I am curious what programs (if you do) you use for system maintenance such as for cleaning "junk files", registry clean up, defragmentation, start up...
to start the discussion:
defraggler- defragmentation
tuneup utilities- junk files, registry
ccleaner- junk, registry
revo uninstaller- leftover junk
soluto- startup (new software, you have to check this out!)
I use all of the above maintenance tools except I use comparable free Auslogics defraggers and NO Tuneup Utilities.
Win7 needs no tweaking as it is a perfectly balanced OS requiring only normal system settings.
Tweaking beyond that will come back to bite you every time.
I used to use all of the above and more for XP. But as Greg said, 7 is very stable and highly optimized out of the box. I now use Microsoft's own tool for general performance and cleanup tweaks. I figure Microsoft should know what's best for their own OS.
What's new - Windows Live OneCare safety scanner for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Get rid of junk on your hard disk
- Improve your PC's performance
C Cleaner, Diskeeper 2010. If I get a real problem I use a mirror image saved previously in ACRONIS. I also occasionaly use Malware bytes and SUPERAntiSpyware
CCleaner + PuranDefrag, nothing else.
none of the above
- registry cleaners do no good and can do harm. I thought at least ccleaner was safe so I used it to carefully clean up files. It destroyed all my Windows 7 scheduled tasks and I had a hard time recovering (I only had it set to clean up after internet explorer and some LRU files). Out it went.
- I would only trust the Windows 7 defragmenter with defragmenting my MFT and pagefile and other system metadata files. I have had issues with Diskkeeper on XP in this regard, so I removed it after trying it on Windows 7. The Windows 7 defragmenter took some time defragging the disk after that - says to me they defrag in quite different ways.
Even though Windows 7 does a good job of only starting up programs and services on demand, the best thing you can do to improve performance is reduce the number of third party programs that start up with the computer, defragment once a week with the windows defragmenter (on a schedule).
IMO
Have put CCleaner along with Auslogics defraggers on hundreds of installs representing thousands of uses without a single issue.
The CCleaner is perhaps the most highly regarded genius app in all of tech, used by almost all Pros and Tech Enthusiasts alike.
Claims that it harms registry always turn out to be something else. If you have any doubts accept the offer to back up your registry files cleaned, then merge them back in or SysRestore if you have problems - which you won't.
IME
btw - defraggler isn't Volume Shadow Copy safe I believe (unless they recently put support for it, which I doubt). If you are not careful, VSS will make shadow copies of the files defraggler moves, consuming disk space that is reserved for volume shadows, and eventually overwriting your restore points. I think you have to turn the VSS service off before using defraggler.
Diskeeper, Auslogics and Microsoft defraggers have VSS safe modes.
Gene
I rely on none myself. My registry is perfectly fine, and I have no need for 'cleaning' - and I am an old hand at using Windows-based machines. In the past orphaned entries were the norm, especially with XP, and malwritten uninstaller routines for different applications.
Now, with VMs and such, I am easily able to test applications without having to worry about orphans, only installing apps into the main OS when I am sure that I m going to use to.
As for defragmenting - well, my system drive is an Intel X-25M SSD, so....not gonna happen.
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