How can I "start over" with my home desktop computer?

Question

My home computer is so slow its ridiculous. We have a virus protection system, but it remains so slow. I have downloaded a couple things to download torrents, but it was slow before that, but now its so slow I cant even use it. I have the fastest internet the cable company has available so there is no reason for this. My wife stores pics, but I have a large hard drive, so that shouldn't even begin to matter. Is there a way where I can just wipe clean all the downloaded programs along with all the other crap that causes a computer to slow down and just start over? If so, How do I do it? If there is something else you recommend? Thanks for the help...

Answer 1

Go to http://www.pc-optimizer-pro-downloads.com

With pc optimizer pro you can safely clean, repair and optimize your computer.

It will help improve your system performance.

Answer 2

Big Frank, David has given you good advice.



You don't say what daily "housekeeping" you do on your PC.



Have you got www.ccleaner.com



This is a great junk cleaner. Download it and run it every few days.



Do you use the FREE "disk cleaner" which is on your PC?



Perhaps you have forgotten to use it every few days. You get it by hitting start, all programs, accessories, then system tools and scroll to "disk cleanup". Just press it and let it scour your hard drive. It might take a minute or two but you will be surprised how much it can clean up.



On my PC it cleans about 200000 K



Aside from clearing out clutter the main reason for slow PC's is an overabundance of programs on your startup.



First of all get a good startup cleaner, one that is user friendly. The best FREE one I've seen is at:



www.windowsstartup.com



Just carefully read the instruction under help and click off the programs you don't need at startup.



Next is download :



www.mlin.net/startupmonitor.shtml



When you go to this site you will also notice "startup monitor" which is a wonderful FREE program that pops up an OPTION window every time a new program appears on your screen.



It simply asks you IF you want that program to startup every time you log on or do you NOT want it to startup every time you log on.



The answer is, of course NO because you don't want most of the programs you use every day to be on startup.



Everyone in our computer club (600 members) uses these wonderful FREE programs and you should too.



You do need your anti-spytware and virus and as well your anti-spam program so you would answer YES to these types.



Finally you should defrag once a week.



If you do all these things as well as "remove" as many non used programs (via your control panel and "add and remove" icon) I am sure your PC will speed up.



I assume you have 2 gigs of Ram. If you haven't then you should ask your local computer tech or dealer how much he would charge to upgrade your PC to that.



Ram is SOOOOO cheap to-day you can't afford not to upgrade. For example if you log in to



www.egghead.com



you will see that they are offering 4 gigs of Ram for $46.99 !!



That cost $200 a year or so ago.



2 Gigs of Ram is only $21.00 at the same site !!



Finally here is a FREE program that will tell you exactly what RAM specs you have on your PC and what you need to ask for if you buy an insert of Ram to fit your mother board. It is at:



www.crucial.com



Much good luck and let's hear from you for any help we can give.

Answer 3

The catch-all answer to this common problem is to reinstall your OS. This is what the geeks at Best Buy do, and the IT guys at your office. You bring them a computer so bogged down with junk that it hardly runs, they backup your files, reinstall your OS, and you pick up a computer that runs like the first day you bought it.



However, the IT guys at the office have an advantage. They use backup imaging software to create a template that has the latest windows updates installed as well as commonly used software for which the company has a license. Thus they are able to return your computer good as new, fully up to date, with all necessary software loaded in under an hour.



The trouble with reinstalling your OS at home is that, if you haven't planned for it like the IT guys at work, it can be a very time consuming process.



You first need to find and backup all the files you wish to save.



You then need to ensure that you have all necessary installation material for any software you wish to reinstall.



Next you run the installation, which may take some time depending upon your hardware.



Once the installation is complete, you then need to begin the process of updating the OS. Depending on how old your OS installation disc is, this may take quite awhile to download the updates and install them. Some updates require the system to restart as well.



Next you reinstall software and transfer over your backed up files.



It takes some time, but barring any hardware-related issues, your computer will run like the day you bought it.

Answer 4

Do both. RAID is not a substitute for backups. What RAID (and I'm assuming you're going to do RAID 1 with those two disks) gets you is the ability to withstand a single disk failure without loss of data or downtime. But, it doesn't protect you from all the other things that could happen, such as files getting deleted by accident or your file system getting corrupted because of some software issue or because of a hardware issue that affects both disks (e.g. the RAID controller flakes out). RAID won't protect you (obviously) from your PC getting stolen or some other problem that affects the entire machine. Also, one purpose of backups is not just to restore a machine to its current state should it break, but to do archival storage. For example, bringing back a file that you intentionally deleted a few months back but now discover that you need.

Answer 5

You can use a registry cleaner to clean up your computer and then make your computer faster,Why?the reason is that there may be some registry errors and remnant,corrupt files and temp files in your computer to cause "computer slow".

Every time you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the computer registry.over time, the registry can grow to enormous proportions, especially if the various programs you've installed do not do a good job of deleting and/or updating it's Registry entries.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make it fast.Good Registry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically!

There are some comparison and review of TOP 5 registry cleaners.

http://www.speed-up-my-computer.com

You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 6

before you delete anything, make sure you don't have any malware/spyware and double check for viruses. then check to see if you have the maximum amount of RAM for your pc. then do a disk cleanup and defrag the hard drive. if you don't see any difference then you can start to remove programs, et al.

Answer 7

Go on google and look for ccleaner its free too and will decrap your pc