Filed under: Windows Repair Software
What can I do to optimize my mom's computer? She's running Vista and is not technically inclined at all…?
September 7, 2010
2 thoughts on “What can I do to optimize my mom's computer? She's running Vista and is not technically inclined at all…?”
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Clean Registry and Optimize PC
I would stay with Norton only that will give you plenty of protection. Using to many anti virus programs is not good one is fine. To make Vista run more smoothly just use the defrag and disc clean up that’s already on there under accessories and use them often. Vista has a bunch of bugs that basically shut down the programs and then restart them again and other little stuff like that. If Vista starts working really bad do a full reinstall from the recovery center under the Start menu and under Programs you should find a file to get started doing a full recovery. BACK UP ALL IMPORTANT FILES FIRST!!! before doing a full recovery and disconnect all peripherals then do a full recovery. Mostly though a full recovery won’t help much unless you have huge problems then it will help. There are some programs that will clean up everything on Vista for you but I wouldn’t bother just use what Vista already has on it. And don’t load a ton of outside extra programs onto Vista because Vista just can’t take it your computer will freeze and do all kinds of weird things.
I wouldn’t use Norton or Auslogics or any registry cleaner, if I were you.
Assuming you have no hardware issues, do this:
(1) Run a FULL anti-virus scan with a good virus scanner. Use the latest virus definitions file. I suggest AVG8 Free or Avast Free.
(2) Run anti-spyware scans with Spybot S&D and malwarebytes.
(3) Ensure all Microsoft security updates are applied.
(4) Run diskcleanup using the in-built windows utility to delete old temp files and other junk
(5) Run a thorough disk defrag. Use a good defragmenter for this, and also run a boot-time defrag to fix the MFT and page file if they are fragmented. You can check out Diskeeper 2009, which is widely acknowledged to be the best defragger around. Their website has free 30-day trial versions http://www.diskeeper.com so you can use it even if you don’t have the $ to buy it.
(6) Disable unnecessary background processes and services that take up memory.
(7) Make sure all the hardware components have the latest and most stable drivers. Video card performance in particular is strongly dependent on drivers.
Good Luck!