UPDATE January 2023: Consider the below a HISTORY LESSON. 🙂
OK, our desktop DELL (that is it’s name: DELL) is about hmmm, 6 years old now.
When we bought it, I bought the fastest, biggest, machine possible hoping it would last. It has. It has been almost perfect (had to replace a CD disk and I complain about various things, but, that is me).
Lately, DELL has been slowing down more and more, sometimes taking up to 10 minutes to boot up.
Yesterday, I went to CNET Downloads, in the Utilities section and decided to get mean and nasty with DELL and see if I could speed it up.
It worked!!! I feel like I have a new computer…
What did it?
Not totally sure, but, it was a combination of these programs that, even in demo mode that did the trick.
1. Revo Uninstaller: I used this to get rid of programs we don’t use anymore. I will donate or buy this. I love it. It gets rid of crap that others leave behind.
2. Wise Disk Cleaner (Free): Apparently this cleaned out a bunch of junk on my hard drive and recovered a ton of space. (on that note, overall, I recovered about 6 gig of hard drive). I like it, but, the TuneUp software mentioned below may do the same stuff. I may donate or buy…I’ll decide in a week or two. I tried the defrag, but, it shut off when the disk cleaner was done…very odd.
3. Wise Registry Cleaner: I liked the disk cleaner so I tried it. Seems to work, but, it shuts itself off randomly…weird.
4. MemTurbo PC Optimizer: Interesting. Allows me to play a little with my memory allocations. Since the demo version does not allow you to do / try all of it’s features, I may not buy it simply because I cannot try it fully. Too bad, since it could be the best thing since sliced bread, but I might not ever know.
5. TuneUp Utilities 2010: I suspect this one helped the most. Slick interface, does a lot, and, after using it, my computer started up much quicker. I’ll probably buy this.
6. Auslogics Disk Defrag: This took a long time to work, but, I checked the disk this morning with Windows built in defrag and it was better than I have ever seen it. Another donation or purchase.
7. Microsoft Security Essentials: I load this now on our new machines and am now going back to the old machines (remember I still have my trusty Toshiba laptop which is about 5 years old now) and taking off Norton and putting in Security Essentials. The price is right, and who knows the OS better? I have no problems with it, so far.
Conclusion
CNET has a ton of Utilities (and other stuff) on their web site for download. I like the fact that, for some of the stuff, the CNET Editors have tried it and I like the user reviews.
Gotta give credit to Dell Computer and Toshiba. Solid machines.
Our world is changing to mobile / laptops (Kristen will get a laptop when she starts at the University of Pacific this Fall), so when DELL finally goes…our family will be totally mobile. The central computer, in our family, will be a thing of the past.
I’ll add my 2 cents to the user reviews on CNET….
TechyMike: Technology Made Easy 