Computer Cleanup

Can anyone tell me the best free easy to use program to clean my comp and scan and clear viruses? I am willing to spend money, my laptop is starting to decrease in speed, when i load it, it takes a significant amount of time that usual.
Thanks

 

I would download Avast. Get all the updates. Schedule a boot time scan.

To keep from having to babysit it, change the boot time scan options to automatically move files to quarantine and allow delete or move system files. Reboot and come back in 20 mins or so.

otherwise you have to sit there and manually accept each virus found.

 

Also, when you first start the program, tell it no when it wants to schedule a boot time scan. Get all the updates and reboot first.

 

to clean it you could use ccleaner, its good at removing all the crap from your computer...hence c(for crap)cleaner

go here then click on "download latest version" in the upper right hand corner

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

 

Ccleaner, AVG, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware. Then run Bootvis.

 

please be more specific, website which to download?
I am new to this. Thank you.

 

Here are the links (this is assuming Windows XP, btw). Everything here is free :

Spyware Cleaners = A combination of Ad Aware and Spybot S&D will keep you free of spyware, just download them and run them weekly.

Antivirus - AVG is considered one of the best free anti-virus scanners out there.

Registry Cleaner - Ccleaner will clean up old registry entries which will affect your load times.

Speed-up boot - Bootvis will scan your startup programs and arange them efficiently to load up programs and the OS the fastest way possible.

I'm not aware of any one free software suite that will take care of everything. A combination of different freeware is usually the best you can do, but they are very effective, nonetheless.

 

I downloaded Ad aware and AVG and updated it.Both seem very similiar programs? whats the difference? Now all i need to download is Bootvis. Is it worth downloading?
thanks for all your help man.

 

Ad Aware is a spyware cleaner, AVG is anti- virus program, 2 different types of threats.

As for Bootvis, I've had a lot of success w/it but whether or not you want to use it is up to you. Not really necessary unless your boot-up times are extremely slow. It does work, though.

 

for adware it saids i have 19 critical objects, should i click quarantine? is this to delete?

 

uhh this may be a stupid question but, how do you use bootvis? i downloaded it for my mom's slow, old computer and i have no idea how u use this software

 

Yes, put them in Quarantine. It will encrypt them and they can not harm your computer. Usually after a couple weeks if my computer is running fine, then I would delete them.

 

Thanks, for some reason everytime i scan, the program always manages to find critical objects? is my comp loaded with viruses?

 

If you are talking about Ad-Aware, it also picks up cookies as "critical objects".

 

bootvis is for MS XP.

 

Look into Registry Mechanic. That programs cleans up your registry so it doesn't get clogged up and cause poor performance. There are other free registry cleaners out there too so do some googling or check out download.com for some legit ones. Ccleaner has a pretty decent registry cleaner built into it also.

 

BootVis is a boot performance trace visualization and optimization tool. This tool invokes the built-in Windows XP boot time optimization process when you run it, instead of waiting for it to be scheduled by Windows (roughly every three days and after the system has been idle 10 minutes). You will notice immediate improvement in boot performance for this reason. It is not necessary to run BootVis again unless something has been added or removed from the boot sequence (Drivers, Startup Applications ect...)

Instructions - Download and Run. In the menu go to "Trace", select "Next Boot and Driver Delays". A "Trace Repetitions" screen will appear, select "Ok" and Reboot. Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your system's boot process. When it's done, in the menu go to "Trace" and select "Optimize System" and Reboot. This time when your system comes up, wait until you see the "Optimizing System" box appear, continue to wait until the process is complete.

Notes - BootVis requires the following services be enabled and the system rebooted before using the "Optimize System" function:

- Task Scheduler - Automatic
- COM+ Event System - Automatic

 

I will suggest a good registry cleaner.I,personally,use CCleaner and JV16.PowerTools,the last one you have to pay for it, or "google" for a free edition. Autoruns is a free utility to display and control startup applications ,here is the link to it http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx .You can also check majorgeek.com for more freeware and BlackViper list of services.Good luck!