# Good PC Tune Up software? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996 "2009-05-19T18:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/1 "2009-05-19T18:48:38Z")
My old-ish desktop is starting to run pretty slowly (I’m sure there’s lots of flotsam and jetsam floating around that are bogging things down). I was just wondering if any Dopers had personal experiences with or recommendations of software to get things moving a little faster in the ol’ gal. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/2 "2009-05-19T18:50:02Z")
I love [Tune-Up Utilities](http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/). Like it so much I bought a package license for me and my family. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/3 "2009-05-19T21:02:44Z")
I’ve always found that software to make a computer run faster doesn’t usually make a whole lot of sense. After all, it’s software that usually gums up the works to begin with. If the computer is old, why not save your important files to an external location, reformat the hard drive, then reinstall everything. It’s cheapest, and I’d be surprised if anything makes your computer run faster than that. That being said, I’ve never tried Tune-Up Utilities that ZipperJJ recommends, and for all I know it’s an awesome product. If it doesn’t cost too much it could sure a be a nice quick and dirty solution. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/4 "2009-05-19T22:14:05Z")
A lot of “registry cleaners” claim to make your machine quicker by getting rid of dross, but the danger is they delete useful files as well. The first thing to try is to get rid of as much on your machine as possible (archive old files to external disk or CD, delete programmes that you never use etc. If that doesnt help then a clean reinstall is the best option. ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/5 "2009-05-19T23:45:07Z")
I’ll second Tune-up Utilities. It has a free 30-day trial, so I usually use it whenever I am asked to help fix a friends computer. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/6 "2009-05-20T01:50:11Z")
Probably not the advice you want to hear, but: 1. Backup all programs and files that you need 2. Format the hard drive 3. Do a clean OS install I would advise against paying money for any “tune-up” software, most of them are mostly marketing. If you don’t want to format, run these freeware programs and see if they help: [SpyBot](http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) [Ad-Aware](http://www.lavasoft.com/) (the free version is fine) [Auslogics Defrag and registry defrag](http://www.auslogics.com/en/software) (run a full disk check from Windows first, then disk cleanup) ---
**Author:** ![telebox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ea924/32.png) [@telebox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/telebox)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/7 "2009-05-20T01:59:03Z")
You might go through the free benchmark tests here : [http://www.pcpitstop.com](http://www.pcpitstop.com) Then see what programs are on offer here ( free and shareware ) > **[SnapFiles freeware and shareware downloads and reviews, trusted for quality...](https://www.snapfiles.com/)** > > Download freeware and shareware programs, fully reviewed and rated by SnapFiles staff, and user reviews. Established in 1997 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/8 "2009-05-20T11:00:38Z")
For general hard drive and registry cleaning, I recommend [Ccleaner](http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/). ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/9 "2009-05-20T12:26:34Z")
By far the best free utilities I have come across are [Glary Utilities](http://www.glaryutilities.com/). I have cleaned up several PCs with an install and one run. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/10 "2009-05-20T12:38:49Z")
Probably the most noticeable thing you can do is to delete old files and programs. That frees up hard drive space, and will probably clear out a bunch of silly little applets that automatically start up and chew away at the computer’s resources. Follow that with a good defrag. I use Perfect Disk, but there are other good freeware options out there. [Smart defrag](http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10759533.html?tag=mncol) is popular and free. IME, registry cleaners don’t noticeably help improve performance, unless you have a really old crufty machine. In that case it’s probably best do reformat and start over. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/11 "2009-05-20T12:49:39Z")
Thanks for the responses. I’m always up to date on SpyBot, AdAware, and AVG, so I don’t think that’s any of the problems. The reason I’d rather use a program to clean it up is that I’m not sure what “old files” are actually important and which are dross. I’ll take the reformat under advisement since I just bought an external HDD a month or so ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/12 "2009-05-20T22:47:42Z")
Check out the recommendations here at Gizmo’s Freeware here: [The Best Free Screen Capture Utility - Gizmo's Best](http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-pc-tune-up-utility.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-pc-tune-up-software/496996/13 "2009-05-21T01:11:40Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > If the computer is old, why not save your important files to an external location, reformat the hard drive, then reinstall everything. It’s cheapest, and I’d be surprised if anything makes your computer run faster than that. I too think that this would be the most effective procedure. But it does have a downside. Namely, the reinstallations. This opens a whole world of problems. Here are just a few: Do you even know exactly which programs you’ll need to reinstall? Oh sure, you may think you know. But then three months from now there’s gonna be a little add-on that you had totally forgotten about. And you’ll make this discovery at the worst possible time. [ul] [li]Do you have all your installation CDs?[/li] [li]Are any of those CDs scratched beyond usability? (This is something you won’t be able to answer until it’s too late.)[/li] [li]Is any of it on diskette? Does your diskette drive still work?[/li] [li]What about software that you downloaded? (This includes free and legal stuff, like Adobe and Flash.) Do you remember which sites you got them from? Are they still in business?[/li] [li]What about updates? You might not want them all. Maybe you have been using a two-year-old version, and the new version has you don’t want.[/li] [li]Even if you end up with the exact version that you had before, what about all your personalizations? Do you remember all the optional features that you had turned on? Do you remember the ones you disabled? Do you know where all your macros and templates are stored?[/li][/ul] Let me tell you a story. I got a new PC a few months ago. I transferred everything very slowly and carefully. It was not simple, but I thought I got everything. About a month later, I needed to fax something. I paid an extra $10 for a modem on the new pc for no reason other than a fax that I need to send once a month. Windows XP has a Fax Wizard built in (if you know where to find it), and I was familiar with it from the old pc, so I expected no problem. I wrote up my report, plugged my phone line into the modem, started up the Fax Wizard… and I had no idea what phone number to fax it to. Nor, at 11 PM, was there anyone I could call to ask what the fax number was. Fortunately, I was able to take my monitor and keyboard and mouse up to the attic, and get the old slowpoke running, and I was able to find the phone number which I had faxed to previously. Having said all that… This thread is full of recommendations. Does anyone have anything BAD to say about any of these programs? Has anyone tried any of the above-mentioned packages, and ended up regretting it because it clobbered something you need? Not trying to attack anyone, just looking to hear both sides of the story…