Cleaning XP of Junk
This tutorial will help you improve the performance of your Windows XP installation.
The following steps can be applied to both new XP installations or ancient installations, although you will see a bigger difference with older installations.
Over time Windows XP (and the previous generations) built up temporary files that slowed down the machine. Unfortunately not every unneeded file can be removed as it is unknown if it is going to be needed again, but there are certain files that can definately be removed.
This files lurk in the Temp folder within your Windows folder and your Temp folder in your locally stored profile.
Warning: Modifying the registry can cause adverse effects. Skeletorscorpse can not be held liable for any damage you cause to your computer.
To remove all the junk from these folders you can use the built in program called Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup can be accessed in 2 ways.
Accessing Disk Cleanup - Start Menu
- Click Start
- All Programs if you are using XP start menu, Programs if you are using classic start menu
- Accessories
- System Tools
- Disk Cleanup
- Select a drive then press OK
Accessing Disk Cleanup - My Computer
- Open My Computer
- Right click the partition with Windows on it
- Select Properties
- On the General tab there is a button called Disk Cleanup by the pie chart of free and used space.
When Disk Cleanup is started it takes a while to scan all the files that can be removed or compressed. Once it has finished searching you will have a list of tick boxes of things that can be removed. All of these can be ticked easily, although in some occasions you may want to leave the Office Setup Files (if you have Microsoft Office installed) and Recycle Bin. Office Setup Files can be helpful if you ever want to install another compontent of Office that you didn't install on the initial installation. If you remove this you can still install new components but you will have to put your CD in. It is best not to chose the Recycle Bin as you may have files in there that you want to keep (although they shouldn't be in there if you want to keep them), you can easily clear it whenever you want so it is no big deal if you chose it here or not.
The option to Compress old files can be a good one to chose to save disk space as it will compress all the files that haven't be used in a certain amount of days which can be specified by click Compress old files then clicking Options. In here you can specify the amount of days to wait until you compress files. I believe 50 days is the default.
As well as using Disk Cleanup you can use a freeware application called Crap Cleaner which is made by Piriform Ltd.
Crap Cleaner removes many files such as:
- Cookies, Temporary Files, URL History, Autocomplete form history, index.dat from IE
- Cookies, Temporary Files, URL History, download history from Firefox
- Cookies, Temporary Files, URL History from Opera
- Clears the Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary Files and Log Files from Windows
- Removes temporary files and MRUs (most recently used lists) from many Third-Party applications
- Also removes old unneeded registry entries.
Go to the Crap Cleaner website and download the installer. Once downloaded install and run the program. During installation you will be asked if you want to install Yahoo! toolbar, untick the box so that it isn't installed, unless you want to install it then leave it ticked. If you accidentally leave it ticked then you can remove it from Add and Remove programs in the Control Panel. The Yahoo! toolbar is included in the installer as a form of income for the software developers, it is not spyware.
On the Cleaner page click Run Cleaner
This will clean all the temporary files and things that are selected on the Cleaner Settings column. Even after running Disk Cleanup, Crap Cleaner managed to get wipe another 27.4MB. Once the temporary files have been removed we can clean the registry of some unneeded entries.
Click on the Issues button on the left and click Scan for Issues. The program will scan the registry for invalid entries comparing them to the files on the hard drive. Once it has finished press the Fix selected issues... button. The program will then ask you whether you want to backup your registry, I strongly recommend that you do, you can delete the backup once you are sure everything is working. Click Yes and select a location to save the backup. You can go through each fix one by one or just clikc Fix All Selected Issues, depends on what you want to do, but if you have 300 odd entries, you may just want to click Fix All Selected Issues. This will greet you with another confirmation box, press OK to continue. Keep scanning for issues until no more appear. As you run it certain entries in the registry will disappear but entries that relate the entries that you just deleted can still exist, after the second scan they are normally all gone.
We are now finished with Crap Cleaner. You may uninstall it or keep it on your computer to keep the temporary files off.
Now I will move on to another Registry cleaning program called RegSeeker which was created by HoverDesk.
Download and extract the zip file from the HoverDesk website. In the folder that you extracted open RegSeeker.exe.
Once open click on Clean the Registry on the left. Leave the default ticked boxes and press OK to scan. RegSeeker will now scan the each partition and the registry and display a list of the registry entries which can be removed.
Once complete click the Select button at the bottom and select Select All. This turns all the entries in the list to a light pale yellow colour. Click the Action
button at the bottom and chose Delete Selected Items. You will then be asked to create a backup, this time you have no choice and have to make a backup of your registry which is a good idea. Press OK and all the invalid entries will be removed. Like Crap Cleaner run through this process until no entries are found.
With all the registry entries removed from the registry it is best to defrag it. Unfortunately Microsoft did not bundle an application to do it with XP but that is no matter because freeware is here to help.
A small utility called PageDefrag created by SysInternals, which was recently bought by Microsoft, so we may see PageDefrag built in to Windows in later generations.
As the registry is in use when Windows is loaded PageDefrag initiates before Windows has fully loaded which allows it to defragment the registry hives. Download and extract the zip which can be retrieved from the Microsoft TechNet site. Open pagedfrg.exe, select Defrag at next boot and press OK. If you want you can see how many fragments your registry is in by looking at the top window. The more fragments the hoves are in the worst your performance will be as it will take longer for Windows to read data from the registry hives. When you are ready to defrag the registry, restart XP. On boot up you will see the Windows logo and progress bar then PageDefrag will load. You can a couple of seconds by default to abort it and carry on loading Windows if you wish to skip it. If you don't skip it PageDefrag will run through each hive telling you if it has successfully defragged the hive or not. Depending on how bad the fragmentation was this can take a while.
After you have defragmented the registry, defrag the hard drive.
To run Defrag you can do it 3 ways:
Running Defrag - Start Menu
- Click Start
- All Programs if you are using XP start menu, Programs if you are using classic start menu
- Accessories
- System Tools
- Disk Defragementer
- Select a drive then press OK
Running Defrag - My Computer
- Open My Computer
- Right click the partition with Windows on it
- Select Properties
- Tools tab
- Defragment Now
Running Defrag - My Computer Alternative
- Right click My Computer
- Select Manage
- Click Disk Defragmenter on the Storage branch.
- Select the hard drive you wish to defrag and press Defragment
Run through this process once a week and you should see a faster computer. It's always a good idea to remove any unneeded programs from the Add & Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel to save you space and to remove unneeded entries from the registry for faster access.
