WinXP Utility?

[jimbo]

Can anyone recommend a good WinXP utility that does things like delete
junk files, chkdsk, clean registry, defrag, etc? WinXP has most/all of
these utilities available, but it would be nice to have them all
collected under one interface. (I am not a fan of Symantec.) I
currently have Ace Utilities, which does some but not all of the handy
stuff.

Thanks for any suggestions, jimbo

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Everybody has a different opinion on what constitutes a "junk file". Do you
think it's wise to let someone else - the authors of a program - make that
decision for you? Besides which, if you were astute enough to know what the
"junk files" in your computer are, you would just delete them yourself. The
fact that you don't know means you are messing around with something you
don't understand - a sure recipe for problems.

Windows XP provides all the registry management that you need. There is no
need for a so-called "registry cleaner" and no one has proved that these
toys provide any benefit. Again, if you were astute enough to know what in
your registry needs "cleaning" you would do it yourself. These newsgroups
are filled with posts from people whose registry cleaners damaged their
computers.

The defragmenter built into Windows XP provides all the defragmenting a home
user needs. (Even the third-party defragmenters acknowledge this.)

The best disk error checking utility comes from the website of the hard
disk's manufacturer. You can download it for free.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Can anyone recommend a good WinXP utility that does things like
delete junk files, chkdsk, clean registry, defrag, etc? WinXP has
most/all of these utilities available, but it would be nice to have
them all collected under one interface. (I am not a fan of
Symantec.) I currently have Ace Utilities, which does some but not
all of the handy stuff.

Thanks for any suggestions, jimbo

My opinion on it..

Make a folder (on your desktop, on your start menu, etc) and put all the
default Windows Tools you use to cleanup in there (shortcuts to them) and
you have essentially what you are asking about. Everything in one place.

You are not gaining much by using an all-in-one product. You may even be
losing valuable resources.
Of course - that is just one person's opinion..

 

[Bob Harris]

Back in the days of win98, I would have recommended Norton. But, as you are
already aware, the Norton Utilities for XP really do not do much more than
the built-in Microsoft utilities. Symantec appears to be pushing anti-virus
and firewalls over basic utilities. Too bad, for us users.

I have NOT found any one utility that does it all.

However, I can recommend the following:

CCleaner (free) http://www.ccleaner.com/
CleanCache (free) http://www.buttuglysoftware.com/ do not be put off
by the name of the website, this is good software
FreshUI (free) http://www.freshdevices.com
Fresh Diagnose http://www.freshdevices.com
ERUNT (free) http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ registry
backup/restore; also comes with a registry compressor, but not a cleaner
WinRescueXP (registry and profile backup/restore; not free)
http://www.superwin.com/index.htm
RegVac (not free) http://www.superwin.com/index.htm registry cleaner
and compressor
PerfectDisk (defragger; not free) http://www.raxco.com/ organizes
files by date, so once defragged, files tend to stay defragged, unless
replaced. After first run, is much faster than XP, Norton, or Diskeeper.
Also does boot-time defrag of directoreis and pagefile and MFT.