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re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:46 am Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE (7132 messages posted) Stick with what worked before--backup and offload your data then reformat again. This time, make two viewable user accounts, one Computer Administrator and one Limited User. Log on with the LU account for doing your daily computing and only use the CA account for tasks that require admin privileges on the system. This will be very effective in controlling malicious programs, which it sounds like might be a source of your slowdowns. If funds improve, change hard disk drive from the stock 4200 or 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive for the biggest improvement in how responsive it will feel. If funds improve further, add RAM to 1GB if supported. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 10:37 am Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) You might also take a read here: www.blackviper.com On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:09 am, PaulB wrote: >This might seem like an obvious request. > >I have a laptop (fairly dated as you will see by the specs) > >It has become progressively slower over the time I have used it since reformatting >XP (through a shop) some 10 months ago. > >After the reformat it was lightning fast but has got to such a state of sluggishness >that I am pulling my hair out! > >With the economy being what it is buying a new one isn't an option, nor is adding >more RAM > >So instead of adding more lanes to the highway to ease traffic congestion, I would >like to make the traffic flow more effecient (if you get the analogy?) > >The hard ware I am stuck with is a 1.66 gig Centrino Dual Core Pentium 4 with a 50 >gig hard drive which still has 15 gig free and 504 megs of Ram > >It used to be fast and I would love to get it back there. > >Two clues are that the HD light is almost always on and the system runs fairly hot >and as a result the processor fan is always on. > >There seem to be a lot of registry repair/scan software tools out there but as mentioned >before funds are tight. > >Now I have reduced everyone to tears/boredom/laughter.... > >Please can someone help? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:54 am Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) Paul, I usually don't refer Posters to the Computer Shop but if you rely on them for a simple Reformat/reinstall, I suggest you take it to the shop to analyze the problems you described. It could be that your laptop just needs to be cleaned of all the accumilated dust from years of use. Overheating can be Death to laptops, and can cause significant slowdowns lik you're experiencing. I would further advise you to avoid Registry Tools in general, and especially the Pay-for-Play variety. There are better FREEWARE versions available but they are not for the Faint-of-heart when it comes to doing your own System Maintenance. Using a Registry Tool requires that you have the experience to recognize what the Software is doing and the ability to recognize what is safe to remove and what will cause problems. Here is a FREEWARE tool that, except for the Registry Tool, is Safe to run . http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ Install and Run CCleaner (not the Registry Tool) and see if your Stem runs any faster. This Program is highly regarded by lots of Volunteers on Help Forums, I run it weekly and have never had any problems with it. It will clear out all the Trash that Windows saves-up over time. Ram for your Laptop should be fairly cheap on the Used Market. Craigslist is a good local source or check with your local Shop. you should be able to get another 512mb Sodimm for $10 to $20, maybe even 1GB. Be sure you know exactly what your LT can use. Go to; http://www.crucial.com/# Run the System scanner to find out what is compatible and the cost of new SODIMMs. Use the part # & specifications to find used RAM and avoid getting ripped off in the used Market. BTW Faster HDD's creat more heat. Only One of the reasons 5400RPM drives are used in Laptops. BW On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:09 am, PaulB wrote: >This might seem like an obvious request. > >I have a laptop (fairly dated as you will see by the specs) > >It has become progressively slower over the time I have used it since reformatting >XP (through a shop) some 10 months ago. > >After the reformat it was lightning fast but has got to such a state of sluggishness >that I am pulling my hair out! > >With the economy being what it is buying a new one isn't an option, nor is adding >more RAM > >So instead of adding more lanes to the highway to ease traffic congestion, I would >like to make the traffic flow more effecient (if you get the analogy?) > >The hard ware I am stuck with is a 1.66 gig Centrino Dual Core Pentium 4 with a 50 >gig hard drive which still has 15 gig free and 504 megs of Ram > >It used to be fast and I would love to get it back there. > >Two clues are that the HD light is almost always on and the system runs fairly hot >and as a result the processor fan is always on. > >There seem to be a lot of registry repair/scan software tools out there but as mentioned >before funds are tight. > >Now I have reduced everyone to tears/boredom/laughter.... > >Please can someone help? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 12:46 pm Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) A good idiom about, registry repair/scan software tools. A fool and his money are soon parted. