Something for Nothing
by
thechas
·
about 13 years, 4 months ago
In reply to On-line programs stating to Speed Up your computer
These programs all work on a similar premise. As you use your computer there are orphaned files and registry settings that slow down your computer. Sort of like the difference between a fresh paved road and a gravel 2-track.
In theory, if you clean up all of the orphaned files and defragment the hard drive, your computer will run just as fast as it did when you first bought it.
While there is a benefit to all of the cleaning that these programs do, the biggest thing slowing down your system is all the software you have that loads at startup.
If your goal is to speed up your system, the best approach is to reduce the number of programs that load at startup. Every icon in the system tray is a program that is running and using resources. If you do not use or need an application, then disable or uninstall the application.
As far as spending money to speed up your computer, the best option is still to maximize the amount of RAM you have.
The above said, I do use several utilities to clean up the systems I support.
Most of the peers here rave about CCleaner. I have not used it much myself, but it is a very powerful system cleaner.
You should also run SpyBot Search and Destroy or AdAware on a regular basis to keep malware off of your system.
I use Perfect Disk from Raxco software to defrag my systems.
For general utilities, I like Perfect Speed from Raxco and System Suite from Advanquest. System Suite has it’s origins back to a set of utilities I used in the DOS days.
Rose City Software also has a couple of useful utilities.
The trick with any of the registry cleaners is to use caution for the keys they ask you to choose what to do with. Make the wrong choice and you could disable features of your system.
Chas
