why does a pc with a fresh OS installation run faster....?

Question

than one that's been used for several months? (assuming both pcs have the same amount of files and programs already)

What's the difference? I've read somewhere that it's because of the registry files being messed up or something and that there are free downloadable programs that can fix this so the pc would operate like it's new. Is this true?

Answer 1

There is a level of maintenance that any computer user should use. The common person how ever does not know these things. Windows is nothing more than a teenager that comes home from school and throws things where ever it wants in the room instead of its proper place. Also, when installing and uninstalling programs, there are registry changes, and broken registry links that happen. All in all the room will get messy over time.

What you can do. Windows XP comes with 3 items built in that I recommend running at least once a month with a "house keeping" routine.
1) Check Disk - double click my computer, right click C: drive left click properties, go to the Tools tab, click the Check Now button, check both check boxes, click start and say ok to the prompt on the screen. Restart your computer and leave it go until that last part of the check disk runs. You will know when you finally get to the desktop or net login.
2) Disk Defragmenter - Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools
3) Disk Cleanup - Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools

Now here are some you can download for free online that will help clean some background garbage out. Be careful with Easy Cleaner by Toni Arts though.
1) Adaware SE - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/adaware.html
2) Spybot S&D - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spybot.html
3) RegScrubXP - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048 (after clicking the link go to one of the Sites with the American Flag icons to download)
4) EasyCleaner - http://majorgeeks.com/download414.html (after clicking the link go to one of the Sites with the American Flag icons to download)

Good luck to ya. I use these all the time and my computer runs great. That is if my wife would stop installing junk Shockwave games.

Answer 2

Treat reg fixers with great and extreme caution. They are knocking lumps out of your pc central nervous system. The free downloadables tend to try and frighten you with all these errors so you will buy.

Are you sure this is true not just an impression. Have you compared an old system with a refreshed one, side by side hitting the enter keys together.

If you have nominal memory and do not shut down, then the ram can become fragmented causing extra overlays to disk.

Assuming you shut down the pc and not hibernate or leave it running each day, you could find that the disk is becoming fragmented. This is caused when lots of files/progs are loaded then deleted leaving gaps behind, the larger the disk the less likely this is. Use my computer,rt click on disk, click properties then tools, defrag, analyse. See what it recommends.

There are better tools than the inbuilt defragger that do a much better job, but you have to buy.

If progs are deleted rather than unistalled then yes the registry will contain references to non existing progs. Small errors will creep in, where uninstalling progs leaves files that are probably shared.

Make sure that the virtual memory is set to a high value, at bare minimum 1.5 times ram size, much bigger if you have the disk space.

Answer 3

when you have a fresh OS installation, everything is at the minimum level, so it's fast coz no junk staff is in the registry.
once you start installing software, then the registry gets bigger and bigger (the more software you install the bigger it is), even if you uninstall the software, it actually still have left something in your registry. that's why it seems slower. I don't really think there is a very good program out there right now that can really clean up the registry for you. if you really feel like the system is slow. Backup your stuff and reinstall it. Then WATCH what you are installing.