RFCN2
MT
Senior Member
Joined: 05/29/2011
View Profile
 Offline
|
CCleaner works well as does Advanced Systems Care. I personally like Advanced SC a bit better. It does a more thorough job IMO. I spent about 2 hours today removing old programs from a 2 year old laptop. That is another way to get the size of the registry down. I use Revo as it pulls all the old stuff out of the registry. Establishing a back up point before doing any of this makes it safer.
Linux as another poster said eliminates this problem. For most computer use Linux works very well. Not everything will work though. But the difference between Linux and Windows that has not been reinstalled for a while is dramitic. My oldest computer using Linux boots up and is ready to use in less than one minute. Way less than one minute. It is running on an antique Toshiba. Ubantu Linux now comes with a great from Word, Exel, and so on suite called Libre. Better than the MS stuff. 1/5 the size.
RFCN2
Country Coach
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
|
wittmeba
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 02/02/2001
View Profile
|
Things you can do to improve your computer & browsing performance:
- reboot your PC
- reboot your modem (if used)
- reboot your router/mifi/wifi (if used)
In your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc)
- clean out your cache - they all have options for this function
- clean out cookies you dont want/need - they all have options for this function
Immediately after rebooting run a disk/registry cleaner utility:
- Glary Disk Utilities
http://www.glarysoft.com/products/utilities/glary-utilities/download/
- Wise Registry Cleaner
http://www.wisecleaner.com/wiseregistrycleanerfree.html
- CCleaner - select Download from Piriform.com
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
In a DOS/Command window run:
(must be connected to the internet)
ipconfig /?
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
Run defrag -c -w -f
-c all volumes
-w forces defrag regardless of file size
-f forces defrag when disk space is low
Run chkdsk -f
forces an attempt to fix errors on the disk
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 - do a System Restore.
This will not hurt or change your data files on your PC. It is intended to refresh your System files to fresh clean copies. You may need to reinstall some programs when complete.
This task is usually accomplished thru the Windows Start Menu. Select a date when you feel there were no problems with your system - usually earlier is better.
Link to Microsoft suggestions:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/optimize.aspx#fbid=xIgfyQtWiY8
I was born in Great Falls, Mt. My parents moved when I was 5. I found them when I was 10 - they were in California.
Firefox® 21.0
Log home images - Updated 05/19/2013
|
wintersun
Monterey
Senior Member
Joined: 12/22/2011
View Profile
Offline
|
I use registry cleanup programs less and less as they don't really address the inevitable bloat that occurs with this stupid operating system design of the people at Microsoft. I partition my primary hard drive into two sections and load only application software on the C: partition.
Every 6-12 months I reformat the C rive and reinstall Windows and the application software. When I start the registry is less than 10MB but after a year or more of use the registry is 100MB or larger and the drive is heavily fragmented from the way the Microsoft DLL design kludge works with all the temp files that are continuously being created. Doing a full defrag on the Crive is very risky so I reformat and reload the software instead.
There is an option for creating a mirror boot drive and then selecting it as the boot drive when the computer boots up and this helps with fragmentation but not with the registry bloat. I use this process with my Mac workstations as the operating system is a modern one and not like Windows with is based on NT code developed twenty years ago. 99% of my time spent on maintaining our computers is with the ones running Windows. With the Mac computers I only apply updates and do a monthly mirror image of the primary drive in case of hardware failure of the drive (it happens).
I spent 25 years in IT keeping computers running Microsoft operating systems up and running and I wish I could say it was time well spent. Whenever I can use something else I do so.
|
burlmart
Baton Rouge
Senior Member
Joined: 03/28/2005
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
what is a signal that my registry needs attention? (Win XP)
where is the registry, and what size should it be?
I do disk cleanup and defrag regularly, and run MS Security Essentials daily.
2005 Trail Lite 213 B-Plus w/ 6.0 Chevy
|
burlmart
Baton Rouge
Senior Member
Joined: 03/28/2005
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
I did a run - 'regedit' - file - export 'regisrty' on both our computers and right clicked Properties of the file 'registry'.
It was 106 MB on desktop and 84 MB on laptop
|
|
|
wittmeba
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 02/02/2001
View Profile
|
burlmart wrote:what is a signal that my registry needs attention? (Win XP)
I have found several indicators to signal me things just arent right.
- Slow, hesitant or erratic skipping mouse movement
- long boot up/shut down times - sometimes 10-15 minutes
- long start up times of Firefox (my browser of choice)
Quote:where is the registry, and what size should it be? Dont know that there is any specific size as the registry contains specific information to your PC, files, directories, shortcuts, etc.
My desktop is 67.6MB.
Quote:I do disk cleanup and defrag regularly, and run MS Security Essentials daily.
You are probably fine to use just MSSE.
|
fj12ryder
Platte City, MO
Senior Member
Joined: 08/19/2003
View Profile
|
burlmart wrote:what is a signal that my registry needs attention? (Win XP)
where is the registry, and what size should it be?
I do disk cleanup and defrag regularly, and run MS Security Essentials daily.
That's really plenty to run, most anything else is superfluous.
For a data point: this Windows 7 homebuilt computer was built more than 6 months ago, it is on every day all day, and shut down at night. It is a gaming machine so I'm concerned with performance. I run bench marks periodically and the numbers are a little better now than when I first put it together, although the boot time may be 2 seconds slower. I do limit what programs run in the background, refuse to run Apple products Itunes or QuickTime, and refuse with a vengeance such programs as RealVideo.
If your computer is slowing down considerably, you most likely have more problems than a bloated registry. Reformatting a drive and reinstalling Windows every six months is, IMO, a unnecessary use of one's time. But YMMV.
* This post was
edited 07/20/12 10:15am by fj12ryder *
Howard and Peggy
"Don't Panic"
|
LittleBill
Scranton, PA USA
Senior Member
Joined: 08/29/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
lol i don't run any of this******and my computer works flawless.
Format a computer every 6 months? what is this windows 98?
Defrag is "very risky"? What does that mean
i feel that 99% of problems are Id10T errors and not a computer issue at all
* This post was
edited 07/20/12 10:04am by an administrator/moderator *
|
wittmeba
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 02/02/2001
View Profile
|
Sometimes just rebooting your PC can work wonders. I have created a batch file (boy, am I old or what?) that reboots from a system call - shutdown.
===
rem reboot.bat placed in path thru System/env variable
@echo off
c:
cls
rem shutdown - command
rem /f force running apps to close
rem /t set timeout to xxx seconds
rem /r shutdown and restart (reboot)
shutdown /f /t 0 /r
===
|
2oldman
Wilson Creek WA
Senior Member
Joined: 04/15/2001
View Profile
Offline
|
burlmart wrote:where is the registry, and what size should it be? Google: registry file
|
|
|
