I was in the same boat as you Mark.
My computer is about 6/7 years old.
All I did was save all the important stuff then just format the b1tch
I use AVG. Hope this helps

Greenroom said...

I was in the same boat as you Mark.
My computer is about 6/7 years old.
All I did was save all your important stuff then just format the b1tch
I use AVG. Hope this helps

I was going to do that but (1) Jordo asked hard q's here about partitions and stuff, I thought all I had to do was format and reinstall Windows but the responses he got sounded waaay hard ( and strewth he made website for Windshack so if he has to ask q's then what chance do I have) and..
(2) I don't ahve a CD burner and can't borrow and external HDD so have to rely on to 2gB USB thumb drives so I can't save much stuff.....

I am using AVG, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware AE, Zone Alarm and Desktop Armor. You have to do that when you use it for porn

so Registry Easy, Mininova or UTorrent? Googling the former seems to give a LOT or warnings about it....

Reformat the pig and reload. No matter what I run/do we end up with slow systems / crap running in the background over time. I find it is best to reformat and reload completely, probably on average every 6-12 months per machine - even though we do run virus/spyware software etc. I get a new work laptop every year and rotate the old through home/kids etc so with 3 computers I find I'm wasting a day (back & forth to the computer) every 6 months or so reformating/reloading. Its amazing how much quicker they are after. The 100+Gb USB external hard drives save heaps of time/hassles with backup/re-instals - a great investment.

TonyC said...

Reformat the pig and reload. No matter what I run/do we end up with slow systems / crap running in the background over time. I find it is best to reformat and reload completely, probably on average every 6-12 months per machine - even though we do run virus/spyware software etc. I get a new work laptop every year and rotate the old through home/kids etc so with 3 computers I find I'm wasting a day (back & forth to the computer) every 6 months or so reformating/reloading. Its amazing how much quicker they are after. The 100+Gb USB external hard drives save heaps of time/hassles with backup/re-instals - a great investment.

^^ what tonyc said.

I'm sorry to say but no free (or expensive) registry cleaner is strong enough to wade through the 8 years of industrial strength porn related gunk you have clogging up your pc.

Fresh install will also help clear up the multitude of random programs you might have running in the background which all contribute to your computer slowing down (registry cleaner won't). If you look down at the icons near your clock, and there is more then say 2-3 appart from the essentials such as anti-virus and the safely remove hardware, network connection and volume control, then you have too much junk.

Find a buddy who knows what they are doing and they can backup and reinstall everything on your pc in 2 hours. I would, but i'm stuck in not so windy QLD :(


p.s. I like Avast better then AVG, latest verson of AVG seems quite bloated last I checked.

Geez I hate computers and their designer/ programmer peeps
If I have no viruses, spyware, malware of any kind why does it get slower and full of rubbish (rhetorical question)
What sh!ts me is for example I am using a product to uninstall unused programs and it also deletes the registry values afterwards. My phone software after removal: about 100 reg values. Various Windows programs: couple of hundred. HP printer software (just the photo imaging stuff nobody would use anyway; over 4000 registry values
The f%*^head who designed that should be shot.

I'll try C cleaner and if no good I may have to bite the bullet and wipe everything and start again

Mark _australia said...

Geez I hate computers and their designer/ programmer peeps
If I have no viruses, spyware, malware of any kind why does it get slower and full of rubbish (rhetorical question)
What sh!ts me is for example I am using a product to uninstall unused programs and it also deletes the registry values afterwards. My phone software after removal: about 100 reg values. Various Windows programs: couple of hundred. HP printer software (just the photo imaging stuff nobody would use anyway; over 4000 registry values
The f%*^head who designed that should be shot.

I'll try C cleaner and if no good I may have to bite the bullet and wipe everything and start again

because of your insatiable desire for naked girls :)

its okay, we all love to party

swoosh said...

Mark _australia said...

a load of sh!t as usual

because of your insatiable desire for naked girls :)

its okay, we all love to party

no. half naked is fine.

me too, working on a friday night. sick

but an ok price to pay for an afternoon on the water.

unfortunately windows suffers from OS Decay. even microsoft themselves recommend 6 monthly re-installs to keep pc's running at their best.

the trick is to have 2 partitions on your pc.

C- has all of the OS stuff
D- has everything else

then when you need to re-install, you copy the important stuff to your d drive before a reinstall on C drive.

note - to copy everything you need to be logged on as a different user. then copy your entire windows profile.

after re-install you will also need to re-install all of your other software.

in my opinion, registry tools, OS repair install etc etc are only good for getting a system back and running when something very bad happens. enough to let you copy everything.

fresh re-instal is the only way to go. your pc will run much much faster after.

i run avg also, it's free..... macafee and nortons will slow your pc down.

the only thing i do is defrag every few months and use the OS disk tools.

Cal said...

my computer also runs like the proverbial...

Way overdue for a scrub and rebuild. I have been delaying this because in my ignorance, I have no idea how to copy the programs I have installed so I can reinstall on the fresh clean pc. How do you do that? (I am still on XP)

Unfortunately you can not just copy most installed programs, only just your data ie. docs, pics, email settings etc.

Generally installed programs write to the registry, install files in the windows/systems folder etc. You usually have to re-install these programs properly.

Cal said...

Thanks OceanBlue64, I figured that much. I am just hoping there is a way to save the install files before I wipe the computer, therefore allowing me to install on the reformatted system. Any tips?

You can just burn the install files to disc or save them on a memory stick. If the files are too big, just zip/compress them up first.

If you are serious about keeping your PC clean you have a few options. One way is to get your computer setup just the way you want it to be and then use an imaging application to create a snapshot of it, save it on external hard drive or DVD depending on the size. Then when it gets full of crap you can wipe it an reimage it. The most common imaging application is Ghost. There are some free ones around too.

Other solution is to get a Mac, but they stuff up too. Mine stuffed up when the hard drive got too full and the OS crapped itself.

No external Hard Drive? If you have anything you'd like to not lose, like pictures, you are asking for trouble.

I've got two external drives, just in case. I simply can't lose 10 years of pictures.

Case in point: One of my external drives crapped itself a bit (didn't realise was FAT32/still exists) so I formatted and re-copied all my pics and stuff across. At work I was browsing pics on it (compiling) when I noticed that about 90% of them were missing!

My home PC was the same. They were just not there! Lucky I had the 2nd external drive and everything safely on it.

I've seen this happen on my mum's PC and just wrote it off as something that happens on old people's PCs, ie she did it somehow. But no, this **** happens. I swear to god I copied them all across, watched them go across, safely disconnected, next day at work 90% just gone and same at home. They were not anywhere on the PC. Gone. Kaput.

Bit of a rant but I imagine there will be a generation of pictures missing when "mum and dad" PCs eventually crash, or behave as above. Two backups people, one off-site. MBs are dirt cheap these days.