The Best PC Speed Up Tool?

barginboyrob

i already use startup faster. The main slowness is getting on to the login screen! (before the programs are loaded)

Mr_Skint_2

Quark wrote:

I use Webroot Window Washer and Macecraft Reg Supreme for cleaning unnecessary crap off my machine (in addition to my spyware removers and AV).

I recommend removing unnecessary programs from control panel -> add/remove programs and deleting the files they leave behind from C:\program files then running Reg Supreme to delete their registry entries.

Also as aforementioned keeping your startup items to a minimum is a good idea.

I too use Webroots award winning Window Washer V.05 its tops.

Chabsy

most pc speed up stuff will more than likely slow you down even more
what about a nice defrag? a format and reinstall will be best in the long run and then you can partition your drive nicely too leaving all you drivers in your unformated section of you driver you can back up everything you want on a dvd burner theyre only £35 now so its rude not to

Nelli_2

I have
C: a 4GB windows partition
a 1GB Swap file partition (swap file is fixed to stop slippage)
E: a 40GB "Program Files" partition
Keeps things tidy, make backups easy and my C: drive does not get so cluttered.
I have various others partitions for downloads, video work and games etc.

One thing to bear in mind, the MFT (master file table) never clears down, after several months it becomes quite huge.

This can slow a machine dreadfully and accounts for, IMHO many people saying "after about 6 months it becomes slow and a reinstall helps" yes it will, it deletes the MFT for starters.
(the MFT logs all file positions on the drive as a file is added but never removes the entry when you delete a file as I understand it).

You can see the rough size of the MFT and reserved space for it on a per drive basis if you use perfect disk and look at the visual representation of the drive.

You might like to grab "R-wipe and clean", this is the only program I've come across that clears down the MFT and helps with the general speed of the machine.

Another thing to look at is not just starting programs in the msconfig utility but services being started, **DO NOT alter these through MS Config***.

In the "Run" box type services.msc.
Click on the "Status" column to see all those services started.

On any that have started right click on the "startup type" choose "properties" and once the next box appears choose "manual" from the startup type .

Then reboot.
You will find the 1st time it loads real slow. As each program tries to use a service not "automatically" started, if it was set to manual, it will pause briefly then start up.

Once you are back in windows use it for a few hours opening all your usual apps then go back in to services.msc.

Any that are started change to "automatic" from manual in this way you only have services you actually use running.
More info here : Services Guide

For a bunch of other optimisations you could look on this site :
Tweak Xp
This is not the application "tweak xp".

And as a final thing that makes a difference, disable all IDE channels not being used by drives. Each IDE cable can take 2 drives, if no drive or only 1 drive is attached Windows will still look for it, it slows boot times quite a lot.
Take a look here, I'm running out of "explaining energy"
turn off IDE channels at this section "93. Disable auto detection for empty IDE slots"

Good luck and let me know how you get on :T

wolfman

Without a doubt the best util for me is Acronis TrueImage.

I set up the pc perfectly, all running nice and quickly and with things the way I like them, then take an image of the Windows partition.

Every month or two, I revert back to the last image, make any recent changes, run any updates, then take another image (incrementally). Takes 30mins every month of my time, and my machine is clean and quick.

That way my machine stays clean and is always running nice and fast. And shold anything go wrong I can reload Windows off an image within 5 minutes rather than faffing around installing everything again.

Just means I don't have to bother so much with Registry cleaners, system cleaners, and other tools to keep my machine running quickly.

Acronis TrueImage costs around £25-30. Combine that with a few of the free tweaking utils and you should be ok. Or for £20 TweakXp Pro is very good. Acronis for me is a must have though.

T4i

Taken from mIRC script:-

Operating System: (WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600)) ¤ Installed: (XP was installed 66wks 4days 9hrs 39mins 33secs ago)

I was one of these people who did a format every 6 months to keep things fast.

I've learnt that these so called utils to speed XP are the biggest factor in slowing a p.c down. Along with horrible buggy software, I've got a list of software that I need and I stick to it. I also learnt that XP/2000 doesnt like its registry messing with too much, so I igonre all these reg tweaks you can find.

All I do is:-

Make my swap file about 200-300max in size. Scan once a week for adaware/spyware. Online virus scan as and when I can be bothered. Delete all .tmp and .pf files.

Defrag using the standard XP defragger, make sure nothing is in MSCONFIG startup that I dont need at startup (everything). Make sure nothing is in my start-menu startup folder.

No software anti-virus/firewall running, just a router with SPI and NAT running.

I aint got the newest p.c avail but it boots in about 14-16 seconds, and runs sweet as.

wolfman

If you're using an NTFS file system, then it's worth considering purchasing a defragger such as O&O Defrag. It's able to defragment the Master File Table, a core part of the NTFS file system. The standard XP defragmenter doesn't defrag this.

sfboy

My PC is very fast once running, I shut down my Pc at night, and then load it up in the morning - takes about 5 minutes.

danzeg

I agree with StrikeEagle, formatting your hard drive every so often makes your computer run much faster. Yesterday i formatted it and have installed all programs and broadband and my computer is alot faster.
The programs i would suggest are:
CCleaner - this deletes temporary internet files, cookies and recyling bin.
Diskeeper: This also helps to clear up your computer

Nelli_2

Truthfully I haven't reinstalled Win XP in about 10 months, I don't spend stupid amounts of time cleaning up my machine, I have it set up the way I like.
By this I mean no unnecessary services running, no files load at startup that hog memory I don't want, no devices are scanned that aren't used.

Once in a while I wipe the MFT, defragging the MFT is NOT enough IMHO it still gets far too big and fills up with junk.

Defragging partitions I do this about once every 2 months.

Please don't jump in with a reformat it's really the last resort and wastes a lot of time even from a backup if you then have to restore programs, email, documents.
It's a fix, sure, I feel it's better to prevent the problem up front though.

What people do and what's best for you may not be the same I realise but please consider the post I made earlier it appears it could save you unnessarily formatting every couple months ! :T

I'm a heavy user and hammer my machine but it is still very slick.