Best way to clean a PC

[Eminem]

By clean I don't mean physical cleaning. I mean the HD. My PC suddenly slowed down tremendously and I have been taking lots of steps to sort it out...I performed the following tasks:

Registry Cleaner
Spyware Scan
Virus Scan
Cleared History + Cookies

Will do:

Defrag it.
Clear out temp files.

I also used Msconfig to sort out the startup programs...Any other tips will be helpful.

Thanks.

[ebittner]

Delete all downloaded files or put them on disks that will free up memory and speed you should try that.

[Eminem]

Not planning to do that soon. I am at the moment defragging my PC. I did a Error Check on my HD before that which took about 1.5 hours and Defragment will surely take me 5-8 hours. Lets hope it gets better by tomorrow.

Thanks for your suggestion though.

[biophase]

I just reformat and reload. It sucks but it's either that or get a new computer.

[John]

I agree with a reinstall being the best method. Sometimes viruses or spyware programs download and install all sorts of hidden junk on your computer.

Better than reinstalling, though, would be to make a backup image of your hard drive after you have everything reinstalled and updated. Then if anything happens that requires a reinstall all you need to do is restore your hard drive from the backup image, which saves a great deal of time. Basically the same as reinstalling but a lot more convenient.

[biophase]

Originally Posted by John

I agree with a reinstall being the best method. Sometimes viruses or spyware programs download and install all sorts of hidden junk on your computer.

Better than reinstalling, though, would be to make a backup image of your hard drive after you have everything reinstalled and updated. Then if anything happens that requires a reinstall all you need to do is restore your hard drive from the backup image, which saves a great deal of time. Basically the same as reinstalling but a lot more convenient.

Definitely make a backup. I just don't want to go Vista so I'm trying real hard so I've been doing this alot with my XP computers to keep them going.

[Steven Perry]

I had a virus attack to my PC and I reinstalled my OS and now it is so slow that I can't get the work done.

[Sammy]

You've done most of the task how to clean up you computer, but try to delete all your temporary download internet files and do clean up your cookies too.

[casey]

This is also bugging my computer. How can I remove totally an old version of msword and other programs? I did all possible remedy but still it's there in my system. only a few were removed...huhummmm

[gunther]

You could run the diskcleanup with CCleaner, its an excellent program. Also defrag your MFT and Page File if required, you may need to get a third party defragger like Diskeeper for that though.
Make sure all Microsoft security updates are applied.