Spring Cleaning my pc

[KK]

Hello,

My Compaq pc is about 3 yrs old, runs xp(home) (without servicepack 2) and
has had all sorts of software installed & uninstalled over the years. It
seems to be slowing down, has minor problems & unexpected events, -. nothing
insurmountable, but annoying. I feel I am losing control !

Are there any utilities out there which will 'spring clean' my pc, get rid
of clutter, tidy the registry etc etc....

Or should I run the 'Restore' utility on my pc which restores it to its
'factory' condition (involves lots of work backing up & reinstalling
software)

Or should I invest in a new pc ? (also requires lots of work)

Advice & ideas please & thanks in advance

K

 

[mikeyhsd]

you can try the built in tools.
delete youe IE cache, cookies and history that you do not need, or back them up.

Srart Run and type in MSCONFIG.
on the Startup Tab click the disable all button at the bottom. APPLY and OK, then reboot.

Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup, enable all the options and use additional options to remove all butlast restore point.
the same locationj use DEFRAG.
does not clean the registry, but does some good on cleaning up some of the garbage.

Start | Run | Msconfig | Startup tab adn use the ENABLE all button, Apply, OK and reboot.



(e-mail address removed)



Hello,

My Compaq pc is about 3 yrs old, runs xp(home) (without servicepack 2) and
has had all sorts of software installed & uninstalled over the years. It
seems to be slowing down, has minor problems & unexpected events, -. nothing
insurmountable, but annoying. I feel I am losing control !

Are there any utilities out there which will 'spring clean' my pc, get rid
of clutter, tidy the registry etc etc....

Or should I run the 'Restore' utility on my pc which restores it to its
'factory' condition (involves lots of work backing up & reinstalling
software)

Or should I invest in a new pc ? (also requires lots of work)

Advice & ideas please & thanks in advance

K

 

[Gordon]

Hello,

My Compaq pc is about 3 yrs old, runs xp(home) (without servicepack 2)

Why without SP2?

 

[Jonny]

Hello,

My Compaq pc is about 3 yrs old, runs xp(home) (without servicepack 2)
and
has had all sorts of software installed & uninstalled over the years. It
seems to be slowing down, has minor problems & unexpected events, -.
nothing
insurmountable, but annoying. I feel I am losing control !

Are there any utilities out there which will 'spring clean' my pc, get rid
of clutter, tidy the registry etc etc....

Or should I run the 'Restore' utility on my pc which restores it to its
'factory' condition (involves lots of work backing up & reinstalling
software)

Yes, remove any junkware using add/remove programs that came with this
installation afterwards. Get the SP2 installation CD from MS before doing
the preceding, and install right away after installing XP. Activate windows
if required at this point. Then, install your programs from CD again.
Then, image this installation with imaging software to removable media.
Store for safekeeping. Then you can install other softwares not in your
possession.

 

[Guest]

One word.......DEFRAG!!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My Compaq pc is about 3 yrs old, runs xp(home) (without servicepack
2) and has had all sorts of software installed & uninstalled over the
years. It seems to be slowing down, has minor problems & unexpected
events, -. nothing insurmountable, but annoying. I feel I am losing
control !

Are there any utilities out there which will 'spring clean' my pc,
get rid of clutter, tidy the registry etc etc....

There's very little of that kind of thing that needs to be done, and some of
it ("tidy" the registry, for example) is outright dangerous.

The single most common thing these days that accounts for what you're
describing is malware infestation. I
recommend that you go to Malke's Malware Removal site at
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware and
follow the instructions there.

Or should I run the 'Restore' utility on my pc which restores it to
its 'factory' condition (involves lots of work backing up &
reinstalling software)

That is very seldom the right thing to do, and should be a last resort. As
you say, it represents a lot of work.

Or should I invest in a new pc ? (also requires lots of work)

Why would you even consider that? There are only two possible reasons for
buying a new PC:

1 The old one has hardware problems and it's cheaper or easier to replace it
rather than repair it

2.You want or need one that's faster or has new features important to you.

Since your description of what's wrong doesn't seem to put you in either of
those categories, no, you shouldn't.