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Vista Reg Cleaner
Teslan26
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ran a free sample of some computer speeder upper on my parents shitty Dell PC with vista. Turned out to be a registry cleaning tool.
It found over 6000 errors. Then cleaned 25 of them and demanded money.
I have XP myself, so was wondering if anyone could recommend a free one for vista? As it is their computer i am doubly worried about mistakes though, so a user-friendly and super safe one would be ideal.
Anyway, yeah, that was all.
It found over 6000 errors. Then cleaned 25 of them and demanded money.
I have XP myself, so was wondering if anyone could recommend a free one for vista? As it is their computer i am doubly worried about mistakes though, so a user-friendly and super safe one would be ideal.
Anyway, yeah, that was all.
Teslan26 on
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I use CCleaner
EDIT: I don't know if it's super safe. There are some advanced features I haven't touched. But out-of-the-box, it's registry scanner/cleaner seems to do the trick.
AKA, I just installed spyware/malware/crapware on my parents system.
Instead of claiming the computer is shitty, why not find out what the real problem is. Like possibly you or your parents installing lots of stupid shit that runs in the background and bogs the system down. Start by looking at Task Manager and seeing what the system resources look like and Googling all the crap running in the background. Then go through the process of removing stuff. Screwing around with the registry is the last thing a computer noob should ever do.
You hope.
I doubt it was spyware/malware due to the source. It by the same company as an anti Spam piece of software they were running. Ergo - if it was then they were already fucked.
Installing stupid shit? So far I installed WoW, but it has been failing to patch since 3.2 so will be removing that shortly. I also got them onto firefox, but Noscript made dad go nuts so that got removed.
They have (always keep) up to date kaspersky, and are clean.
I am not intending to screw around with their registry, was simply asking for a free tool to automate the process.
Thank you Nightslyr - will try that.
Yeah, NoScript is a bit unfriendly to casual users. Also, IIRC, its creator tried to do some sketchy/underhanded stuff a few months ago. Between the two, IMO it's not worth the hassle.
Ad Block Plus, on the other hand, is a great extension. If they haven't added it yet, they should.
CCleaner seems pretty okay, but do be aware that running a registry cleaner - any registry cleaner - automatically qualifies as "screwing around with their registry".
If you are concerned about PC performance, never run any free samples of anything. Also know that the days of dramatic performance improvements by running generic diagnostic tools are over. This isn't unpatched XP you're dealing with.
You can best squeeze out more performance by clearing out the Dell crapware and turning down graphics, like Aero (the real difficulty is making it look nonshitty, but it can be done). Beyond this, there is generally little that you can do. Of course, if you tell us precisely what is sluggish or nonresponsive you can get more precise help.
Yes, stupid shit. Mom and dad pop in a music cd and it prompts them to install some software to get access to special features. Surfing the internet and they get a pop-up about their computer having a virus and to click to run a scan. Extra smileys for their IM client. Plug-ins and extra bars in the web browser. Widgets to search for this or that, or grab info. Software for their camera, scanner, printer, fax, etc etc. Quick time, Real Player, multiple anti-virus/firewall/spy-checkers, etc. Stupid shit that likely is running all the time and bogs down systems but that the general public don't really realize. Thus they see an ad for a registry cleaner that talks about how this software will clean up your system and make it run faster. Now they have more stupid shit installed. And you say they sell an anti-spam software? lol, more shit and likely spyware/malware/adware. Just because they offer more products doesn't mean they are legit. I can program a 'registry cleaner' and post it on my website. I'm sure I can make it look like it is doing something legit that would fool the typical user, all the while it is searching for tax records, excel spreadsheets, address books, etc. Or redirecting ads in their web browser to companies paying me money to get them advertising hits.
Again, find the root of the problem and fix it. The problem is not the registry. Find what is loading in the background, determine if it is really necessary, remove unneeded items and reevaluate. If the system is still running slower than the user would like then consider adding memory to the system.
This problem has been largely eliminated with later Windows operating systems. XP running on NTFS should already shrug off registry fragmentation.
If you want to know more, consult the source of all Internets knowledge.
I lol'ed. Such a sadly familiar scenario...
Well, have gone home again, but before I left I changed the startup processes (through ccleaner - a nice function) so only the essentials load on boot up.
I am still running xp and was always told to keep the registry clean, I did not realise that was less relevant now.
Thank you.
http://www.revouninstaller.com/