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 1:03 pm Posted by Adam Bradley (8787 messages posted) On speed problems registry cleaners and defrag (not mentioned yet but you might get that tip) are snake oil and near worthless respectively so pay no mind to either of them. A common belief is that a system looses performance just by being old, while it is true to a small degree (little errors do build up over time) a well maintained system can run for many years without any noticeable speed problems. Look at any programs you have installed over time and see if any have background programs, a few is not a problem but they can be a big impact as they add up. The link to black viper is a good one, like background programs services can add up. Give the CCleaner a run, it will clear out your temp files and run some malware scanners to as that can be a cause of slowdowns. Not really much you can to about dust on a laptop past opening blowing air on the fan vents to break it up, worth a try at least. On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:09 am, PaulB wrote: >This might seem like an obvious request. > >I have a laptop (fairly dated as you will see by the specs) > >It has become progressively slower over the time I have used it since reformatting >XP (through a shop) some 10 months ago. > >After the reformat it was lightning fast but has got to such a state of sluggishness >that I am pulling my hair out! > >With the economy being what it is buying a new one isn't an option, nor is adding >more RAM > >So instead of adding more lanes to the highway to ease traffic congestion, I would >like to make the traffic flow more effecient (if you get the analogy?) > >The hard ware I am stuck with is a 1.66 gig Centrino Dual Core Pentium 4 with a 50 >gig hard drive which still has 15 gig free and 504 megs of Ram > >It used to be fast and I would love to get it back there. > >Two clues are that the HD light is almost always on and the system runs fairly hot >and as a result the processor fan is always on. > >There seem to be a lot of registry repair/scan software tools out there but as mentioned >before funds are tight. > >Now I have reduced everyone to tears/boredom/laughter.... > >Please can someone help? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 1:42 pm Posted by C K (6910 messages posted) Some things to look at: Running to hot, with fans increased in speed, your machine may be throttling the CPU down to keep it from cooking. This will slow your machine to a crawl. Three big things can cause this: 1) More processes going on as software is loaded and the load for the hardware is to great. Higher the load on the processor, the more heat it produces. (see #3 below) Possible malware activity also. 2) Your machine's HDD is running in PIO mode and this can keep the HDD activity almost constant thereby slowing your machine to a crawl which increases the load on the CPU, causing more heat. ( go into the device manager and look at the IDE channels to see if they are running PIO or DMA). 3) Your CPU heatsink is becoming clogged so that the CPU can't cool, thereby throttling your CPU down. They generally reduce speed in 25% increments, slowing your machine down. You can use this utility to watch the speed of the CPU to see if it is throttling down when the speed is slower: http://cpu.rightmark.org/ It works on most systems I have used it on. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 2:21 pm Posted by MartinM (7551 messages posted) A few things to add to the excellent responses you already have: 1. Run it in Safe Mode. If its back to "lightning speed" then the main issue is bloat (additional programs and services running at startup time). If not then you may have some hardware issues (eg overheating). 2. In the circumstances the format/reinstall Windows approach may well be appropriate. After you do this, put the OS on to a partition on its own. Then take an image with Acronis and you can then return to this pristine OS state whenever you like without disturbing your data. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 8:27 pm Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) I have to disagree, Steve. I've been using 2-3 different registry cleaners on a weekly basis for more than ten years now, and I've never experienced anything but positive effects, including (most noticeably) improved boot times, and the elimination of spurious error messages arising from uninstalled software remnants. On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 12:46 pm, Steve wrote: >A good idiom about, registry repair/scan software tools. > >A fool and his money are soon parted. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:13 pm Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) Would you care to enlighten us, as to which ones? The few that I've tried have not done a thing. And I'm always game to try new products as long as they are not overpriced. For these products, most of them give you a terribly crippled version which doesn't give you any idea if the product works or not, and you have to fork out money and hope for the best. I'm reluctant to gamble that way. On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 8:27 pm, Alan Masterman wrote: >I have to disagree, Steve. I've been using 2-3 different registry cleaners on a >weekly basis for more than ten years now, and I've never experienced anything but >positive effects, including (most noticeably) improved boot times, and the elimination >of spurious error messages arising from uninstalled software remnants. > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:53 pm Posted by ksiemb (22 messages posted) I also have been using a registry scan/repair tool since the days of Win98 Thru XP. And I have used it on Multiple Computers, with Positive Results. Some Systems I have scanned have had over 1000 Registry Errors. What I like about it is that it has default settings (for the Novice) and advanced settings, if you know what you are doing in the System Registry. In addition it has a backup/defrag/restore of the Registry, just in case you need to goback. I believe the price is around $20 in todays Market. Will withhold Vendor Name til I know it is ok to Post it. Don't want to be chastized for Advertising a Peoduct ! On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 8:27 pm, Alan Masterman wrote: >I have to disagree, Steve. I've been using 2-3 different registry cleaners on a >weekly basis for more than ten years now, and I've never experienced anything but >positive effects, including (most noticeably) improved boot times, and the elimination >of spurious error messages arising from uninstalled software remnants. > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 6:13 am Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) Just a placebo effect. