Clean up Windows XP

[Jim Baxter]

I heard somewhere that it is a good idea to re-install windows once a year or so just to keep a
fairly clean running pc. Is this true?

My system is running fairly well but has slowed down a tad. My flash drive opens slowly when working on excell documents, occasionallly web pages open slowly, I occassionally get a timed out message when moving around on a website. I do a weekly scan with Ad-Aware,
Spybot and daily with AVG Anti virus plus I do a weekly disc cleanup with windows software and a registry cleanup using System Mechanic 6 Pro.
I am not finding any spyware, malware, viruses but still notice a slow down of the system.

I have a "D" drive for back up that is empty. Properties shows 855mb used and 75.4 gb free space.

What would be the proper way to back up my programs, data, and document files?
Do I need any special backup software program to do this?
How do I save my Bookmarks in Firefox, and addresses in Thunderbird?

Sorry for all the questions, but if I wound myself, I want to be able to stop the bleeding hehe.

Thanks

[q2418130103p]

both firefox and thunderbird have an export function for those things, the bookmarks export can be reached by going to Bookmarks, Manage bookmarks, then file, than export.

for the most part there is no way to backup installed programs, although you can usually backup their data, if you could give us a listed of programs you need the data from we could help you out with how to get the data you need.

as far as documents go, your best bet is to simply copy your desktop folder and my documents folder into correspodning fodlers on your backup drive, just to make life easier when you are putting the data back.

for the most part, i would not waste your time witha backup program, i would just use regular copy and paste.

[Jim Baxter]

The two programs that are most labor intensive to restore are racing sims that have patches,
player files, tracks, and 3rd party up-grades.
I think I can just copy these folders to my documents or to the other hard drive.

What is your opinion on the re-install. Is that a good idea to perform occasionallly?

Thanks for the input.

[q2418130103p]

personally, i only reload when i find MAJOR performance decreases, it may be a year, it may be 3 years.

[kev7555]

I've been running the same copy of XP on this machine for four years.

Use ccleaner to clean up temporary files and leftover registry entries from installs and un-installs.
Defrag regularly, run updated anti-malware programs and keep all security patches from windows update current. Un-install any programs that are not being used. I like my computers set up like a stripped-down, 60's small block Chevy not an overblown, bells and whistles new car.

-Kev

[ITlover]

Hi guys,

Sorry for stepping in but I wanted to share something if you dont mind. Yes the backup program is a lengthy process and not recommended if you have shortage of time.
Just copy or move your important data (softwares and files) to your empty drive that you want to use as backup. Your windows performance degrades due to several reasons, it could be because you have installed more programs in your Computer then its RAM can support or the programs that you are using are pretty large and require more memory .

How much RAM do you have?

[ITlover]

Make sure that your automatic updates is on and you have SP2 .

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Jim Baxter I heard somewhere that it is a good idea to re-install windows once a year or so just to keep a fairly clean running pc. Is this true?

That was true for Win9X based operating systems. For WinXP you really shouldn't have to re-install annually unless you want to.

Originally Posted by Jim Baxter My system is running fairly well but has slowed down a tad. My flash drive opens slowly when working on excell documents, occasionallly web pages open slowly, I occassionally get a timed out message when moving around on a website. I do a weekly scan with Ad-Aware, Spybot and daily with AVG Anti virus plus I do a weekly disc cleanup with windows software and a registry cleanup using System Mechanic 6 Pro. I am not finding any spyware, malware, viruses but still notice a slow down of the system.

Although I don't hear it much nowadays you might want to clear out your Prefetch folder from time to time. Empty Prefetch on your WinXP system.

The system will slow down a bit if your hard drive is getting really full.

How often do you defrag your hard drive?

Cricket

[Jim Baxter]

C drive is onlly 25% full.
I check for fragmentation once a week using window defrag program. I run the "analyze" feature
and only defrag if it suggests that I do so.

I have the "Diskeep" program but uninstalled it as it ran a defrag every day whick I was told was
a tad exessive.

[glc]

I've been using Diskeeper for years, and yes, it does defrag every day. It only takes a couple of minutes each time, that's hardly excessive.

[cadlewv]

I heard somewhere that it is a good idea to re-install windows once a year or so just to keep a fairly clean running pc. Is this true?

That was true for Win9X based operating systems.

For Me, weren't you supposed to reinstall once a week?

Anyhow, just a tidbit of information for backing up Firefox and Thunderbird... Mozbackup does it better than anything I've seen. http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/