Looking for good program to clean up/speed up PC

Our PC is running a bit slow at times. More so opening certain programs and will have some problems opening email in IE from a link in Outlook Express. Sometimes the page just hangs, other times it's fine. The machine is on XP Home Edition. I'd like to get something to clean up and speed up the computer, fix any problems it may have. I'm looking for a good program that will do this. It doesn't matter if it's one I have to pay for as long as the price isn't too bad ($40 max). Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Hi

CCleaner is a good program to keep installed and run at least monthly on any machine. Best of all, it's free. Just keep the default settings... changing them CAN have adverse affects on your computer, if you don't know what you're doing.

http://majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_d4191.html

 

Take a look at this procedure - http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650

 

Proper PC hygiene is all well and good and I agree with the above. However, I have seen old installs doing a gradual decline over the years due to 'software rot' which means bits get lost slowly and software starts doing odd things.

If this is your case, as it's XP and getting on in years, I'd recommend a full back-up(which you should be doing anyways) and reformat if the above cleaning doesn't work and you've tested your hardware and it comes up clean. This is always a last resort for me so I don't recommend this method very often, it does take time to do it properly but has always worked for me.

If you do decide to go that route then start a new thread for some tips on how-to.

 

CCleaner is okay. But I hate the fact it removes passwords that are already saved on message boards like this one. I ran it on this machine (a different one that's a few years newer) and it sped things up a bit. But a couple of web site that I go to that are loaded with all kinds of ads is still slow to load. It loads somewhat quickly on other machines I've been on.

I'll try some of these other programs, especially the defrag.

 

What browser do you use? If Firefox or Chrome, you can install the add-on Adblock Plus so you don't see hardly any internet ads. Not only do you not have to see the ads, but the pages will load quicker, as your computer doesn't have to load the ads.

 

You can always disable cookie cleaning in the options. Are the other machines on a different ISP? Anything else different that you can think of like anti-virus/firewall etc.?

 

I use IE. I mainly use it because I design web sites on the side and the only way to preview it as I design it is through IE. Plus. I prefer the true type fonts on IE. I'm so used to that, Firefox and Chrome give me a headache. I have pretty sensitive eye sight as it is.

 

I upgraded (finally) to IE8 and those issues seem to be resolved on this computer. Sites seem to load much faster. Will check out the one at home tonight.

 

If you think IE8 is an improvement, wait until you can use 9. It's the first IE I actually like (somewhat).

 

I've seen a lot of complaints about 9. Besides, it won't work on XP.

 

I realize it won't work in XP, which is why I said you'd have to wait.

I haven't heard these complaints... anyway, my experience is that IE9 is much faster overall. I haven't had a single issue with it, though I only use it once in awhile.

 

Using a HOSTS file can Block many of those ads as well as some malware.

In Windows XP, the location of the file is:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

The file must be named hosts with no extension, Not hosts.txt.

The one I have been using is here:
SomeoneWhoCares.org

Here are a couple of others:
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

HP Hosts

 

I'll just drop a link to this article from PCWorld: (There site seems to be down so this is a cached version) http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...d=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

They really were not impressed with cleanup utilities (although I like CCleaner for getting rid of temp files from several programs in one step). You really should consider a fresh install to get the most out of an older machine.

You can see that there was little change in the Benchmark Score from the Original State and after using several programs. http://zapp5.staticworld.net/images/article/2011/06/08f-cu_chart1-602-5186818.jpg