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 6:27 am Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) There is no issue with recommending a brand name, it's done all of the time here. The only time it's not acceptable is when it is totally unsolicited, it is then run of the mill spam. On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:53 pm, ksiemb wrote: > >I also have been using a registry scan/repair tool since the days of Win98 Thru XP. >And I have used it on Multiple Computers, with Positive Results. Some Systems I have >scanned have had over 1000 Registry Errors. What I like about it is that it has default >settings (for the Novice) and advanced settings, if you know what you are doing in >the System Registry. In addition it has a backup/defrag/restore of the Registry, >just in case you need to goback. I believe the price is around $20 in todays Market. >Will withhold Vendor Name til I know it is ok to Post it. Don't want to be chastized >for Advertising a Peoduct ! > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 6:29 am Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) I suspect that you are right. On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 6:13 am, Steve wrote: >Just a placebo effect. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 7:52 am Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) Errors don't mean anything. You can run a Registry Cleaner right after doing a Clean Install of Windows, and get a report of a thousand errors. Why would Microsoft preinstall all those errors if it was detrimental. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 8:12 am Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) I'll bite on that one, why would they ship software that has so many errors? ;) On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 7:52 am, Steve wrote: >Errors don't mean anything. You can run a Registry Cleaner right after doing a Clean >Install of Windows, and get a report of a thousand errors. Why would Microsoft preinstall >all those errors if it was detrimental. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 8:42 am Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) I guess it boils down to how a error is defined in the world of Windows. :) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 10:18 am Posted by ksiemb (22 messages posted) It is understood there "May be" some unscrupulous vendors out there that want you to scan using their product, and possibly, just possibly come up with results that scare a person into buying the product. The errors I am referring to are all the left over entries in the registry when deleting or moving files year after year. Say what you will, but getting rid of those entries and defragging the Registry does make a difference. On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 7:52 am, Steve wrote: >Errors don't mean anything. You can run a Registry Cleaner right after doing a Clean >Install of Windows, and get a report of a thousand errors. Why would Microsoft preinstall >all those errors if it was detrimental. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 11:15 am Posted by Ricer46 (23825 messages posted) I've done that before and saw no noticeable change in performance. On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 10:18 am, ksiemb wrote: > >It is understood there "May be" some unscrupulous vendors out there that want you >to scan using their product, and possibly, just possibly come up with results that >scare a person into buying the product. >The errors I am referring to are all the left over entries in the registry when deleting > or moving files year after year. Say what you will, but getting rid of those entries >and defragging the Registry does make a difference. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 11:53 am Posted by Adam Bradley (8787 messages posted) Registry cleaners are snake oil, unused entries in the registry are just that, unused. Not called by or used by anything, you can get rid of them but it makes as much sense as getting a perfectly fine appendix removed. If those errors are causing problems it is a whole different matter but doing it just because is a waste of time at best. On Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 10:18 am, ksiemb wrote: > >It is understood there "May be" some unscrupulous vendors out there that want you >to scan using their product, and possibly, just possibly come up with results that >scare a person into buying the product. >The errors I am referring to are all the left over entries in the registry when deleting > or moving files year after year. Say what you will, but getting rid of those entries >and defragging the Registry does make a difference. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 1:11 pm Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) On the rare occasion a Registry Entry can cause a problem, and be fixed with regedit, or a registry tool, but regularly Registry cleaning is waste of time, and can and does cause serious problems for some users. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Friday, October 9, 2009 at 7:37 am Posted by PaulB (7 messages posted) I just want to thank you all for the huge response which has offered varying opinions as to the value of registry cleaners and system maintenance. You have all help increase my knowledge base and I have seen some improvements in general speed through applying some of the different reccomendations! Thanks again Much appreciated Paulb On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:09 am, PaulB wrote: >This might seem like an obvious request. > >I have a laptop (fairly dated as you will see by the specs) > >It has become progressively slower over the time I have used it since reformatting >XP (through a shop) some 10 months ago. > >After the reformat it was lightning fast but has got to such a state of sluggishness >that I am pulling my hair out! > >With the economy being what it is buying a new one isn't an option, nor is adding >more RAM > >So instead of adding more lanes to the highway to ease traffic congestion, I would >like to make the traffic flow more effecient (if you get the analogy?) > >The hard ware I am stuck with is a 1.66 gig Centrino Dual Core Pentium 4 with a 50 >gig hard drive which still has 15 gig free and 504 megs of Ram > >It used to be fast and I would love to get it back there. > >Two clues are that the HD light is almost always on and the system runs fairly hot >and as a result the processor fan is always on. > >There seem to be a lot of registry repair/scan software tools out there but as mentioned >before funds are tight. > >Now I have reduced everyone to tears/boredom/laughter.... > >Please can someone help? