Vista - My laptop is slow, how do I delete rubbish from the harddrive?

My laptop is stupidly slow and everytime I use it it would either lag, not respond, or take more than a minute to load up a programme. This is the same whenever I'm surfing the internet (laggy text typing, slow page loads, etc).

I'm aware that my laptop might have some "rubbish" that is making my it slow, but am not sure how I could delete them.

How do you "clean up" "rubbish" from your laptop and how long would it take to do so?

Comments will be appreciated.

For one you can uninstall programs that you do not use. But that will not influence performance - just disk space. Then you should look into the startup programs (with msconfig) and disable those. You can disable all if you want.
Then you should download and run Process Explorer ( Process Explorer ) and check which processes hold up your system. Click on CPU above - then it will show all the CPU eaters on the top. If there is generally low CPU load, then you have a disk access contention problem - possibly thrashing because of a small RAM.

Hi Wildstriker:

There's a program out there called PC Decrappifier:

[PC Decrappifier]
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com

You can also take whs's suggestions. They are good ones. Definitely scan
with an up-to-date virus scanner.

Since I have access to copies of plain old generic copies of Windows, what I
do is download the drivers for my laptop from the laptop's manufacturer's
website, burn them to CD-R disc, then install a *generic* copy - not
manufacturer specific or manufacturer's recovery disc - a generic copy of
Windows and then install any drivers it does not catch during the Windows
install routine.

Windows 7, BTW, catches all the devices for my laptop during the install and
first Windows update, so I don't have to install any drivers if I am
installing with Windows 7 - mileage may vary, of course.

This way there's no fluffware, adware, not-so-helpful add-on systemware,
trialware nor junkware screwing up the laptop, nor taking up space, nor
slowing it down. 'Probably voids the warranty, but I'm happier .. as in
much.

Saucy





"WildStriker" <guest@newsgroup-email.com> wrote in message
news:51e3ebd68428845fd1441a92b301fef4@newsgroup-gateway.com...

Saucy wrote:As well as whs's suggestion of Process Explorer, check out Autoruns:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx
It is similar to msconfig in telling you which things startup when your
computer starts up, and stopping them from doing so.

Saucy's great suggestion of pcdecrapifier will help you to remove the
crap that comes loaded on your PC; Revo Uninstaller is another good
program for removing unwanted programs:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/

To 'clean up' your hard drive, XP and Vista have a built in disk cleaner
under Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup.
Or, try Ccleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/

After removing all the junk, if you feel so inclined you can defragment
the HD with Window's with its built-in defragger, again under system
tools, or a third party tool such as JKDefrag:
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
or Auslogic:
http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag
The need to defrag is debatable; but if you have a Solid State Drive,
there is no need to defrag since the purported benefit of minimizing
read head movement (and reducing read/write times) is moot, there are no
moving heads to be minimized in their movement.

To figure out which files are filling your HD use Windirstat:
http://windirstat.info/
It provides a graphical snapshot of files by type and size.

To find duplicate files to delete I use Double Killer:
http://www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/
It is especially useful if you have a gazillion pictures from your
camera in different directories that need thinning out. You can have it
check for any combo of identical name, size, dates, and/or
CRC32-checksum. You can filter (include or exclude) by extension etc.

--
I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.