Need to try and speed my pc up

CCleaner

Both CCleaner and Defraggler from Piriform are excellent pieces of free software.

Ccleaner +1

Ccleaner.

Ok.

Point the first. Your PC isn’t dirty, so doesn’t require ‘cleaning’. CCleaner above is reasonable at getting rid of temp files (though I prefer TFC myself), but it’s not going to make your PC any faster. Most products which claim to “clean” your registry etc are snake oil at best, and some have the potential to do widespread damage.

Point the second. You need to tell us a bit about what you’ve got and what symptoms you’re seeing, and then we can advise accordingly. What’s the PC spec, what version of Windows, has it got slower over time, suddenly, always been slow? Are you getting other symptoms you can’t explain?

My PC is FILTHY! 😉 😳 😐

Pc spec..
Old Dell Dimensions 3000
Celeron 2.66ghz cpu
1GB Ram
150GB HD with about half used
Windows xp
Gradually slower over time

Oh and its prob got Filthy bits in it some where 😉

My PC is FILTHY!

Well yes, but that’s a different issue. (-:

Pc spec..

Ok. First thing I’d do is have a look in Control Panel / Add Remove Programs and uninstall anything you’re not using. Pay particular attention to anything that pertains to be a “toolbar”. Anything you’re not sure about, ask.

What anti-virus / security software are you using?

Couger
Control Panel / Add Remove Programs and uninstall anything
ah yes I do this from time to time ….last time it borked the pc and cost money to get it fixed 😳

Avg 2012

Personally i’d bin AVG and get MSE instead. Its pretty resource hungry these days.

CougAr.

last time it borked the pc and cost money to get it fixed

The step you missed then was,

Anything you’re not sure about, ask.

… though TBH, there was probably something wrong with it to start with.

Avg 2012

That’s probably your problem, right there. The free one, presumably? I’d suggest changing it for Microsoft Security Essentials, it’ll run better on an older PC. Before we do that though, I’d recommend making sure you’ve not got anything nasty on there.

Download MBAM, install it, let it update and then run a quick scan. If it finds anything, make sure it saves a log file.

Assuming that’s clean, do an online scan with ESET.

Let us know how you get on.

*coughs*

*coughs*

Sounds like you might have a virus there mate.

(simultaneous edits; you posted whilst I was typing)

Our cleaner tells jokes about ‘darkies’, so I guess he’s out.

Loads faster now thanks Guys 😆
*runs off to try it on ageing laptop now*

That was kinda ‘step 1’, but, ok then. Glad you’re sorted.

ooh there’s a step 2…..???? 😐

Depends. Can you recap what you’ve done so far?

Download MBAM, install it, let it update and then run a quick scan. If it finds anything, make sure it saves a log file.

Assuming that’s clean, do an online scan with ESET…..this and got rid of AVG and installed MSE instead.

Right. Did ESET / MBAM find anything?

No it was clean

Excellent.

The other thing that could make a big difference is uninstalling crap you don’t use which loads on startup, but you said you were reticent to do that.

Couple of further tweaks you can do. Get TFC and run it. (Close anything you’ve got open first.)

Defrag your disk. Right-click your C:\ drive, Properties, Tools, Defragment.

Looks like my laptop has worms though .. 😯

I do a disc defrag and delete temp internet files every now and then.

I will get TFC and try it next

thanks Cougar

great “cleaners” but probably not very PC