Maintenance tools for Windows 7

[Kev1n]

I used to have ccleaner and Comodo firewall installed on my old machine running on Windows XP. Now that I've changed to Windows 7, do I still need a third-party registry cleaner, disk defragmenter and firewall? The only third-party mainenance/protection tool I have running now is Avira.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I used to have ccleaner and Comodo firewall installed on my old machine running on Windows XP. Now that I've changed to Windows 7, do I still need a third-party registry cleaner, disk defragmenter and firewall? The only third-party mainenance/protection tool I have running now is Avira.

In my opinion - no. Registry cleaners do more harm than good anyway; the built-in defragmenter and firewall are more than good enough.

[InterceptorX]

I run TuneUp Utilities once every 3 or so months for a registry cleanup. I let Windows take care of the defragmenting.

[Buendia]

I think CCleaner will do just fine. Besides that, I don't use anything else (rarely do I use DiskMax).

I think Windows 7 doesn't need any of those things.

[hdood]

I didn't use any on XP, and I don't use any on 7. Neither needs it, unless you have a habit of breaking things, I suppose. It's all about good computer habits.

[Sulphy]

I like to use Advanced System Care..... neat set of tools... and has sorted out stubborn pc's many times over...! so far everyone i have suggested it to has had nothing but praise!

have a look - http://www.iobit.com

[Raa]

Same. I don't run anything, no need. It's fine as it is :)

[johnporter29]

I just use CCleaner on my system(s)

[maceman]

Hi Kev1n,

You don't need a registry cleaner, but it makes life easier :D

Windows 7 firewall should be enough, at least for normal use.

[e-berlin.org]

Nothing more than CCleaner for Windows 7, not even a defreagmenter. And always make backups before "fixing" registry.

[soldier1st]

none, the ones in 7 are more than enough.

[kjx]

Here's how I get a "used" installation back to speed:

- Manually check for updates to Windows & other software.

- Manually run a full system antivirus scan (only if I'm feeling patient; this happens on schedule anyway because my laptop is often on 24x7 with a refreshing reboot every few days).

- Uninstall software I don't use anymore.

- Run a DiskMax Complete Scan - (disclaimer: I write this myself, it's got reviews and stars, blah blah.. I'd recommend it but then that would hardly sound unbiased)

- Run CCleaner - partly to be thorough and partly to see what DiskMax might have missed. Plus CCleaner does a good job with the registry which DiskMax barely touches.

- Run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.

- Use Autoruns to check all my startup entries.

- Run Auslogics Registry Defrag (everyone will say this is just a "placebo" but every one of my boots are timed and I see performance increases)

- Run chkdsk /f on all my drives.

- Clear prefetch manually. Restart. Wait for 3 minutes. Restart to check prefetch has learnt what I want it to learn. (clearing prefetch to improve performance is considered to be another myth - I can only speak for myself but reseting prefetch after the above maintenance operations improves performance - based on manually measured startup times and application load times - obviously the first and maybe the second loads after clearing won't be the best)

I used to also manually go through every single folder on my hard disk with system files shown, but DiskMax takes care of that now.

[soldier1st]

Here's how I get a "used" installation back to speed:

- Manually check for updates to Windows & other software.

- Manually run a full system antivirus scan (only if I'm feeling patient; this happens on schedule anyway because my laptop is often on 24x7 with a refreshing reboot every few days).

- Uninstall software I don't use anymore.

- Run a DiskMax Complete Scan - (disclaimer: I write this myself, it's got reviews and stars, blah blah.. I'd recommend it but then that would hardly sound unbiased)

- Run CCleaner - partly to be thorough and partly to see what DiskMax might have missed. Plus CCleaner does a good job with the registry which DiskMax barely touches.

- Run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.

- Use Autoruns to check all my startup entries.

- Run Auslogics Registry Defrag (everyone will say this is just a "placebo" but every one of my boots are timed and I see performance increases)

- Run chkdsk /f on all my drives.

- Clear prefetch manually. Restart. Wait for 3 minutes. Restart to check prefetch has learnt what I want it to learn. (clearing prefetch to improve performance is considered to be another myth - I can only speak for myself but reseting prefetch after the above maintenance operations improves performance - based on manually measured startup times and application load times - obviously the first and maybe the second loads after clearing won't be the best)

I used to also manually go through every single folder on my hard disk with system files shown, but DiskMax takes care of that now.

