Cleaning up XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Penang
  • Start date Start date
Penang said:
After 3 years of using, my XP is loaded with junks, and my PC is
running very slow.

Time for spring cleaning !

Checking through the XP directories, especially those under "Documents
and Settings" and "Windows" and "Program Files", there are indeed a
whole lot of STUFFS that I don't have any clue where they came from
and what's their use are.

So my questions to all the Gurus,

1. Can you tell me where I can safely clean out the junks?

2. Is there anywhere on the Net that tells me what is safe to delete,
what's not?

Please help. Thank you !!
Click to expand...
god where to begin....
delete all old applications, files, etc.
rebuild desktop
defragment hard drive
check your registries, processes and services
ensure that your firewall, Antivirus, etc. is up-to-date
i do all of these things on weekly or monthly basis- its the "reward"
for buying a Piece of Crap, Windows machine.
congrats. that you managed to run 3 years without doing any? of these
things...?



--
To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States,
Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth,
ever after-ward resumes its liberty.

-Walt Whitman, 1860
 
To the original poster:

You have a lot of excellent advice coming in from the people on this
newsgroup for cleaning your system without having to reformat and reinstall.
So I don't have much better or new to add but what follows.

Whatever you decide to do to "clean up" your system, take an inventory of
the purchased programs you value most as helpful or reinstallable and make a
list of their activation keys or serial numbers and print a hardcopy of that
list.

Then, burn the setup or installation files of these programs along with a
text file containing your list of activation keys and serial numbers to a cd
or dvd recordable disk, or save them to a flash drive or other storage
device so you will have them when you are ready to reinstall them.

This will be especially helpful if you have to do a reformat and
reinstallation of your system.

Also, Microsoft no longer requires people to phone in their serial numbers
to reactivate their systems, and this is only a necessity now if you can't
activate online. You have thirty days, so you will have plenty of time to
reactivate after getting back online with your isp.

In fact I just reactivated my system yesterday after reinstalling it after
it crashed recently.

I hope this helps,

--
Peace,

Jeffrey W. Bowen
Remove NO SPAM entries from email address to send personal email.

Please post replies of successes or failures so we all can benefit from each
others' experiences.
 
I would add, to use CCleaner, while I've never used it, others swear
by it.

(This is a general macro I use for Hijackthis:)

Go here http://hijackthis.de/en download
http://download.hijackthis.eu/HJTInstall.exe

No need to install, just run it; Scan, save log, copy then, paste the
log file into http://hijackthis.de/en click analyze. Google first of
course, but Red should be deleted and yellow researched.

-- when your all done cleaning up, do a repair install, I've run the
same OS installation (XPro) for over 4 years and it's running just
fine.

A repair install is what I do to set things straight again. I've run
two so far. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Follow the directions (it's the second repair option, not the first)
and you will not lose anything.

This can be a lot of problems for some people, the best chance you
have of doing this is if you have a XP CD slipstreamed to the latest
SP
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp
Replace SP2 with SP3. it's not an easy process.

There is also SFC but it rarely works after a few updates.
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
Click to expand...

Even after all that verbiage, a Format and Clean Install is what the OP
needs to do.
 
Rebecca said:
Buffalo said:
relic said:
PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:
[Crosspost much?]

**** off top-poaster.
Click to expand...
Relic, you sound like an idiot!!
Grow up.
Click to expand...

I'm sure relic meant to say "**** off, ****ing top-poaster," but because
he omitted "****ing" doesn't make him an idiot. Your grammar laming makes
YOU the idiot.
Click to expand...

Would you ****ing people drop alt.windows-xp from the list of news groups.
There is no longer anything relevant in this thread.
 
3.  The WinXP wizard designed to free wasted drive
space is Disk Cleanup, one of your /Accessories.
This totals the space it can clear and seeks your
OK before proceeding.   See also its /Advanced facilities.
Click to expand...


Oh no ! That "Disk Cleanup" thing is telling me that it's "compressing
old files" !

Why is it compressing old files when I didn't tell it too? OMG !
OMG !!!
 
3. The WinXP wizard designed to free wasted drive
space is Disk Cleanup, one of your /Accessories.
This totals the space it can clear and seeks your
OK before proceeding. See also its /Advanced facilities.
Click to expand...


Oh no ! That "Disk Cleanup" thing is telling me that it's "compressing
old files" !

Why is it compressing old files when I didn't tell it too? OMG !
OMG !!!

troll
 
funny...

there is nothing wrong with
the compression of old files.

they will uncompress as soon
as you run any of them.

however, it is unlikely that
you have ran any of them
for a long time,

hence the nice little feature
to compress them.
 
Oh no ! That "Disk Cleanup" thing is telling me that it's "compressing
old files" !
Click to expand...
Why is it compressing old files when I didn't tell it too? OMG !
OMG !!!
Click to expand...

Take a deep breath, Penang. It's merely calculating how much disk space
you will save if you later decide to compress old files. So, when it's
time to check the boxes, make sure the one next to Compress Old Files
remains unchecked (unless your hard drive is tiny).
 
i think the anxiety is
the result of thinking
that compressing old
files is similar to trash
compacting.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
 
Rebecca said:
Buffalo said:
relic said:
PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:
[Crosspost much?]

**** off top-poaster.
Click to expand...
Relic, you sound like an idiot!!
Grow up.
Click to expand...

I'm sure relic meant to say "**** off, ****ing top-poaster," but
because he omitted "****ing" doesn't make him an idiot. Your grammar
laming makes YOU the idiot.
Click to expand...

You are vulgar and sound like a spoiled little know-nothing. :)
 
Even after all that verbiage, a Format and Clean Install is what the OP
needs to do.
Click to expand...

Well who in the hell said that to begin with, hhhmmmmm, I wonder.

Having done a little of all, a clean install is the only option to get a
smooth system once it has been whacked.

Sorry Twayne
 
Twayne said:
The easeist and most efficient way to clean out that stuff is to start by
running disk cleanup:
Start; Programs; Accessories; System Tools; Disk Cleanup.

It sounds like it may take a bit of time to run from your discription, so
be patient; go have coffee or your fav beverage while it runs.

Then run the disk defragmenter:
Start; Programs; Accessories; System Tools; Defragment.

Next will be to run an antivirus scan and malware detectors; at least 3
spyware detectors as have been listed here many times.

At this point you should be pretty much back to speed, you'll know what to
try next time, and wont' have lost any data or anythign else.
Click to expand...

What about all the Reg keys that are gunked up in it?

Orphans, invalid uninstallers, Nonexsistent file paths, to name a few.

Good luck "cleaning" up that system to a noticeable adjusted speed.

Takes about one day to reinstall and get a system smokin' along.
 
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