized that I was wrong in believing I had 2 GB, it was only 1 GB (2 x 512), so I filled up the 2 open spots with 1 GB each for a total of 3 GB... much better. I may swap the 2 x 512 GB out for another 2 x 1 GB since Best Buy has it on sale..

Thanks for again for the suggestions.