I'm intrigued...my ancient desktop has virtually ground to a halt, the only thing I thought could be done is to have done with it & format the HDD & then a fresh install of Windows. Will Cache Sentry Pro work with Mozilla Firefox?

I have been experimenting with tools for my ThinkPad (and on my NetVista Desktop) with some positive results.

Summary: That processes slow down a machine - Myth. That properly maintained Windows slows down over time - Myth. That a properly maintained Preload is crap and slow - Myth.

Here are things that *work*


2. Defrag your hard drive regularly. I recommend PerfectDisk.

O&O Defrag is also very good, highly configurable, and you can run it at boot, so no windows involved

3. Get rid of SpyWare and Malware. I recommend AdAware Pro.

I'd ad AVG AntiSpyware, and Spyware detector... All three seem to find things the others miss --different algorithms I guess

4. Keep your registry fresh. I recommend Registry First Aid. The newest version (5.1) maintains its excellence for registry garbage collection and now adds registry defrag. I have run the registry defrag twice now on my laptop (about a month apart). I am saving nearly a minute at start up time. This one is manual - run it monthly.

This is why I'm writing...... THANKS!!!! What a GREAT TOOL!!!...

I'd been using the modules in SystemMechanic, and Ashampoo Win Optimize.... OK.... No probs....
But... based on your advice in this thread, I downloaded a trial "Pro" version.... It found 1000 errors... After both of the other reg cleaners reported my Reg was 100% clean

In the past, I've been burned by reg cleaners that got too darn happy, to darn fast -- but I wanted to find out --so I bought it

• I eased into it.... cleaning just portions entries marked "safe to remove" ( green ) at a time....
• Ultimately.... All the keys identified as safe to remove were gone....
• Notably faster boot up, and all my apps still work, including the Thinkvantage stuff
• All the entries the app flagged for my attention were smart (yellow and red).... And gave me options for repair... I just left them for now
• But what knocked me out is ALL the entries marked "safe to remove" are gone --that was like 850 bad entries --and everything still works

Cheers, ... JD Hurst

1. IE Temporary files. The default setting is 1.2 Gb and *that* will slow down your machine.

I'm intrigued...my ancient desktop has virtually ground to a halt

I have 80 processes running.

Wow, what's all that? Is it Vista?
I've got 34 processes running in Windows XP and don't miss a thing.

Myth - "Increasing the amount of available RAM using RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters improves performance."

Reality - "RAM Optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance. Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn't. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The act of allocating, then freeing a large amount of virtual memory might, as a conceivable side effect, lead to blocks of contiguous available memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can't directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory."

A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches.