PC Tuning, Tune-up, Restore that out-of-box zip

[DaveBo]

Anyone have any suggestions for general, routine PC tune-ups?
e.g. empty recycle bin
clean out cache file areas
do defrags
put HD in washing machine on delicate cycle ...

I know I've seen lists of tuning "to-do"s, but I can't seem to find them now.
Maybe I'm looking for the wrong keywords.

Thanks, DaveBo

[DaveBo]

I found one brief thread on registry cleaning
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=268489

[Kasracer]

Spyware scan with SpyBot

[gigemboy]

Its all about spyware and adware... its what generally causes the slowdowns. SpyBot S&D, AdAware, MS AntiSpyware, all are free programs you can use.

Check all your running processes, google the exe if you arent sure, end all processes that you dont need (either stopping the service if it is one, or changing the program options of the EXE to not startup when windows starts, etc.) and uninstall the running software if you don't use it. If your task bar is filled with several icons, right click on the ones you dont need and stop them from starting up...

Last of all, you can run a defrag on the windows system drive....