Registry cleaner...

[Donga]

My lap-top is about 18 months old, it was running nice and quick when I got it. It was even quite quick with Photoshop and other programs.

It\'s now a bit of a slug!

I\'ve tried everything, I\'ve even emptied the harddrive onto an external source.

It\'s still a slug.

Someone then said, why not try a registry cleaner?

I don\'t know any good ones, I know there are lots of free ones to download. Are there dangers involved?

So tech-dudes help!

 

[alextheartist]

Why not save everything (which it sounds like you have done) then just wipe it and start again? Its good to do it every once in a while.. (or so i\'m told..)

 

[Hinton]

Before you go that route, try a few other things first (assuming that you are on a PC here):

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Run Disk Cleanup

Check to see if you need to defrag (and do so, if need be)

How\'s the RAM? Do you have enough? Does any of it need to be replaced/upgraded?

 

[BPI]

http://www.mrtech.com/

Useful site, never had any issue with the links.

Points to

http://www.mrtech.com/forums/index.php/topic,1978.0.html?theme=33

CCleaner which is a classic cleanup that includes the registry.

http://download.cnet.com/TweakNow-RegCleaner/3000-18512_4-10262639.html?tag=mncol

Tweaknow RegCleaner also perfectly okay in my experience.
Many other potential issues that are easy to resolve but running through the options in CCleaner may well help.

Issues to be aware of? The usual warnings about downloading executables & running them. When prompted to backup Registry say yes. Don\'t worry too much about results list of scans, just delete the lot. Reboot, see if machine perkier.

B.

 

[Donga]

I\'ll give CCleaer a go.

BTW: I defrag/disk clean regularly and this lap-top gets turned off every night.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I can give you some answers on most things which can affect your Laptop performance, however since I haven\'t got the Laptop here these can only be generic.

First the Reg cleaner..I use Abexo Free Registry cleaner available via TwoCows and Download.com.
It\'s not perfect, but it was recommended to me from work and is good.
Secondly look to get a De-frag program from either of those two scources and run it.
Also look to a Disc analyser/repairer program, you may have a number of small sector/track errors which are affecting performance.
Think about a Process monitor program as there are so many little bits added on by upgrades to Firefox/Ie and Microsoft which slow processing down.

As a last resort save everything and re-build. Pain in the Ar*e getting all the service packs /programs re-installed, but you know that you are working from a relatively clean slate.

 

[Donga]

I just got and run CCleaner in about 5 mins, it\'s made quite a big differance!

All I need to do now is move closer to the telephone exchange to get faster broadband lol I live in the middle of nowhere!

 

[Einion]

Another vote for CCleaner for anyone else whose computer has slowed down a bit lately, excellent little app. Must be used with care so as not to remove anything you want to keep, but that\'s a given.

Defrag the HD, to speed up access times - worth getting a third-party program to do this as the one built into Windows is pants (but use it if it\'s all you have). I have an old version of Diskeeper from Executive Software and it\'s a very good one.

Another thing you should definitely look at is your Startup and Services items (go into MSCONFIG). Over time these can get to be a real mess! If you don\'t find at least ten things you can turn off I\'d be surprised. If you want to go further cleaning up I can give you a link that\'ll tell you pretty much every Microsoft service that can be turned off without adverse effects and how to do it safely.

Originally posted by Donga
All I need to do now is move closer to the telephone exchange to get faster broadband lol I live in the middle of nowhere!

Don\'t we all!

Einion

 

[bodiscool]

i use tune up utilitys (1 click maintenance)
has start up options as well as optimising
works for me i allso use smart defrag it defrags constaintly i find it very usefull as i never have to defrag.pm me ur email n il send u them if u want

 

[EArkham]

I use CCleaner as well, so yet another thumbs up on that front.

I also use Auslogics Disk Defrag. It\'s faster and seems to make a bigger difference than the default windows defrag, plus it also gives you a bit more info on what\'s being done.

Kep