Windows 7: "Must have" performance optimization programs?

Hi,

I'll be reinstalling Windows in a few days and was wondering what programs you suggest I should install to keep the system at peak performance from day one?

As of now I've been suggested CCleaner and Auslogics Disk Defrag.

What do you suggest?

CCleaner + Puran Defrag

Autoruns

I'm using Tuneup Utility 2012 .

It can even disable a program until you use it and shut it down after you finish ...keeps your pc fresh ..IMO

I got it for $30.00 , but you can try for 30 days free ..

Tune your pc the way you like then cancel it if you don't like to pay .

There are hundreds of millions of Win 7 PCs out there running well with NO added programs.

The built-in utilities work well.

I use CCleaner, but haven't noticed any improved performance compared to Disk Cleanup within Windows. Nevertheless, I continue to use it.

I think people use these programs mostly out of compulsion and obsession, rather than necessity or measurable improvement in performance. They feel "better" after using them and uncomfortable if they don't.

+1 for me.

I would add, if at all possible, get your system partition to 70% free space before the defrag. It's much faster and you can do it more often without leaving your PC idle(since the defrag done often, if only using "optimize directories" option, only takes about 15 minutes. If you let your system partition get close to 50% used, then it slows defragging way down.

Also unless you run a giant database or huge spreadsheets where you need to use nearly all your free drive space for virtual memory, you can usually predict how much swap file you're likely to ever use. As example my pagefile.sys is set to min 4 GB and max 4 GB. I turned off paging, defragged my drive, then turned paging back on with those settings. My page file never gets fragmented.

Use DTaskManager to get an idea how much page file is actually occupied. In my case I rarely use more than 300 MB so a 4 GB page file is more than I'll ever need.

For my part I have had very few problems with those computers that I run for example CCleaner from time to time on, but I see your point.

unless you have thousands of files a defragger wont really be necessary since windows does a good job already. Ccleaner is good, i use it. But some tech blogs are saying registry cleaners dont actually improve your pc... but thats them talking not me

CCleaner registry clean has gotten me in trouble a couple of times. It's good to back up with ERUNT as well as restore points, image backup etc..

I think I remember only one really bad result from CCleaner registry cleaning and they fixed the bug the next release. But still, I don't use it as often as I used to. Mainly if I uninstall a program I think left a lot of crap behind.

I remember when Ext2 file system came out for Linux. I used to have these arguments with people telling me it was designed so that it never needed a defrag. Well maybe that's what the designer had in mind, but I can tell you from experience there's a big difference between 4.5% fragmented and freshly defragged on Ext2. I used Ext3 for awhile. Basically the same thing but with journaling. Nice file system. But it still benefits from a quick defrag.

Obsessive "running for 2 days" defrags, those people may need counselling. That's not what I'm talking about.