For a new installation:

- Install all the latest drivers - especially your graphics drivers.(Windows 7 does a good job of installing good drivers but if your having a problem then perhaps upgrading your gpu drivers could fix the issue)

- Tweak your services using services.msc. There are many guides out there, but the point to note is NOT to touch a service unless you are sure of what you are doing - "tweaking" some services can slow your startups like anything and you'll struggle to find which one is causing the problem. If you've never done it before, there'll be some trial and error but eventually you'll get better and will be able to do it without a guide.(Tweaking services is a waste of time unless you suspect that one is causing problems and the only services you should tweak are 3rd party ones but if there not causing any problems or you don't want em enabled then disable them)

- After being reminded by something hdood mentioned: Disable system restore (if you are willing to reinstall Windows should something go wrong; my own selection is based on the fact that in my entire history with Windows, not even once has System Restore worked properly for me when something goes wrong), disable hibernate (saves space if you don't use it), remove Windows features you won't use, .. I'll list more here if I remember

- Continue reading below...(Disabling system restore is just dumb as it's there as a safety net as it's better than nothing and it won't slow you down)

Reposting from a similar thread... Everyone has their own opinions - this is what works for me.

Here's how I get a "used" installation back to speed (in this order):

- Manually check for updates to Windows & other software.(i agree)

- Manually run a full system antivirus scan (only if I'm feeling patient; this happens on schedule anyway because my laptop is often on 24x7 with a refreshing reboot every few days).(I agree)

- Uninstall software I don't use anymore.(I agree)

- Run a DiskMax Complete Scan - (disclaimer: I write this myself, it's got reviews and stars, blah blah.. I'd recommend it but then that would hardly sound unbiased)(your choice since it's your app)

- Run CCleaner - partly to be thorough and partly to see what DiskMax might have missed. Plus CCleaner does a good job with the registry which DiskMax barely touches.(I would only use ccleaner to clean up temp files and such but the reg part is not a good idea to touch unless you may have a problem)

- Run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner. (Reg cleaners have been proven to either damage your registry or do little if anything to improve performance)

- Use Autoruns to check all my startup entries.(This i do agree with)

- Run Auslogics Registry Defrag (everyone will say this is just a "placebo" but every one of my boots are timed and I see performance increases)(The default defragger is all you need)

- Run chkdsk /f on all my drives.(only do this if your having problems or suspect that you are having problems)

- Clear prefetch manually. Restart. Wait for 3 minutes. Restart to check prefetch has learnt what I want it to learn. (clearing prefetch to improve performance is considered to be another myth - I can only speak for myself but reseting prefetch after the above maintenance operations improves performance - based on manually measured startup times and application load times - obviously the first and maybe the second loads after clearing won't be the best)=Very dumb to do sides windows does it anyway, it has been proven that cleaning prefetch only hurts performance but i will say this about cleaning prefetch and thats if you suspect your having some kind of issue with it then clean it but only do it if your having problems)

I used to also manually go through every single folder on my hard disk with system files shown, but DiskMax takes care of that now.(again not needed unless your trying to either clean up an application install/temp files or you suspect you have malware)

out of all you said only perhaps 30% makes sense to do while the rest IMHO is either a waste of time or does nothing if anything. i used to believe that cleaning the registry did something but now i don't believe it does anything only cause problems.

[primexx]

the biggest problem for me is winsxs, and there's no way to really clean that.

[Roger H. Veteran]

the biggest problem for me is winsxs, and there's no way to really clean that.

I read about this program/utility WinSxS Lite which is supposed to be able to clean it up without destroying your system. Don't go be mad at me if your system dies. I didn't test it out yet but i was gonna do it on my other laptop to see what it does and if it actually works.

Oddly enough my WinSxS folder usually starts off at 2.8GB or so then get to about 4GB and stays there. Ever since i'm running Windows 7, my total install has been about 9GB. This includes Pagefile.sys (no hiberfile) and Word, Excel, Outlook 2007/2010, Adobe Reader (lite), and graphics drivers and a few other little things. I don't have that much on here as you can see but that's by choice.

WinsxsLite1.86.zip