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Friday, October 9, 2009 at 9:41 am Posted by MartinM (7551 messages posted) Just one more: From time-to-time, delete everything in Windows/prefetch. This will shorten yoru boot time and, if you are low-ish on memory, may increase speed generally. Oh, and and I'll add my opnion that Registry Cleaners are snake oil and the fact that, if your OS is running on NTFS, defragmentation can only make a miniscule difference to performance. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 6:14 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) Steve, My apologies for the delayed response. I tend to forget where I've posted messages. My first positive result was back in the days of Win98SE (which, you may remember, was notorious for its shutdown problems). At that time I began running Registry Mechanic 98 (did I get the name right?), and that solved the shutdown problems. Another time related to a certain download accelerator program (no names mentioned, but its initials happen to be DAP) which I installed and set as my default download manager. Later I uninstalled it, after which, whenever I tried to download anything, I got the waving flashlight and the message "Windows is trying to locate... " result: a minute or two wasted, and no download. This was solved by registry cleaning, but I can't remember now by which program. Then there was the network printer which was removed, but my computer wasn't aware of it. When I booted up it would search for the printer until the network protocol timed out, which, as you know, would have added about a minute to every boot time. This one was solved by WinASO Registry Optimizer. I reckon a lot of the confusion about registry cleaning is caused by the software vendors themselves, who usually imply that their products will improve performance by "reducing registry bloat". This is misleading, and they do themselves no service by advertising in this fashion. In fact any product which advertises itself in this way is probably a good one to avoid, because they clearly don't understand the issues. Even in a system which is neglected for years, bad registry entries will seldom amount to more than 1% of the total. So reducing that "bloat" is really not going to make any detectable difference to performance. The real value of cleaning is in the quality (not the quantity) of the entries it deletes. I've written about this in other forums and I hesitate to go over it all again, but one [trivial] example will suffice. Your registry might contain information relating to a music CD which you played last month (and perhaps will never play again). What could be more harmless or trivial? Well, not much, except that in principle that information could be read by malware, which will transmit it back to its home server, thus allowing you to be targetted by spam tailored more accurately to your interests (and PS, if you were thinking that Microsoft Security Essentials or your Vista firewall would prevent that, think again - they won't even try. Fortunately, a few third-party programs will, including ZoneAlarm and Threatfire). Spam doesn't rank highest in the scale of security threats. But you get my point. My recommendations? By all means avoid using freeware registry cleaners which nobody has ever heard of. And if the author boasts that it has been written in C for greater efficiency, consider yourself warned!!! Use only brand-name cleaners which have a proven track record and are free for personal use (eg Advanced SystemCare; Glary Utilities; Registry Mechanic). I'm afraid that in a decade of registry cleaning, I've yet to come across any of the lurid examples of wholesale system destruction which the doomsayers prophesy about. If you really like living on the edge, try running deep security scans of your system by anti-virus programs, and delete all the trojans they think they have found... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:57 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) And my apologies to YOU, Ricer!! I leaped in and made my response without registering the fact that it wasn't Steve I was talking to - sorry about that. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:03 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) It's not a question of "pre-installed" errors - but it's important to remember that, until DotNet takes over completely, absolutely everything that happens in Windows is governed by the registry (which is a hangover from the same mindset that gave us DOS.INI). Installing any version of Windows is a complex operation, and it is mainly controlled by temporary registry entries, many of which are not properly cleaned up after the installation is complete. The same applies with fragmentation. After a supposedly clean instal, why will so many defrag programs report that your disc is badly fragmented? Of course, it's because of all the temp files which were created and deleted during various stages of the installation, leaving awkward gaps between the final-instal files. I don't want to be controversial here - but a clean instal is not 100% clean until you have carried out full optimisation and registry cleaning. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:16 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) I agree with ksiemb here - one thing you definitely DON'T want to do is, agree to a free scan from any and every web page you visit. At best, they want to sell you something which may or may not work as well as they claim. At worst... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:25 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) Come on Steve, you can't be seriously suggesting that it's a good thing to use Regedit to make manual registry changes, on the recommendation of what some stranger says on the internet? I mean, at least the better registry cleaners are using failsafe algorithms. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:30 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) Sorry guys, that doesn't cut it. Where are your arguments? Where are your data? