If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
System speedup?
On Dec 8, 11:47*am, KenK wrote:
Anyone know of a helpful utility to speed up an old clogged computer running XP Home? Something more friendly and especially more informative than DOS's msconfig startup. I have no idea what many of the aps it lists do. Am I stuck with the need to Google each of the unknowns? TIA -- "Where there's smoke there's toast!" Anon The "snake oil" registry cleaner scams have given most people such a bad attitude about registry cleaners that even the good free ones are generally panned by many techies. Not all are scams though. It's preferable to build a clean install from your original Windows install files/CD and install all of the updates and everyday programs that you use, and then "bottle it" by making an image copy or partition clone. Whereas some OEM computer makers used hidden partitions on the top end of the hard disk, I like to make an openly visible partition and clone the first boot partition to it. XXClone (free) allows me to actually boot from either one, a nice way to test the upper partition, but since you can't clone to the drive you booted on, while it's running, booting on the last partition is a means to repair the first partition by cloning to it. None of this takes the place of serious unattached backups which can be done as a detached partition image file or a detached clone partition as I described above. However, I have found that cloning from the last partition to the first partition solves 90% of all problems where a backup might ordinarily be used. If somebody runs into an uninstaller that fails, leaving garbage files and garbage registry entries buried deep in the system's "craw" I just boot from the last partition and xxclone from the last to the first parition. I do something else for half an hour, while it works. Then I run the built in tools to ensure that the newly minted first parition is bootable. Then I boot the first partition. An image file might work better for detached removable backup. Lookup: XXClone (free version partition cloner) Macrium reflect (free version makes partition images?) Do you have the original CD/files/hidden install partition? No registry cleaner is preferable to a clean install. Got backups? |
Ads |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|