Reliable tools/programs?

This seemed to best fit here, all these adds, seen em for years. In the 90's it was memory doublers, or internet speed boosters. I was told to steer clear, garbage for the most part.

So these days, are there any good, reliable programs that would fit in say a 'reconditioning' category? Such as reg cleaner, 'optimizer', etc? I don't know what all you might want or need for an older pc, that you really don't want to hassle with a restore on, anything that would let me get a few more miles?

 

Welcome to Major Geeks.
What type of machine and some specs on it would help.
Make and model of machine.
Processor type and speed.
Type and amount of RAM.
Operating System.

 

I was asking in gerenal about programs if any were good period. Not for a specific reason, but what I came up with is in the first post.

2.66ghz, quadcore, 4g ram

 

Have you tried cCleaner?
Questions asked were in response to your mentioning an "older" PC.

 

Personally I advise people to steer clear of registry cleaners. All you have to do is google problems with registry cleaners to see what I mean.

 

CCleaner is the best one going.
Why do you think it is recommended so much by the experts here?

 

Ok, I've used cc clenaer in the past. By older I meant 4yrs, which is pretty old for a pc. I still love it, but I didn't want to format, there's several issues, as well as a keylogger, and maybe a virus, other than that it works fine. But I always hate having my pc offline, even if I have backups. So I was wondering if programs were made yet, that could help restore some luster, performance, life. I know a new install is better, just rather put it off. Thanks for the help

 

Since you have that much RAM going for you, have you trimmed down the Startup list?
Or cut back on any scheduled scans, updates, or defrags that might run in the background?

 

I'm thinking now something that may clean up junk files, or files that could potentially disrupt my pc's performance. Like if windows could just compare installation files that were damaged, without overwriting data.

Nothing in my startup menu at all

 

Mbam, zonealarm, avg, I try to keep pretty tight to my pc, it has proven not entirely beneficial.

 

Might consider adding SpywareBlaster to block things at the front door.
Then add SuperAntiSpyware.Along with MalwareBytes, it makes for a good combination.
As long as you keep them updated and run on a schedule.

 

I will echo what others have said, I run CCleaner daily and Cleanup daily (I find cleanup doesn't do much on Vista or Se7eN.) I install spywareblaster for the protection and Spybot S&D (only for the immunization feature) I also have Malwarebytes and Superantispyware installed for the times I may need to use them. I use Avira for free antivirus. *I use no firewall, please don't do this, I fully accept what can happen* I run a very tight ship when it comes to startup programs and services that are running. Only POP peeper (My mail program) and Avira are running at boot. I think keeping startup programs trimmed comes from the old days with a 400mhz cpu and 512 meg of ram was standard. Now with 4+ gigs being the standard I could let more run but I like to get all I can out of things.

Your Quad with 4 gigs should be fairly responsive as Halo said run the cleanup procedure and I bet you will find things lurking you didn't know was there.