"Must have" performance optimization programs?

[Hoggorm]

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?

 

[OldMX]

CCleaner + Puran Defrag

 

[pirej]

Autoruns

 

[wds7]

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 .

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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?

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.

 

[MilesAhead]

CCleaner + Puran Defrag

+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.

 

[Hoggorm]

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.

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.

 

[nostaw5]

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

 

[MilesAhead]

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.

 

[MilesAhead]

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

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.

 

[MilesAhead]

I do,however, think there are loads of make my PC like wicked fasterer scam web sites for the mentally challenged with money to piss away.

 

[nostaw5]

here is a quote from a pc word nz (magazine) editor:

"Our testing shows that for a mechanical hard drive fragmentation doesn't noticeably affect pc performance. It does however make data recovery easier."

 

[MilesAhead]

here is a quote from a pc word nz (magazine) editor:

"Our testing shows that for a mechanical hard drive fragmentation doesn't noticeably affect pc performance. It does however make data recovery easier."

So the magazine editor is basically saying who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?

Now, me, I'll always take the word of some unnamed magazine editor testing some unspecified machine with an unspecified drive with unspecified testing software over my 26 years of PC programming experience.

edit: although a defrag might not add 10% performance to a benchmark, the performance increase you do get happens with less drive thrashing. It's like if you tune up your car. The top end on the highway doesn't go up.. but it gets there a lot more smoothly. It's a win/win as long as you don't get obsessive with the defrag strategy.

 

[Hoggorm]

I'm not actually looking for software or solutions to gain any performance, however I'm looking for simple software to run from time to time that keep my system as clean as possible.

 

[spencer1]

Well, the highly recommended CCleaner does trick with a nice interface too. I also like the Glary Utilities One Click Maintenance.

 

[MilesAhead]

I'm not actually looking for software or solutions to gain any performance, however I'm looking for simple software to run from time to time that keep my system as clean as possible.

Aside from useless files on disk, there are system services running that you might not think worth the memory usage and CPU cycles if you knew what they were doing. What they are depends on how you use your PC. One example might be Windows Media Player constantly scanning all the files on your system looking for medial files to add to its library or share over the network. Me, my network is small enough I can share stuff manually if I want and I'm not likely to play them with WMP unless they have PGS subtitles anyway.

It's a good idea to document what services you have running before you change anything. One good way to do that is use LookInMyPC

Don't let the name fool you. Even though it sounds like it's geared to the less knowledgeable user, this program does a lot of nice things and can print out nice tabular reports, such as all services on the system with current status and startup settings.

It's a nice free software.

 

[pparks1]

Windows 7 will defrag itself in the background, that is enough.

Best way to keep WIndows 7 running like new is to only install what you need on the machine. Use a virtual machine for playing and all testing.

Nothing else is really needed.

 

[MilesAhead]

Windows 7 will defrag itself in the background, that is enough.

...

Afaik there's still no simple API to return the busy status of the system HD. Which means if defrag in the background isn't going to blindly kick in even though the disk is very busy(such as already doing a defrag with another software) then it is measuring statistics with performance monitor. Which is itself a big performance hit. Until they come up with a simple API call such as PercentBusy = DiskBusy(drive) then defragging in background while the disk is in use is a flawed concept.

I think Diskeeper was one of the 3rd party apps using this scheme. Tried it and it was as lame as I expected.

 

[chrysalis]

windows 7 will run the defragger when idle for prefetch files, the generic defrag just runs when scheduled for c:.