How do you clean up windows machines?

[Bootsy]

Thanks for the replies guys, as Im writing this i am formatting a client's laptop hehe

Yea I am leaning more towards just formatting and reinstalling windows...

 

[Fazer]

Registry cleaners scare me. Too many bad experiences with friends and clients running into things that got cleaned up that shouldn't have been. Personally, I like NOD32 (AV) and Diskeeper (defrag) and the occasional Windows Clean Up.

 

[Remar]

I have to ask, are you looking for an easy cleanup ? Because alot of my friends come to me for free (sigh) and expect gold services. So I have made a short list of what to do. Seeing as how I have a server with generic ghost OS images, if there is a serious infection on the machine, I have an easier time formatting and ghosting an image to thier machine. And then installing Avira, and then using "msconfig" to remove uneeded start up items. Once that is done, I remove the entries in the registry manually that are disabled or not needed. so basically it is

1. See what software the end user needs
2. Format / ghost image
3. Install necessary software (i.e junk that they use)
4. Install an anti-virus software (usually avira)
5. msconfig clean-up and registry clean-up (manually)
6. hand them a basically new pc and tell them that will be 40$ an hour

 

[Electronic Punk]

I also run the windows disk clean up wizard

 

[Remar]

I also run the windows disk clean up wizard

Right on E-Punk, I use it as well ....lol ... Now, I have to ask. Since so many people seem to use automated reg cleaners, are there any you would recommend ? I have used a few (won't name any) and find it easier/ more stable to edit the bloated windows registry by hand myself. I know this is a bit much for most users, so I was looking for one I might recommend to my non-tech-savvy friends. Since it would probably save me time in the end

 

[Electronic Punk]

I haven't really looked into registry cleaners so much, CCleaner is about as far as I go.

 

[LordOfLA]

you shouldn't use disk clean up wizard if you use ccleaner ccleaner does a far better job.

 

[Electronic Punk]

Well the disk cleanup wizard picks up on a few bits CCleaner doesn't like error report logs, unneeded installation files, thumbnails etc.

 

[Johnny]

I been experimenting with tuneup utilities 2009. It seems to be doing pretty good. Not like that older ones - Things works up to snuff from what I see. Haven't had any issues yet. It's odd because the older versions sucked ..