My 9-10 year old system had 16% space left until I dumped a bunch of audio and video files, plus tips I used from the Microsoft website to help clear a little more. Now I'm around a third of the space cleared. Yet my system still takes forever to boot up, and Firefox takes a long time too. I wondering if maybe I should uninstall Avast AV Free and Superantispyware since they may be taking up much resources. I was going to see if MSE and Spywareblaster were lighter on resources? I also have Private Firewall and Malwarebytes loaded on just to let you know. I've also done regular defrags as well as reboot defrag, but I'm not sure registry cleaning is the wisest move. Any thoughts? Thank you.
It doesn't matter what AV you use or don't use as computer that old is very lucky to be working still.
Cudni is right. For some people, a new computer isn't really a priority because of all the other financial obligations in life. Also, some times people feel like they can get by with their old computers until they are able to afford a new one. However, the technology changes and improves so much that a computer that you thought was okay or even state-of-the-art 10 years agos is now actually totally out of date and obsolete.
Since 2003, I've been using Macecraft products without problems. Registry Cleaners are Not for the Naive/Inexperienced users who choose the most Aggressive Settings and then 'Select all' and 'Delete all' found entries. The same holds for Disk Cleaners: For example, I use DiskMax without a problem for about a year. Others have had problems with it, because they checked the most aggressive Cleaning Options.
I think that MSE is heavier than Avast, and SAS is better than SpywareBlaster. But as one already mentioned, run CCleaner so it can empty the temp-files and other junk. And after that you should feel that the PC have become a little quicker. BTW, how much RAM does the system have?
Some reg cleaners are safe. I have been using easycleaner and regvac (novice mode) FOREVER with no problems, mostly after major or multiple uninstalls, and I do find a noticable improvement in speed and responsiveness (sometimes). If you have had your computer for a long time and have installed and uninstalled a lot of software i would recommend using both of those programs. I also use them after malware removal. HOWEVER......I did learn the hard way that some are too agressive and will create problems. Two others: Glary Utilities, Tuneup Utilities I would also STRONGLY suggest that you look for and remove any leftover drivers (device manager/view/show hidden devices) and/or services from software you have previously had installed on your system. These can make a big difference if found and removed.
I've used CCleaner before and the thing I didn't get was there didn't seem to be a great deal of difference between that and the one already installed on my computer. The system has 384 MB of RAM.
Nothing leftover with drivers as far as I can see. However, there is one unknown device called "ROOT/NET/0000." I may try a different defragger just to see if that helps.
If you can afford it, you might want to get that figure up to around 1 GB. Check ebay. I found 512 MB of RDRAM (generally expensive through other channels) for $9.99 shipped on ebay.
With that small amount of RAM you really should not use more than one Real-time security app, since it's very likely that you will notice a performance hit if you run more than one at the same time. So the best you could do is to keep Avast as it's one of the lightest AV's, and/or perhaps upgrade the RAM to at lease 1GB.
I have a 9-year old Dell 4500 computer. It came with 256 MB. It became so slow, I "demoted" it to being used as a fax machine and backup. Recently, I upgraded it to 1 MB - the difference in speed is amazing. When I use it now for normal day-today stuff, it's as good as any other machine in our house.
In cases like this, I always suggest backing up (strictly necessary/important) data and re-install OS. You will notice the big improvement. As for the specs, if you are not planning to upgrade anytime soon, just get WinXP Pro, a free AV (a light one), SpywareBlaster (since it does not consume any resources) and I personally always use Iobit's ASC Free for optimization.