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:36 am Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) Martin, you disappoint me!!! What's the use of saying that "in my opinion, registry cleaners are snake oil", unless you have some sort of evidence or data to back that up???????????????? You and I both know that merely saying so is not worth chicken shit. You have got to present something at least remotely resembling evidence to support your judgement. If you can't, you are no different to those jokers on talkback radio who are given their thirty seconds to inflict their half-baked prejudices on the rest of us! Come on guys, we are supposed to be talking computer science here - if you can't support your opinion with evidence, feel free to keep it to yourself. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10:58 am Posted by MartinM (7551 messages posted) Well, I didn't want to load the post with all the information I have. But your challenge is fair, so here's a brief summary: 1. I spent 10 years as the CIO of a global corporation responsible among all the other things for stable, secure desktop computing. Since retiring, sad to say, my abiding interest in how PCs work has led to me working on a very large number of XP PCs to fix problems and to help with advanced user-stuff (like writing databases and that sort of thing). Those are the two reasons for my exposure to and thinking about Registry "cleaners". 2. In all my professional employment, I did not come across one major corporation which had Registry "cleaners" in its armoury. 3. From time to time it seems to me (I am being very careful here) that problems with XP's registry have been caused by the use of a Registry "cleaner". Admittedly some of these are scam applications, but others are not. After I've fixed the issues (sometimes a System Restore will do it when I'm lucky, other times its much more difficult), on at least 5 occasions in the last 3 years as far as I remember, I have been able to reproduce the issue by running the "cleaner". 4. I have never (another word I use carefully) come across a situation where a problem (by which I mean something that the user was experiencing, not what a "cleaner" reports as a problem) has been fixed by using a "cleaner". I have experimented with this to assure myself, but I no longer do so as I did not fix anthing this way. 5. Try running one of these applications on a fresh install of XP. I've tried this on several occasions and using different "cleaners". I've seen between 50 and 1,500 issues reported. Something is surely amiss here ? Now on to analysis rather than evidence: 6. XP does a pretty good job of keeping its Registry in shape. Certinaly much better than W98. 7. Unused Registry entries (which are the vast majority of what "cleaners" identify) are harmless and do not measurably affect performance. The Registry is loaded into memory and access to it is extremely fast - it has to be as nowadays pretty well every application, and Windows, are referring to/updating it all the time. 8. By no means all applications conform to MS's standards for Registry use - where they are defined - and in areas where they are not defined (lots of those) software providers are free to do what they like . . . and certainly do. Therefore I think it it pretty unlikely that a Registry "cleaner" could know about how every application is using the Registry, and about every combination of installations and user settings. So: 9. I have not seen Registry "cleaners" do any good. 10. I have seen occasional examples of Registry "cleaners" doing harm. 11. For me, the theory of Registry cleaning is flawed. 12. Again for me, the idea of "cleaning" a whole registry rather than tracking down the miscreant and fixing it (and it often turns out not to be a Registry issue - look through the posts in this forum for a rough view of the proportion) is wrong. My own conclusion is that it is unwise to encourage users to use Registry "cleaners. I was careful to say "in my opinion" in my previous post, because I know that that's all it is. It is not a "fact" but I have enough experience around these applications to dare to state it, in the hope of helping others to avoid the worst that I have seen and to be headed for no benefit thagt I can identify. Footnote. There are those - and I may be among them - who have an innate sense of tidiness and to whom Registry cleaning and Disk defragmentation are intellectually appealling. Either are fine as long as you have recently taken a full iamge backup. But that is hardly useful or practical advice to the average user who - by the evidence of this forum and my own eyes, often does not back up anything at all. LoL PS If you are arguing that Registry "cleaners" are both safe and effective (they have to be both, to be worthwhile), where's your evidence (other than the application itself telling you it has fixed nnnn isses) ? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:35 pm Posted by Adam Bradley (8787 messages posted) In addition to Martin's very finely written post I would add you are taking the word of a program that sells itself on finding errors and "fixing" them over the experience of people who have seen the results. Experienced observation is infinitely better evidence than some program's claim to justify its own reason to exist. On Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:36 am, Alan Masterman wrote: >Martin, you disappoint me!!! What's the use of saying that "in my opinion, registry >cleaners are snake oil", unless you have some sort of evidence or data to back that >up???????????????? >You and I both know that merely saying so is not worth chicken shit. You have got >to present something at least remotely resembling evidence to support your judgement. > If you can't, you are no different to those jokers on talkback radio who are given >their thirty seconds to inflict their half-baked prejudices on the rest of us! >Come on guys, we are supposed to be talking computer science here - if you can't >support your opinion with evidence, feel free to keep it to yourself. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Speed up general operation of XP Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 9:13 pm Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) what stranger [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum