What recommendations to you guys have to speeding up your PC through software? Which programs do the job, and which ones are the ones to avoid? post your opinions here.

I'll start by recommending against any program that says something along the lines of "free RAM up to speed up your PC". These cause more damage than good.

remove nortons!!!!!

of the "spped up your PC genre of software it is best to stay away from ALL of them. at best they do little or nothing, at worst they cause problems and system instability.

Although I would prefer learning what tweaks do and then selecting which ones to use and to which value to set them, as I have more control over what I'm doing, some people aren't so comfortable with poking around the registry and editing/deleting it... I always tend to get better results that way, then when using a 'tweak' app, but oh well...

One of the rare programs which doesnt screw your system instead of optimizing it is Tune up Utilities 2006, it isnt free though, and for now it's only in german (2005 version is available in english), although you can pretty much instinctively with some logic figure out what each thing means.

I have yet to see someone comment this great app in a negative way and have yet to see someone complaining that it didnt work at all, so I guess it's good. I have tried it for a short while, and it appears to do the standard tweaks + some more, in any case it didnt screw up my PC as dozens of others did (thats why I do my tweaking manually now ), so I'm recommending it.

But as iss said, I would stay away from those programs, learning which registry entry does what tends to get you better results than from these apps. If you do decide to learn some of the registry tweaks, I'll be more than happy to recommend some of the best guides I've found.

Happy time tweakin'!

True tweaking your system can often lead to more trouble but its kind of fun if you get into it.

- The biggest tweak you can do is get more ram. Really its so cheap there is no reason not to have at least gig. Its the best return on your investment.
- For cleaning out temps file that could slow down your computer a great prog is www.ccleaner.com Its free and does more than just cleaning. Its a must have tool.
- Defragging always helps.
- What hidden program are starting with your computer. While ccleaner can show startup programs i prefer "Code Stuff Starter". It has a nice check box feature so you don’t have to delete anything permanently. You can get it here.

good luck

i'm using ccleaner and repair registry pro and they're really good. i'we also tried error doctor but it deleted alot of important stuff from my computer . i suggest you to try that 2 progs.

yep those are great programs thanks for bringing them up :unch:

another good program guys is called Window Washer and it works great also you should be able to find it at Download.com

well i use tools that tweak my system . i like regsupremem pro for registry cleaning , advanced system optimizer i use the registry cleeaner and reg defragger ( reg mechanic does it as well ) and tweak xp i use for the defragging of the hdd as it does a better job then windows ... for the majority of windows tweaking i go into the registry and change or add settings ,for any overclocking i do in bios or use riva tuner for the video card ....i agree with the use of window washer as it isnt a optimizer or tweaker more of a cleaning program ...

i just use a program called TUNEUP UTILITIES though i dont know if it actually makes any difference in the speed of my system b/c i don't experience any differences after i run the program