getting rid of the junk windows adds to your computer?

Question

My mother in law had someone from the geek squad come to her house for a computer clean up or something like that, and they told her that windows xp adds alot of junk to computers thats make the computers run slower than normal, (stuff noone will ever need ) just wondering if anyone knows what this is about and how to do it, Thanks And i will chose the best answer right away

bye the way her computer is really fast now

Answer 1

Yes, Windows is famous for its "bloat". It comes complete with advertising for AOL, Compuserve, Microsoft, and others. I recommend downloading "Crap Cleaner" at www.majorgeeks.com and then uninstall unneeded programs, plus delete the junk as suggested.

Answer 2

That a geek's way of saying "I'll be baaaaack!" Some of them like to tell novices that Windows is the big, bad wolf and adds all this crap to the hard disk. Well, Windows can't do it alone. Everything you, as the operator, do on your computer adds to the junk. Every time you, as the operator, get on the internet, send and/or receive an email, adds to the junk. Your mother-in-law could have saved herself a lot of money by learning one simple rule: Clean up your own mess, you made it.

Windows 98 and XP have Disk Cleanup, which removes collected junk files from various places on your hard disk. It's simple, takes maybe 5 minutes to perform. Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Disk Cleanup. Simple and easy.

Defrag the hard disk once in a while. Everytime you open a document, take an action, move something, add and/or remove something, the files on that electronic disk get scattered. Over time, they become very scattered. It slows the computer down, because finding all those scattered pieces takes RAM memory. So, Windows comes with a disk defrag utility. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Disk Defragmenter. Simple.

Those are the two most important things to do to keep the computer running smoothly and efficiently.

Answer 3

It's true, XP needs some cleaning from time to time. Presuming you have an updated antivirus/antispyware scanner and an updated XP, all you need to do is:
- uninstall programs you don't need (if it's the case)
- run Ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com), a free utility which cleans the junk from your computer
- defragment the hard-disk (the built-in XP-utility is fairly enough)
- clean the windows registry (I recommend Registry Mechanic, which is not for free, but it's reliable)
You'll see the difference right away.

Answer 4

Windows XP comes with several *advertising* elements installed, so you can remove them *if* you're making other arrangements. One is Norton antivirus, *if* you're getting some other antivirus package (recommended, Norton aint all that great...). Another is "Online Services" which lets you connect right away to several online services such as Earthlink, MSN, AOL, Netscape, PeoplePC, and so on. You need at most one of them, if any at all of the *provided* software. There is a huge folder called "Online Services". If you get your own online service, it will probably come with software of its own (some don't...) and it will most likely get installed in its own folder...you can get rid of the Online Services folder. Another item you might get rid of, that's installed at first, is all those Zone.com games. (On the other hand, maybe you want them, but they're trial versions, and they work, only for awhile, after which, you have to subscribe.) You may have some French spelling settings...do you want or need them?

Answer 5

it depends also on what junk you have added ... there are several system services u can turn off and u can tweak things that affect boot times .. its too much to list and explain ... ive found xp works fine and fast if u just keep spyware cleared and most programs and files on a seperate drive and dont fill the main drive to over 1/3 full ...

Answer 6

you could re-format it! It very well worth it. Re-format your laptop will make your laptop like style new. only like the 1st time you acquire it. yet, earlier you do this, you're able to returned-up your individual records and different substantial records on different place e.g in a exterior perplexing-force. it is likewise fee you lots reason re-format takes an prolonged time to end. yet, in case you nervous of re-format, you could attempt ccleaner. attempt to discover it on Google. This utility no longer basically delete your pointless document(s), yet in addition clean up your RAM and develop your laptop fairly. I recommending this utility in case you prefer to get rid of all this 'junks'. however the alternative is yours.

Answer 7

You could use a software called ccleaner it will do the job.and it is free.