Computer clean up

[happytraveller]

Just like to mention that on the pcworld.com website, that there are some useful (and FREE) programs that you can download to give the computer a good clean up. Helpful programs like Registry cleaner and programs to delete duplicate files. I spent some time giving the laptop a good going over, and it seems to work. There is also a program to speed up the RAM which I am trying out now. Worth investigating!!

smooth landings!!

[HardCorePawn]

QUOTE (happytraveller @ Oct 30 2007, 09:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There is also a program to speed up the RAM which I am trying out now. Worth investigating!!

smooth landings!!

It still amazes me that people continue to tout these RAM 'enhancing' apps... they are the modern day equivalent of snake oil...

Logically, it just cannot really do anything but hinder performance... think about it, if you are adding yet another layer of processing/computation how can it possibly make things faster?

Registry cleaners can be a bit of a double edged sword... as you will often find that poorly implemented applications do not adhere to correct standards and put things in the wrong place (or duplicate the data) that they rely on... along comes the cleaner thinking 'Thats not needed' and BAM! application falls over...

However, when implemented properly and with well designed apps, reg cleaners can be useful.

Duplicate file finders have their uses... although you may want to be careful if any of the duplicates are library files (ie. .DLL, .OCX etc)... again some (poorly implemented) applications can be a bit fussy about where they will look for a required library. If you delete a duplicate from an applications local directory, thinking that it will find the one in C:\Windows\System32 etc. you may be in for a bit of a surprise!

Personally, I have found the easiest and least dangerous solution to cleaning up my PC is to simply re-install windows... Granted you really need to have at least 2 drives (or partitions) so you can keep windows/installed apps on one, and data on another... and it also helps if you get some partition imaging software like Ghost, so that once you've created a nice clean install (with all updates, standard apps like Office, Firefox etc.), you can then create an image of it... means you can re-install windows in about 15 minutes

[utopian]

Well Said HardCorePawn

[brownbox]

all I use to keep my pc up to speed is 1 scan of spybot and avg, a quick scan through the reg, and 1 disk defrag per month. Keeps everything running fast enough. Although I must say, if you are in need of a proper clean up, a reinstall is the best option.

[happytraveller]

Thanks for the comments. My laptop was clogged up with all sorts of extra bits and pieces, and the clean up seemed to have helped, but thanks for the info and comments above!!

Time to re-install then!! One question that you might be able to help with.....can I just drag the complete FS9 folder across to my new laptop, or do I need to do anything else to move it? Not sure if I need to copy across anything else as well.

smooth landings!

[HardCorePawn]

As long as you have not installed things in other places, I think you can do this...

However, you'll probably find you need to resetup the FS registry entries... otherwise when you go to install things using installers (like RealNZ stuff) it'll probably choke...

there are little utilities that do this for you (I cannot remember them offhand, but google should help 'FS9 registry fix')

[happytraveller]

QUOTE (HardCorePawn @ Nov 6 2007, 09:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As long as you have not installed things in other places, I think you can do this...

However, you'll probably find you need to resetup the FS registry entries... otherwise when you go to install things using installers (like RealNZ stuff) it'll probably choke...

there are little utilities that do this for you (I cannot remember them offhand, but google should help 'FS9 registry fix')

Thanks for the tips!!

Smooth landings.