Slow PCs

Discussion in 'Software' started by Johnd76, Nov 29, 2010.

  1. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Yes many programs store MRU lists in the registry, also some store index files that are hard to remove, also if you have multiple browsers you must go into them all to clean all of them.

    Sure many programs do delete good registry keys but CCleaner does a better job than most of keeping good keys and allows you to vet what its going to delete and filter items.

    CCleaner does it all nicely in one place, if you don't trust a particular aspect then its fully configurable so you don't have to use that feature. I rarely use the registry part of CCleaner but still use it a lot to purge general junk.

    As mentioned its good to find out why its slow, is it CPU / Memory / Disk / Network the bottleneck ?

    Is one process hogging the CPU or Memory or generally misbehaving ?

    Useful tools here are :-

    1. Resource Monitor - %windir%\system32\perfmon.exe /res
    2. Performance Monitor - perfmon.exe
    3. TaskManager - Ctrl-Alt-Delete
    4. ProcessExplorer


    As for a slow PC theres a bunch of software stuff you can do either manually or automatically.

    1. Uninstall old / unused programs (or parts of Windows).
    2. Stop unecessary services and set them to manual or Automatic(Delayed). (especially windows search indexer!)
    3. Clean / Defrag registry (but do it safely! Take a backup and monitor deletes).
    4. Remove unecessary startup programs (Check startup folder, system tray, and program options for each program for things like 'launch on startup/login') Consider a delay tool for faster boot but still starting required items.
    5. Stop unecessary scheduled tasks/Jobs.
    6. Disable unused devices (network cards / modems)
    7. Remove unecessary protocols from network stack.
    8. Disable unwanted visual effects (System Properties\Advanced\Performance), thumbnail preview, screensaver, desktop background, gadgets etc.
    9. Check for malware and viruses.
    10. Delete general crud from hard disk, temp files, internet cache, cookies, MRU, old backups etc.
    11. Check power plan (especially if its a notebook).
    12. Look for a better AV or turn off some of its more intrusive options / add excluded directories/files etc.
    13. Install latest drivers and check there are no issues with devices.
    14. Install OS service packs and patches.
    15. Turn off network discovery
    16. Disk is less likely to be an issue, but a Defrag and Chkdisk can help and is good to do ocassionally.
    17. Check BIOS settings
    18. Enable AHCI if using SATA.
    19. Use a RAM drive or use Readyboost, not seen much of an improvement from readyboost myself, its important to buy quality flash memory if using it, really an SSD is the way forward for modern systems.
    20. Remove unecessary context menu handlers.
    21. If lots of RAM, Disable Paging Executive.
    22. Disable short filename support if using NTFS and no legacy clients.

    Programs that can help

    1. Services Administartion - run %windir%\system32\services.msc
    2. System Configuration Utlity (msconfig) - run %windir%\system32\msconfig.exe
    3. Windows Defender - run "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe"
    4. Autoruns
    5. Windows Disk cleanup - run %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe
    6. Task Scheduler - run %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s
    7. System Properties - run sysdm.cpl
    8. Wise PC Engineer
    9. CCleaner
    10. TuneUp
    11. Soluto
    12. PCDecrapifier
    13. Cacheman
    14. Driver Max - WARNING - Never install unsigned drivers with this tool !!!
    15. Windows Update - run %windir%\system32\wuapp.exe
    16. Group Policy Editor - gpedit.msc

    If none of that works look into upgrading your hardware, memory is normally a cheap simple upgrade, as is extra disk, depends where the bottleneck is though as to where you will get most bang for buck. Sometimes with old systems a new baseboard bundle makes the most sense.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2011
  2. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Theres also Revo Uninstaller
     

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