Computer cleaning.

[David Drew]

My PC is slowing & takes ages to start-up.

I use the defrag & clean utilities from my McAfee software.

When my hard disk went t*ts up last year I used a recovery program to get back a good chunk of ffiles & I was amazed to find literally thousands of gifs & images from various websites - bank logos, RCHA logos, advertising pages form websites visited. etc etc etc.

Presumably these all sit somewhere in the memory until someone really cleans up the whole computer. How is is best done?

Also, How do I find out what progs are run in start-up automatically & that I really don't want running until I want to run them? These must take juice on start-up. How do I stop them running.

Long questions - any short answers?

Cheers guys,

David

[MartinH]

Use CCleaner (a.k.a crap cleaner) to clean cookies, temp folder etc etc, thats really the only free app I use its brilliant been using it for YEARS and will do a very good job in cleaning unwanted baggage.
[URL]http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/d10f46e42fdb5cd0e6f33a542be01eeb/[/URL]

To find the apps running at startup type "msconfig" (without quotes) in search or run (depends on what operating sytstem you have) and click along the tabs to "services" and "startup"
make your choice and youll probably have to restart pc. Be carefull not to disable anything genuine like graphic card drivers, audio drivers and items like that.

If I were you id steer clear of Mcafee software also, but thats my view :), windows has a fine defrag program.
For a real good Anti-virus I personally now use Microsofts security Essentials, it looks a real good program which deals with Viruses, Spyware and has Malware protection and also it will not hog your system like MCafee will do, thats my own view again but obviously its up to you.
Microsoft Security Essentials: [URL]http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/[/URL]

NOTE: If you do use Microsoft Security Essentials be sure to unistall your MCafee and restart then run CCleaner to remove old registry edits and go ahead and install MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials)

[anth.payne]

to cheack what is running on startup go to Start, then Run, and type in msconfig

click on the startup tab and uncheck anything you dont need (leave anything you dont know what it is).

I always find it best to just re-install windows (if you have the disc). And start from scratch.

[David Drew]

Just done that config thing. The trouble is I don't know what to switch off:(

It's mostly gobbledy gook to me.

Can I get shot of the pages & post them?

Cheers

David

[anth.payne]

yeah sure, use 'prt sc', to take a snapshot

open MS PAINT and paste the picture, and save it

(you may need to take a few prt sc, because of the limited view in the list)

[Steve]

Another vote for CCleaner here. Also use Windows own built-in defragger. And, you might consider increasing the RAM for a few quid.

[anth.payne]

Out of curiosity, what spec is your PC?

(to find out, go to Start, and r/click on My Computer and select Properties. Near the bottom it should teel you what processor and memory you have)

[dam74]

Personally what I prefer is the high pressured air dusters such as this:

[url=http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=3311987&cm_vc=av_uk]Electrolube | Workshop Consumables | Cleaning Equipment and Contact Treatment | Dusters | Dusters |ERGDP400[/url]

It's perfect for cleaning dust/dirt from your keyboards, mainboard and the fans on your PSU.

[David Drew]

Not sure this will work!

Services screen shots


Nope----try again

[Pitman]

PM Sent

[David Drew]

Anth,

Files are too big for the uploads.

Any chance of a PM with an email & I can send them that way?

Cheers

David


Also, thanks for the offer Pitman - I may have to take you up on that!

[David Drew]

[quote=anth.payne;392576]Out of curiosity, what spec is your PC?

(to find out, go to Start, and r/click on My Computer and select Properties. Near the bottom it should teel you what processor and memory you have)[/quote]

AMD Athlon 64
3500+

2.20 Ghz

448MB Ram

Cheers

David

[Pitman]

[quote=David Drew;392586]
Also, thanks for the offer Pitman - I may have to take you up on that![/quote]

No problem - just give me a call if necessary!:)

[anth.payne]

Ok - you definately need some RAM, your a bit on the low side

[CChris]

Hi All

The worst bloatware I habe come accross recently is a HP wireless printer driver. It creates log files in the temp directory, one every couple of hours, logging all the conversation between the PC and the printer, which occurs every 30 seconds. My home PC has been slowing down for months, until I discovered the actions of the "HP Network Driver" service, and it took 5-10 mins just to run a del *.log from the command prompt. I now only start ther service if I am going to print, and stop it again asap, this has brough new life in the old PC.

This HP wireless printer driver is scum, and sucks the life out of PC's over time.

Chris.