ot- computer clean up program

[reefdreamer]

My computer is just totally messed up and I have a system mechanic program that has decided that I had to install it too many times and now it says the activation code is not valid. Is there a free program out there to help repair systems with crazy little errors that keep popping up that can be trusted not to shut the whole system down. My encore pro and smart card are working fine at the moment but at windows start up I still get a bunch of crazy errors that come up on windows xp.
Jen

[GumbyCT]

I use Easy Cleaner
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

Had very good luck with it. It won't automatically clean but I don't like those auto cleaners. It will help you ID programs that start up automatically and find broken registery links, etc.

See if it's what you had in mind. Oh if you are using Vista you need to read her fix for Vista users or it will NOT work.

[Paul56]

My computer is just totally messed up and I have a system mechanic program that has decided that I had to install it too many times and now it says the activation code is not valid. Is there a free program out there to help repair systems with crazy little errors that keep popping up that can be trusted not to shut the whole system down. My encore pro and smart card are working fine at the moment but at windows start up I still get a bunch of crazy errors that come up on windows xp.
Jen

All these "cleaner" tools are fine & dandy... but nothing is going to clean your system better than reinstalling the OS. No cleaner tool is going to solve all the problems with the OS... in fact some of them create issues.

I just finished reinstalling WinXP SP3 on 5 systems here... and they are all working like a charm.

[awh]

At this point it might not be a pad idea to pay the couple hundred bucks to have the local computer nerd do it for you... Well, I don't know what the rates are where you live but here we'd pay about 30,000 yen ($350 or so?). This is a lot cheaper than having to reinstall everything...

[reefdreamer]

I have already reinstalled the os several times and it works great after reinstall till I do all the windows updates and then it becomes crazy. If I didn't do the updates it works fine. Go figure???

[OldLincoln]

I don't have the link anymore, but there is a way to assemble a cd with SP3 slipstreamed on it so you don't have to install all the updates. You can probably google for it.

[reefdreamer]

So I could possibly reinstall my os and then just do sp3 and not all the other updates? It seems to work most of the time but does still have several little error codes that come up and it randomly decides to shut down at times. I would like to fix it with a baseball bat but need a computer and everyone knows how money is right now.

[GumbyCT]

You can select or reject each update if you choose not to do the auto update. I have not been convinced that sp3 isn't causing problems with Encore. I always run my updates manually in case they have a buggy update released.

Also you don't mention which programs you think are giving you troubles. For example; You can install just Norton Virus scanner if you are having troubles with a Norton package, which have been know to misbehave.

Try only installing what you need today, perhaps you can identify which program causes you problems after you install it. Keeping a log book will help.

The exact nature of your problem is not clear to me, so I can't offer more anything more. There are many computer forums if you are still having troubles.

http://www.computertalkwithtab.com

[Goofproof]

More important than doing the updates is putting in place the programs that keep your computer secure. I have 56 programs running on my computer, some are to lock it down safely. The most important are, Avast Pro and ZoneAlarm Pro. These get installed before I plug in the Internet Jack. Both of my XP Pro machines are only allowed to update to SP2, The new Vista is allowed full update. And now that I have a Vista computer, I can confirm, that the people that say how great it is don't know computers, it's bloated and slow, only a really fast processor can hide that. I did get Encore Pro to install on it in only five tries. Jim

[dsm]

So I could possibly reinstall my os and then just do sp3 and not all the other updates? It seems to work most of the time but does still have several little error codes that come up and it randomly decides to shut down at times. I would like to fix it with a baseball bat but need a computer and everyone knows how money is right now.

Is there any reason you need to go to sp3 ?

AFAICT sp2 with auto update set active will work fine. I also have been using Microsoft's 'Malicious Software Removal Tool' at regular intervals (google Microsoft-kb890830) as that tool looks for recent know virus attacks & removes them.

There are a few good freeware registry fixup tools - but for a very up-to-date & freeware virus checking tool (have used many but this one has worked very well) try malwarebytes (google that name).

My main virus tool is ZoneAlarm Security Suite but I still use malwarebytes pgm every now & then but particularly on pcs not covered by ZA

Good luck

DSM

[Paul56]

I personally run SP3 on 3 Core2Duo systems with one of them dual-booted with Linux and have no issues.

However, I will be avoiding Vista for a while yet.

[GumbyCT]

Vista got a bad rap from Apple. Gumby thinks Vista is even more stable than XP Pro.

But that is
Just Gumby's Meaningless Opinion
(JGMO)

[mindy]

A freebie program I like is CC Cleaner. I usually rebuild my computers after a year or two - some people I know do it every 6 months but I have lots of software so don't really like doing it too often. And, it's not for the faint-of-heart.

If bugs are showing up so quickly after a rebuild, have you installed software besides Windows? It could be one of those that is causing the problems.

Mindy

[dsm]

Vista got a bad rap from Apple. Gumby thinks Vista is even more stable than XP Pro.

But that is
Just Gumby's Meaningless Opinion
(JGMO)

Lemme guess, Gumby hasn't had to support Vista in a corporate domain

Vista does run - most of the time & the network admin hasn't caused any suicides amongst our support staff yet, but I guess that
might be because the corporate policy was to stay with XP

I had to implement several Vista based PCs against policy because we couldn't backlevel them & had no option. It is now a year later
& the repercussions of having to put those Vista systems in, are still with us.

Gumby, consider yourself luck

DSM

[mindy]

Interesting ... we still have XP at work and I do agree that Vista is a pig on resources. There are small touches that I like and for me it has been more stable than XP ever was after Lenovo fixed a hard drive firmware problem. I have one PC with Vista ultimate 64-bit and one with 32-bit business edition.

I do get the the fastest processor I can for my laptops so the sluggishness is minimized. So in general I'm in Gumby's camp ... though I'm really hoping Windows 7 has Vista's good points without being such a hog.

Mindy