PC Cleaner

This is what I do to keep my computer from slowing down without reinstalling the OS. From most to least important.

• Go to the startup tab in msconfig and lookup every program there that has a checkmark next to it. Disable all programs from starting that you do not want to start when windows starts. I only have my antivirus, audio program, and GPU programs running.

• Open services.msc and look up every entry. Decide what services you want/need to run when windows starts and set them to auto. Set the rest to manual or disabled depending on if you want them to run when they are needed or if you want them to never run. Warning: This can cause instability of your computer if you disable the wrong services. Make sure you do research on exactly what each service does before disabling it. Also, before disabling a service, double click the service and look in the dependencies tab to see if another service depends on that one running to work.

• On all my browsers, I clear all temp files, history, cookies, site preferences, and anything else I have the option for at least once a day. Only takes a couple seconds.

• About once a year I run CCleaner and only use the registry cleaner.

• I created a batch file to delete all the temporary folders on my computer, all the garbage stored by flash that doesn't get removed when you delete all your internet history and files, and old windows updates. I only run this about once a month. This is more of a privacy thing, but it probably helps keep the computer clean too. I always restart my computer after running this and then you have to reset any flash options you have like turning off hardware acceleration, auto updates, disabling P2P. These directories are for windows XP and some of them will be dependent on your user name. Research what these folders are used before you decide to empty them. This is my batch file:

RD /Q /S "C:\WINDOWS\Temp"
MD "C:\WINDOWS\Temp"

RD /Q /S "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp"
MD "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp"

RD /Q /S "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player#SharedObjects"
MD "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player#SharedObjects"

RD /Q /S "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys"
MD "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys"

RD /Q /S "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Recent"
MD "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Recent"

RD /Q /S "C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download"
MD "C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download"

• I personally like to disable the indexing service on all drives and then turn the service off completely.

• I disable all auto updates of every program on my computer and only do updates manually when I want to. This includes all programs, browser add-ons, windows updates, and even anti-virus. I also disable all anti-virus scans except for the one that checks each program as I open it. I do windows updates about once a year and virus definitions updates about every 6 months. Yeah i'm crazy, I'm still running AVG free 2012 and firefox 17.0.1, lol.

• You can go into system properties, advanced tab, performance settings and disable all the stuff you don't want. I only have a few checked: translucent selection, show contents while dragging, smooth edges of fonts, and visual styles on windows and buttons.

• You can open the task manager and look through all the processes running to make sure there is nothing hogging resources or malicious programs running. It can take a while to research and learn what all the processes are, but once you know, it will be easy to spot something you don't recognize.

This is all I can think of right now. I'm still running the same install of Windows for about 3 years now and it feels just as fast as when I installed it.

I use CCleaner + refresh windows. I don't mind refresh because I have windows files on a separate SSD and I really don't lose a whole lot doing a refresh, just system files. If you only have 1 hard drive then this is a lot more serious.

I would recommend reinstalling everything and starting clean. After that make a system clone with Symanthec Ghost , it;s like a save game. Once you screw things up you can use that clone and load the system into the state it was when the clone has been made. If you use this method make sure you make the clone for the disk where windows is in. It takes 2-5 mins to load the clone. It's really useful ;D

I used Advanced System Care for a while, until I decided that Iobit was doing more damage with all this constant "helping" than it could possibly be helping. I read around a little, found that it is widely unloved, and uninstalled it, and everything has been perfectly stable since. The amount of effort involved in doing a full uninstall of ASC, without any bits left behind to make sure that I actually meant to uninstall it and wouldn't I like to put it back again, convinced me that it was at best an irritation, and not actually a cleaning tool in the spirit of cleaning tools.

CCleaner is the only tool I use at the moment, apart from MBAM and the like to check for infection.

I use Advanced System Care Pro and it works good for me.
Also CCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti Malware for scanning.

To be honest, after I realize that my pc is full of garbage, I just reinstall windows (but yea CCCleaner is probably all you need).

I use CCleaner & Super Anti Spyware for scanning. SAS looks like one of those fakeAV programs, but it's really one of the best malware cleanup utilities that I've used, I'd even put it ahead of Malwarebytes.

http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html