Registery Cleaning - need some info and help and suggestions
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
April 13, 2008 5:31pm CST
I am a computer novice so help me out. I have heard that hard drives can accumulate "junk" stuff that can effect the registery. Granted I haven't a clues as to what the "registery" is, other than something I don't touch! but my speed is so slow -I have DSL, I have tons of space on my hard drive, I don't install games and all that stuff, so next to nothing but a few kids software games for my GD. That in mind, I can't figure why...
But I have heard that you should clean the registery file and that could help this problem. Have heard it say that you get bugs and such (not harmful particularly, just annoying) and cookies and tracking things and they effect the registery that effects the progress of you PC.
First, am I at least on the right track with this? Is registery cleaning a good thing to have albeit not required? Does it clean things up? I have done one of those free registery scanners and it say I have a thousand or so things that shouldn't be there and need cleaning up but not knowing about them and not to confident about buying things from a site like that, i want to just know if it is a good thing to do and then.....
Anyone have a recommendation on software to buy to do this? I'd rather just buy the software in a store or Amazon or something like that than to do a download from some place....again, any comments on this?
I do CCleaner all the time, I do avast! Antivirus, AVG antivirus, AdAware SE and Yahoo Anti Spy for cleaners.
Thanks so much for your help and suggestions. Something like this I prefer to hear it from those that have done it!
2 people like this
3 responses
@zweeb82 (5653)
• Malaysia
14 Apr 08
Hi coffeebreak, did the slowing down just happened or was it there already in the beginning? If it's so, then you might need to upgrade your RAM. That's on the hardware part, especially if you're running Vista, it takes more juice than XP. On the software part, try taking out the tray icons if not in use, the ones beside your clock. Those stuff can slow your PC especially on start up. Another way is by formatting your drive & starting afresh - that's another option that might take more of your time but it's good to do it once in a while. For clearing cookies & stuff, go to your Internet browsertoolsInternet Options. Hit the "Delete" button & delete everything in the browsing history. NOTE that if you have passwords stored it will be removed as well. If you don't want to do that, just clear your temporary internet files & browsing history.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
14 Apr 08
It's always been this slow - just a bit faster than dial up! Okay, bit mroe, but still, all the hoopla over DSL and I figured it would be faster. I don't know about boosting Ram - a fella here told me about Ram Booster 2.0 and I downloaded that, but dont' know what it is supposed to do or tell! I am a novice at all this! I do have only the antivirus AVG on the icon tray, along wtih volume, hardware thingy (tells when I have a memory stick in a slot) and printer usage notification is all that is there. I do all those other things with CCleaner and dont' save passwords anyway. I have XP and don't know anything about upgrading RAM - do you?
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
14 Apr 08
2.41 GHz. 384 MB of RAM is what that says - what does it mean? And my Hard drive 160 GB is nearly empty!
1 person likes this
@zweeb82 (5653)
• Malaysia
14 Apr 08
2.41GHz is a relatively good CPU. Your RAM - 384MB needs to be upgraded to at least 512MB so that it can run a bit faster on XP. You'll need to find out how many RAM slots you have on your motherboard & the type of RAM it supports & also the maximum capacity it supports. Normally for a 2.41GHz it's a maximum of 2GB.
@ferdzNK (3211)
• Philippines
15 Apr 08
Me again Coffeebreak.
Base on the responds above:
1. Processor 2.41GHz - Ok for your needs
2. Memory 512MB - 384MB+128MB for Video a bit on edge but will do
3. Hard disk 160G - big enough, do defrag/scandisk regularly
3. Operating system: Windows XP
4. Antivirus: AVG only
5. You're not much into power programs(cpu memory chokers)
I don't think you have to worry about upgrading just yet :)
You are right then in suspecting the Registry. I believe you have never clean it yet nor optimized it(guessing here) because although you have tried the free registry scanners, you have not actually clean it.
I'm surprise you have CCleaner. Have you fully utilize this? this can clean your HD and registry. Before buying a cleaner try this one first.
I can walk you through with this one if you haven't done so.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
15 Apr 08
Thanks for letting me know I am least okay for my use. ONe worry out of the way!
I have never done a registry clean. I thought I was using CCleaner to its most, but will check again. Do you use it? Maybe I am doig it and dont' know it! Good possibility there! Is it CCleaner that you are talking about walking me through? If so, let's walk! And thanks so very much!
1 person likes this
@shizuoka (352)
• United States
15 Apr 08
It may be the Registry, but I would disagree about your RAM. If you are running Windows XP, I recommend that you have 1GB of RAM. XP can run on 512MB, but it's slow. If you could add a second stick of 512MB, that would noticeably increase your performance.
It is very easy to install, or you could take your computer to a repair shop. They probably wouldn't charge you too much, as it would only take them about two minutes to do it.
2 people like this
@5SCPapaLou1 (143)
• United States
13 Apr 08
Coffeebreak, one thing that may be causing slowdown is having more than one antivirus program on your computer.Often when you have more than one antivirus program, they fight each other, slowing your computer to a snails pace.(I know from experience).
Also, you need to defrag your computer about once a month, as well as, delete unnecessary files.
There is an excellent program you can download for free from C-Net.com called EasyCleaner. It gives you sixteen options from which to choose, from cleaning your registry, clearing history and eliminating unneccessary files.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
14 Apr 08
I do the defrag and the scan disk thing on my PC under System Tools. I have the AVG running in the back ground but none of the others.I deleted Norton while back. And I stopped Avast! and just work with AVG now. I'll look into easy cleaner. Thanks for the help.
