Running a tight ship

[jinky32]

Hi guys,

i have recently built m'self a new pc and am keen to kick my bad habits of the past and keep it in good working order.

Can anyone recommend some good apps that will remove all traces of drivers and programmes (i don't trust windows 'add/remove' to do this full), keep my registry nice and tidy and generally help keep my pc running to its potential?

I've just been having a look at systemworks which looks ok, but i'm sure there are better things out there (and i don't like the 'improved' feature which rolls my annual subscription without asking me!).

Also, any other tips regarding file structures etc that are generally good practice would also be great.

many thanks!

 

[Uridium]

My tip:

If you have the space put a second HDU in the system, point your "My Documents" folders to the second HDU (most apps nowadays automatically save here.

then when you OS does go TU you can just do a quick re-install of the OS without having to worry about your data.

For total resilience and simplicity I also have a scheduled Ghost backup job that takes an image of this drive and copies it to the second disk. Can have a full working install again with all apps pre-installed in about 30 mins.

 

[KraGorn]

IMHO the number one application for PC hygiene is an 'imager' that takes a low-level copy of your O/S partition and saves it 'as is' so you can roll it back and undo every change since it was taken reliably.

Until recently I recommended Northon Ghost, and while that's still very usable I now use Acronis Trueimage which does everything Ghost does and more.

Completely removing drivers seems to be a black art that never seems to work 100% for me, so rolling back the entire system before they were installed seems best. Of course, it means you need to ensure you image before every update and will lose changes to applications made subsequent to that if you later rollback a failed driver update, however I find it works great for me and unless you are a very prolific installer may well be okay for you too.


Also, getting TweakUI from M$ site and change the location of "My Documents" and other system folder to another partition if you have one may also be helpful.

 

[jinky32]

thanks guys. i'll check those leads out!

 

[Uridium]

Oh, you can easily repoint the my docs folders BTW. Just right click the my docs folder, choose properties and choose change location

 

[deksawyer]

For keeping the Registry clean, I use jv16 Regcleaner. Powerful but easy to use piece of software.

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html#RegCleaner

It does a backup everytime you change something so if a mistake is made, it's easily rectified.

Once installed, select Registry Cleanup-> Do Them All and it'll sort out old and un-needed registry entries.

D.

 

[jinky32]

@KraGorn. I've been looking at Acronis True Image but there are so many versions available - which do you use?

Acronis True Image 8.0 Corporate Workstation looks the most likely but you have to buy 10 copies - that can't be right!

 

[Uridium]

MS used to do there own Regclean application. they withdrew it from their website as it's not fully compatible with WinXP although I have used it on several XP machines without problems.

it does backup any entries before rmoving anyway.

 

[jinky32]

just to let you know that i've been recommended this http://www.drivercleaner.net/ app to remove all traces of previous drivers. can't vouch for it - but thought i'd share it