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by r_jack on December 5th, 2006

r_jack

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Help answer this question below.

When I examine my computer I come accross many missing shortcuts, unknown file extensions, etc. may be due to many installs and downloads I have done . The computer has also become slow.
Which free tools can I use to clean my computer?

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Answers. 5 helpful answers below.

  • by JameyHG on December 5th, 2006

    JameyHG

    I am guessing you're using Windows, since other operating systems generally don't suffer from this as much. The included Disk Cleanup utility does quite a good job:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

    CCleaner is another similar program:
    http://www.ccleaner.com/

    Generally, I would recommend you work through the Add/Remove Programs list and remove any programs you no longer use, need or recognize.

    The reason the computer has become slow is because of fragmentation of the disk. When a file gets deleted, it leaves a virtual gap in the disk structure. Other files that are exactly the same size can fill this space, otherwise they fragment and get put on multiple parts of the disk - making reading and writing slow.

    Again, this is largely a Windows issue only. Mac OS X and Ubuntu, two other popular modern operating systems, don't suffer from this problem of performance degredation over time.

    Due to the nature of it, Windows unfortunately needs frequent defragmenting to keep "as new" performance. The included Disk Defragmenter is okay but doesn't do an excellent job. The people who wrote the code that Microsoft used for the Disk Defragmenter are Executive Software. Their flagship product, Diskeeper, is like a souped-up version of the Windows one and has the added advantage that it does automatic defragmentation in the background.

    However, this is still a fix rather than a cure. The cure, of course, is to change from using Windows to a better operating system. Personally, I recommend Ubuntu because it doesn't ever need defragmenting and slow down over time just doesn't happen. Also, missing shortcuts and file extension difficulties don't occur. Malware is non-existant for Ubuntu. It's also completely free and has a repository of over 10,000 pieces of software.

    Anyway, that's your choice - just an option you have available if Windows gets on your nerve.

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  • by nowxhining on February 10th, 2007

    nowxhining

    WARNING: ALL FILES AND DATA will be destroyed to make a backup before hand if so.. Read notes at the end before continuing..
    ..

    take the operating disk you have and insert it into the computer's CDROM drive, re-boot the computer and press any key when asked to boot from the CD. To be-able to boot from the CD-rom please go into the bios and make sure that the CD-rom drives are able to boot first.

    Once at the setup screen, press the Esc key for a new installationg, choose a partion such as the C drive and press enter when asked to format with FAT32 or NTFS or NTFS (quick) choose NTFS without the Quick option.. and then let it continue to format the drive and copy the files. Once done the computer will auto reboot, from there don't press any keys at all to initiate the startup of the disc, let it continue..

    Next the XP install begins, answer any and all dialog boxes it asks, once done the computer will auto reboot, again don't press anything at all let it continue from here you may now remove the OS CD.

    NOTES: in the part where the the choose the partition screen if you want you can Press I believe D and the L to confirm the deletion of the partition and after that you can choose to delete the E partition as well. If this is one hard drive and both are deleted it will Merge into one. To Make two partiitons press C and the specify the size of the C drive and press enter. If you have room left highlight the Extra space where no partition is available and press C, do the same thing this will now become Drive D. Remember you can create how many partitions your HD's size will allow, and the specified size you input for each one. Each partition will act as a new Hard Drive tho and Make sure that you choose the RIGHT DRIVE before deleting any files and make sure that there is nothing important on both HDs if you have more than one.. :) if you have 2 or more hard drives once you delete the C partition the other hard drive letters will remain the same..

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  • by Karl Plesz on December 7th, 2006

    Karl Plesz

    Keep in mind that even the best clean-up utilities only do a 75-95% job on finding and removing dead links, files, etc. Worse, if they're aggressive enough, they may even wreck something you actually wanted to work.

    Absolutely nothing beats a clean, fresh re-install of Windows on a PC that has seen its share of installs and uninstalls and registry bloat and program bloat for that matter (do you actually use 100% of the software installed on your PC?). It's a time-consuming, often nerve wracking task, but if you find good resources to help and document the process, I promise you'll think you just bought a new PC.

    Especially if your Windows installation is more than 2 years old.

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  • by Ullyses on December 6th, 2006

    Ullyses

    Another way, and one which is not recommended unless you have an idea of what you are doing, is to partition your disk using the DOS FDISK command. For this you need a boot disk, normally a floppy, that will boot before the rest of your system. Go into dos and execute your fdisk, then partition your hard disk.

    When I did this I used a very small C: so that I could intsall Windows 98 on it, and a D: that holds my sytem and program files while E: holds my data files. This way I protect against catastrophic meltdowns, and I can format the D: by loading into Windows 98.

    I would still recommend defragmenting on a regular basis and running your Clean Disk routine, both of which are found through Accessories.

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  • by r_jack on December 6th, 2006

    r_jack

    I did clean install of XP with SP2 on a PC that was running XP Home edition. I tried to format dricve C so that I can install there but I get message "you cannot delete C. It contains setup files". I installed on E. But now when I install SQL Server 2005 trial version or developer edition, I get message "low disk space on E. Please free up some space to almost 1GB. When I change the SQL Server installation to drive to C, I keep getting the same message of low space on E. Drive E was initially small size so XP installtion took much of it. I still have XP CD (original). How can I delete everything that is on C drive, and then reinstall XP on it leaving E drive for applications and data. Now I can't install SQL Server 2005, later alone ASP.NET. Is it safe and is it possible to format C and then change the installation from E to C ( C is 33.2GB and has 22.6GB free space, E is 3.99GB and has 864MB free space). Is there anything I can do?

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