[cmorris]

Ok this is a free for all

What software/Tools would you recommend people use to speed up their computer.

I'd use C Cleaner, Disk De fragment, Disk Cleanup, Malware Bytes

[max99]

Tools can only do so much.

Manually going through and disabling all worthless Start-up programs and (non-MS) Services is essential. Same with Scheduled Tasks and Browser Toolbars and extensions.

[mred2000]

Originally Posted by max99

Tools can only do so much.

Manually going through and disabling all worthless Start-up programs and (non-MS) Services is essential. Same with Scheduled Tasks and Browser Toolbars and extensions.

Which an experienced, qualified, IT Technician such as cmorris should know all about, no?

[Maxatoria]

The real problem is not the tools its the user of the tools that can be the biggest problem, such as the download ccleaner and tell it to delete all the history/saved passwords etc and then complain when it's gone or they find some guide for optimizing performance and just disable every service possible without knowing what each one does and which ones should be kept running so then you spend a good few hours banging your head on the wall

[barky99]

Originally Posted by Maxatoria

The real problem is not the tools its the user of the tools that can be the biggest problem, such as the download ccleaner and tell it to delete all the history/saved passwords etc

back up the browser settings first then

OK ... keep as much as you can off the C drive .. all documents, photos, media files on D drive

[Maxatoria]

Originally Posted by barky99

back up the browser settings first then

Not me, but other people who don't know what they're doing - perhaps ccleaner should have a big box saying "fancy making a copy of anything about to be changed just in case you will f--- something up?"

and really you shouldn't forget the built in performance tools for seeing whats using up the resources

[evil c]

I have speeded up my system by switching to Performance mode (Acer power management) and by setting up a custom High Performance plan in Power Options (via Control Panel). In the PCI Express setting I have set Link State Power Management to off. In Processor Power Management I have set Minimum processor state to 40% and Maximum to 100% (I have an Intel Core i7 CPU).

Like other posters I have reduced the Startup items (to 8 .exe progs) and I have disabled some processes in Services as well. I have disabled most of the fancy W7 graphics including Aero and have reduced the Index and Search functions.

I have a freeware tool installed called Quiet HDD which has significantly cut down the right click lag by controlling the APM (Advanced Power Management) and AAM (Advanced Acoustic Management) settings on the hard disk. Also I have disabled Screen Saver. I guess I could disable Hibernate as well, but I can't be bothered as the system is running pretty fast and cool and I'm happy with it the way it is.

I run CCleaner every time I go offline and I have another freeware utility, Clean Space 7.0 which clears out what CCleaner misses. I've had Clean Space since Windows ME but it works just as well on W7 64-bit.

[radioanorak]

So called speed up programmes are a load of crap
Maybe messing about with the registry will speed things up a little , but you do need to know what you are doing
Get rid of any extra toolbars as they are not needed.
Reduce the number of add ons
Also if you can, prune your list of bookmarks / favourites web sites
As max99 said cut down the number of programmes on start up

[barky99]

yep -- the speed up programs don't really do much -- if you want to really speed up your computer upgrade the RAM & upgrade hard drive.
Excessive number of bookmarks can slow things a bit mostly if you use internet explorer due to inefficient way it stores them -- matter less with other browsers in my experience & I leave the IE favourites folder empty --- have 1000's of links & no slow down.
Banished all addon toolbars years ago ... just waste space on screen

[cmorris]

I do actually know these mred2000

[whoever,hey]

Originally Posted by cmorris

Ok this is a free for all

What software/Tools would you recommend people use to speed up their computer.

I'd use C Cleaner, Disk De fragment, Disk Cleanup, Malware Bytes

Isn't that french for fragmenting the disk? I wouldn't recommend that!

[Maxatoria]

These days most discernible performance boosts will be in the hardware once you've defragged/checked whats loaded/updated drivers etc so slapping in some more ram or a faster drive will do more for system speed than any tweaking of the software

but for older machines replacement of windows with linux can make an amazing boost so long as the user can handle the changed operating system

[jsmith99]

Originally Posted by radioanorak

...............Also if you can, prune your list of bookmarks / favourites web sites
.......................

Originally Posted by barky99

..............Excessive number of bookmarks can slow things a bit mostly if you use internet explorer due to inefficient way it stores them --...............

Could anyone explain that? I'd have thought that 'favourites' was simply a folder structure which users accessed as required. Why would it slow anything down?

[barky99]

Originally Posted by jsmith99

Could anyone explain that? I'd have thought that 'favourites' was simply a folder structure which users accessed as required. Why would it slow anything down?

IE favourites stored in folder structure of 1000's of files using 30x the space on disk the actual data contains .. other browsers save them as a single file so load quicker

[whoever,hey]

Originally Posted by barky99

IE favourites stored in folder structure of 1000's of files using 30x the space on disk the actual data contains .. other browsers save them as a single file so load quicker

Could you explain that again to me, as to why it slows down?

What has being in a folder of 1000's of files got to do with anything?

Do you mean its seeking to load all the bookmarks?

[cmorris]

C Cleaners is a great tool for cleaning up tings in registry etc plus tools on your PC such as Disk Dfrag and Disk Cleanup plus removing unwanted programmes

[barky99]

Originally Posted by whoever,hey

Could you explain that again to me, as to why it slows down?

What has being in a folder of 1000's of files got to do with anything?

Do you mean its seeking to load all the bookmarks?

trimming out favourites to speed up IE is an idea i've seen on many help sites & forums ... having loads of links is supposed to slow down start up of IE .... haven't used IE for ages so not tested idea out on a modern pc ... I'll bet all you'd notice would be a delay of a second unless you have a very low spec machine .... but there are those folk who expect start up to be super fast & will keep doing it .... or just switch to other browsers

[jsmith99]

So actually the favourites cause a miniscule slowdown in loading IE? I can't say I've ever noticed any delay in it opening.

And once started, they wouldn't have any effect on IE working, I assume?

[Desolate one]

Originally Posted by cmorris

C Cleaners is a great tool for cleaning up tings in registry etc plus tools on your PC such as Disk Dfrag and Disk Cleanup plus removing unwanted programmes

Using the registry part of ccleaner i would avoid like the plaque like all registry cleaners can do more harm than good at minimum truncation and missng shortcuts and worse.

Using it to clean up your browser cache and history etc is ok.

Using the windows tools in general is the way to help ckeep your pc clean along with the advice from Max99.

Using third party tuneup and speed up my pc tools to be avoided as well as they do not do a good job similar to registry cleaners.

[cmorris]

Ok so no Malware Bytes

[Desolate one]

No keep Malwarebytes and anti-virus and firewall software also to help prevent virus and malware infections.

[Maxatoria]

Originally Posted by cmorris

Ok so no Malware Bytes

Hmm......time to find a nice cold wall and repeatedly bang head up on it until perhaps i can enjoy the same level of happiness as the OP

[and101]

Autoruns is a useful little utility from microsoft that lets you choose which applications, services and drivers are loaded on bootup. Just be careful you don't disable something you need like a display driver.

[mred2000]

Well, it is a cmorris thread, after all...

[Akane Tendo]

Originally Posted by cmorris

Ok this is a free for all

What software/Tools would you recommend people use to speed up their computer.

I'd use C Cleaner, Disk De fragment, Disk Cleanup, Malware Bytes

I'd advise people to get rid of the big virus that is Windows and get Linux.