My computer seems like it has been going a lot slower than usual lately. And I know that it's been faster, and there are ways that I can do that. What do you guys think are the best ways that I can improve my PC's performance and "cleaness"?
P.S. I have CCleaner installed already. :P
Format your hardisk and reinstall everything. Its a pain, but its guarateed to remove all malwre, registry entries and other crap floting around. Plus its effectivey a defrag too.
After that, devote a regular part of your schedule to updating software and disk maintenence.
Watch what you do on the web and secure your browser from now on, too.
Well, there's registry fixing software to get rid of crap in the registry, then there's disk defragmenters and, of course, registry defragmenters. And naturally, spyware cleaner.
Running all of those might do a lot of wonders.
Originally Posted by Adak
..or stop using windows...
Or maybe stop sprouting nonsense.
Go for linux if you like linux, not because of the lack for cleaning.
It doesn't need to be cleaned, and that's one of the reasons to like it.
Anyway, l'm outta any further Linux vs Windows discussion.
Yes, but it's also fundamentally different from Windows. If you aren't a power user, then you're probably going to find linux intimidating, for example, so just recommending using linux, say, over windows because it doesn't need to be cleaned doesn't hold up as a valid argument.
But anyway...
You get a better browser - Firefox or Opera, an antivirus, anti spyware and defragment your disc regularly. There are links to many free software in a sticky thread in General discussion, if you don't want to pay.
Here's what I've done to keep my computer clean:
I check my computer once in a while with Spybot.
I removed all non-critical startup processes (it's comfy to do it through Spybot).
I removed all non-critical services (services.msc - settings)
I removed all non-necessary shell extensions through ShellExView.
I removed all possible visual effects and switched to classic skin.
I do a disk defragmentation about once in two-three months.
I keep an eye on things to see if there's anything suspicious.
Everything is as fast as it was 3 years ago and I haven't reformatted my hard drive.
"The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
I don't know if these counts to keeping the computer "clean." Mostly you're just disabling things to save memory and/or startup time.
It's true that some malicious applications or extensions like to embed themselves, but you don't mention removing harmful stuff, only removing "unnecessary" stuff...
You can still have a computer even with all those things which isn't infected by spyware and all of those other things.
The best solutions are typically clean the registry, defragment registry and disk and be watchful of what you download or use.
People often think they have some spyware or viruses on their computers, because the computer is so freaking slow. But usually it is only the hundreds of startup applications, processes in the background, services and shell extensions.
"The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
Typically, however, having enough memory, I have never seen the need to disable services, themes or the like because I gain little or no benefit.
Computers today are just under-equipped.
I also find that disabling services will get you into trouble later when something won't work right because you disabled its service.
I don't have such problems. Maybe because I use too much open-source software, which don't rely on bloatware? Go figure...
"The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
Maybe...
Windows is a very complex piece of software :P
