What to use to clean a computer up

I have a disabled friend who has bought a cheap computer I have run Disk cleaner and virus scans through it, have removed all the rubbish games etc, I tried to Defrag the computer but it jumps to 1 percent then goes again, what would programs would you suggest to run through this computer to try to give it a new lease on life, I don't think it has ever had anything done to it matinence wise as I know the person he bought it from and they are not big on looking after computers, I would appreciate any help. Robyn

 

Here is a list of some of the better freeware apps to have:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

Would deinately start with this one:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_d4191.html

What OS is on the system and I will provide some further suggestions.

 

For defrag try this app it is the same program as the onboard one but a later version and far superior imho:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

 

>> I have run Disk cleaner and virus scans through it, have removed all the rubbish games etc, what would programs would you suggest to run through this computer to try to give it a new lease on life, I don't think it has ever had anything done to it matinence wise as I know the person he bought it from and they are not big on looking after computers, I would appreciate any help. I tried to Defrag the computer but it jumps to 1 percent then goes again Robyn<<

Hi Robin,

When you say your friend bought a "cheap" computer I'm guessing that you meant that it is a very old used computer [since he bought it from someone else]. It would help us to help you if you could provide us with more clear and concise information like the operating system [i.e. Win XP/2000/98] and perhaps even the hard drive and memory he has installed on his computer; in order to determine how to best "give it a new lease on life."

Also, I cannot figure out what you mean by "it jumps to 1 percent then goes again." That part doesn't make any sense to me. If mean that your friend has never used Windows Defrag and when you tried to defrag for him; it appeared to work too slowly; it could possibly several take hours to complete; particularly since you said that he [and the prior owner] evidentially have never done anything "maintenance wise."

As an alternative to the 'standard' Windows Defragger he could try either Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418 freeware or choose O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware Edition. They both work much more efficiently than the Defrag that came standard with Windows. But even these will likely take some time if the Windows defragger has seldom [or never] been run before and the computer is ancient. NOTE: He'll only need one of these two, but he can download both and see which one fits his needs. Diskeeper is probably a better choice here as it is easiest to configure and use.

Anyway, a good start would be to download and install the cleaner called: CCleaner which is available right here at Major Geeks. Your friend can use it to remove unused, temporary and other junk files from his system. It also offers several options like removing registry entries that go nowhere. It also works wonders removing other various program 'leftovers' that are obsolete, or aren't listed in Add/Remove after you attempt to uninstall programs and utilities.

If he has never used CCleaner before; tell him to click here for a Quick Tutorial/Tour regarding how to use CCleaner after it is installed... He should use the CLEANER and ISSUES options to thoroughly clean out anything that may have left behind after so much time without any system maintenance at all.

If this is a very old computer; the system is likely riddled with spyware' especially since you mentioned that the first thing you did was to remove games. Many game programs are saturated with spyware, adware, etc. To rid the accumulated system of adware and spyware he should install and use latest version of the freeware utility called Ad-Aware SE Personal which is an excellent free tool for this and is also available here at Major Geeks.

Is your friend running a firewall? If not then he should consider using ONE of the following freeware program/utilities like. Here are links to just a few free firewall products: Zone Labs' Zone Alarm; Sygate Personal Firewall; Outpost Firewall Free. Once again, he only needs ONE of these.

All of the program suggestions that I mentioned can also be found at the Major Geeks Top Freeware Picks list [that Bold Eagle mentioned earlier], as well.

Good Luck!

 

Thank you so much Bold Eagle and Compuable for your replies sorry I left out the crucial part of what OS it is running, it is running 98 ( I shouldn't write messages straight after driving 350 Km ) what I meant about the defragmenter it goes up to 1 percent then the 1 percent disappers, I will go get all the programs you have both suggested and take them back to Sydney on disk and see how it goes, I do appreciat the help. Robyn

 

Anytime it appears you are a very nice person by your message and thus it is the least we can do.

 

Also run EVEREST to see if it has W98 or W98SE installed, plus other details like RAM installed, Hard drive capacity, etc.

Everest Home Edition. www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
When you run EVEREST, Click on "Computer" icon, then on "Summary", then on "Report" (at top menu), then on "Quick Report Summary", down to "Plain text". Save it to a file, as whatever name you like, (maybe PCddmmyy--with ddmmyy being the current date). Then it can be posted for all to see.
PS: Scroll down the report and delete all the stuff starting with Offset, to reduce the size of the report.


Also go to Start-->Run Type in SFC /scannow <enter>. You will need an original M$ CD to get the most use out of SFC.
4 options usually appear, in W98SE, at least.

Choose "Ignore" first time though but write down all the names of any files it picks up, and let us know. Bazza


===

 

>> Thank you so much Bold Eagle and Compuable for your replies sorry I left out the crucial part of what OS it is running, it is running 98 (I shouldn't write messages straight after driving 350 Km) what I meant about the defragmenter it goes up to 1 percent then the 1 percent disappers << Robyn

Oh, anytime Robyn... My pleasure, really!

The Windows defragmenter utility that came with Win 98 is [and always was] quite slow and very 'buggy.' I could never get it to run properly when I was running Win 98; and even when it did work it would take hours to finish defragging even a mildly fragmented system. And the problem which you clarified in your follow-up post; where the defragmenter runs and then 'disappears' is also quite common on all the Windows versions prior to the release of Windows XP.

The two defragmenters that I mentioned earlier; Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418 freeware and/or O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware Edition, both operate far more efficiently. Either one should do the job quite well. As I mentioned earlier the Diskeeper Lite program is a bit easier to install, configure and operate.

By the way; since you mentioned he is running Windows 98 he should be made aware of the fact that this OS is no longer being ‘updated’ by Microsoft for security, and other improvements, etc. Therefore, I do not consider it very safe to run. One huge improvement is that I noticed after I first installed Win XP is that it rarely has so-called ‘blue-screen’ crashes which were always so common in Win 98 and caused users to have to constantly reinstall their operating systems over-and-over again.

At some point your friend should really consider installing Win XP as it runs far more efficiently and securely with less problems that Win 98. Hopefully, when Windows Vista is released the prices of XP Home and Pro will go way down and more people will consider perhaps upgrading.

In any case, thank you for your follow-up reply and I hope your friend finds those links to the variety of programs and utilities that Bold Eagle and mentioned; to be useful in helping his computer run more efficiently.

Good Luck!

 

Thank you all so much for your help I have downloaded a great collection of programs from you all onto disks and have decided to send them to my son tomorrow as he can get to my friend a lot sooner than me, I will log in as soon as he has done the work and report on how the computer is going, I really do appreciate the help from all of you, I knew here I could get the same great help I have had at Major Geeks before. Regards Robyn

 

FYI, the reason the Windows defrag starts and stops is because background programs are interrupting the process, and Windows defrag requires exclusive access.

Diskeeper Lite or O&O are better, or you can use the Windows one and either close all the background programs using Task Manager (Ctrl + alt + delete), or defrag in Safe Mode.


I suggest you also urge your friend to pay a visit to the MalWare Forum, and follow the recommendations in the stickies.

 

Thank you Insomniac I appreciate all the help I can get with my friends computer it really has been neglected by it'd previous owner. RobynR