Posted on 10/21/2012 12:29:48 PM PDT by Former Fetus
So, here I am again, the technologically challenged FReeper, with another "life or death" question.
My husband is ready to throw his PC through the window. It is slower than molasses in January, it freezes... We used to blame Vista for it. But lately I've noticed something when I run Microsoft Security Essentials on both his and my pc. Even though I have lots of pics in my pc, class notes, power points... it scans right under 650,000 items in less than an hour. My husband does not have ANYTHING installed, except the OS, IE, and Microsoft Office. But at the end of the scan it says there are about three times as many "items" in his pc and it takes over 2 hrs to scan. Obviously this is what is slowing down his pc so much. I tried cleaning the cache but it didn't make any significant difference.
Can anybody suggest our best course of action? We do not know enough to go item by item through his hard drive and remove anything unnecessary. What can we do?
TIA
Back up the data that you know you want to keep, format the hard drive and re install Windows, then your security software. Finally, scan your backup, and reinstall your data if it’s clean.
I’d recommend WinDirStat to investigate the file system:
http://windirstat.info/
Run defrag and ScanDisk to look for and correct errors on your HDD.
>>Back up the data that you know you want to keep, format the hard drive and re install Windows, then your security software. Finally, scan your backup, and reinstall your data if it’s clean.<<
That’s the best advice you’ll get. It is really your only choice.
If that is all he has on his computer, his best move would be to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS and office.
Or if you’re not prepared to go to that much trouble, try this. Start Windows Explorer. Right click on the C: drive and select “Properties.” Click the “Disk Cleanup” button and do what it says. That should take off all kinds of temporary and other files that aren’t needed and free up some space.
First, if you have an external drive, copy all folders w/ important files/data to it.
(Vista? Yuk.)
Do you have a separate Utilities Program?
Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk CleanUp->Disk Defragmenter.
If you have Norton/Symmantec, Run PC Tune-Up: use File CleanUp & Disk Optimization.
Reformat is last resort.
That’s not likely to do much. Just for giggles, I just checked my desktop, which has never been cleaned and it’s reporting that if I run Disk Cleanup, I can reclaim 295mb of storage. Out of 2 terabytes of storage, that’s not worth the trouble even if it only takes seconds.
Anything from Vista forward, there is little reason to run disk clean or defrag utilities. Those are leftovers from the Windows shell over DOS days. The more modern OS’s do a wonderful job of housecleaning with no user intervention.
I use Glary Utilities and it works good. Free- give it a try.
http://glary-utilities.soft32.com/free-download?gclid=CKDt9qbvkrMCFQiCQgod0mMA7A
CCleaner is a great program for cleaning up Windows.
Very safe and easy. You see a marked speed-up.
Last time I updated I had to uninstall something (Chrome maybe?) that came with it so I quit updating it.
CCleaner is free.
Ditto. I was going to recommend Advanced System Care too. After downloading, run deep scan and do what it says. You might lose something, but the software does establish a rollback point.
I use CCleaner for a quick cleaning.
Ccleaner is better than Disk Cleanup.
Auslogic is better than Microsoft's disk defragmenter.
By "better" I mean faster, more comprehensive and does a better job.
Get Ccleaner here.
Get Auslogic here.
Both free.
I have the full version of this program (Advanced SystemCare). It does a very good job of cleaning up your hard drive and making it run better bu it’s also possible that you have a virus. ACS has an antivirus program yhst is okay but you might try some other antivirus programs like these:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp
I have a laptop with Vista and learned, through bitter experience, to do nothing on that computer but download podcasts of Rush’s show and listen to them while exercising. Even with this tiny task it crashes. If I listen to more than 2 hours I get a message that “memory is low,” which is absurd since I do absolutely nothing else (no open Windows with Excel, Word, e-mail, etc.). Vista is hopeless. Nothing will help ...
Vista is garbage!
Get a Mac.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.