Windows "rot"

Factual Questions
1

OK, I have a 2 or 3 year old system running XP SP2. I have 2GB of memory, an nvidia Geoforce card, and a 3Ghz P4. The system has been fine for a long time. Recently, however, the thing seems to be slowing down. Norton, Ad-Aware and a few other things report no malware on the system. The slowdown has been gradual so I really don’t think I’m infected or infested with anything.

Over the years I have installed and removed quite a few applications and I suspect they have caused my registry to become larger than necessary and maybe there is some corruption there as well.

So, where can I find some instructions on how to clean the registry and what should I be careful of?

Thanks

Testy

2

Here’s a basic tutorial of basic computer maintenance:

3

[QUOTE=Testy]
…Recently, however, the thing seems to be slowing down…
[/quote]

and

Norton may have been installed from the get-go, but I’m betting the single most significant improvement to your machine’s performance would be the removal of any Norton/Symantec products, replacing them with something else (almost anything else) such as AVG for the antivirus and ZoneAlarm for the firewall (if the built-in Windows firewall isn’t adequate). Norton products can be incredibly resource-hungry and intrusive.

I’ve used registry cleaner type products more than once and although they seem to clean up a fair bit of stuff, the performance improvement isn’t always particularly noticeable, but they might work for you; this one seems to be fairly well spoken-of

If you’ve installed and uninstalled a few different bits of hardware (even including just moving a device from one USB port to another), there could be redundant entries in your device manager. To clean these up, do the following:

-Set a System Restore point (details)
-Click Start>Run and type CMD<enter>
-In the command window, type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1<enter> (NB, there must be no spaces either side of the = sign, or it just won’t work)
-Type start devmgmt.msc<enter>
-The Device Manager window will appear. Click View>Show Hidden Devices
-Expand each device category in turn - unused entries will have faint icons next to them and can generally* be uninstalled by right-clicking them and picking ‘Uninstall’

*Exceptions that you probably don’t want to uninstall, even if they have a faint icon:
-Items in the category Network Devices, unless they are obvious duplicates
-Any devices that you know are still valid, but just aren’t connected right now - your USB memory stick, perhaps, or maybe a webcam or something.

Even if you accidentally uninstall something you shouldn’t, it generally means Windows will just reinstall it next time you restart and if the worst comes to the worst (it won’t), you have the fallback position of the System Restore point.

4

My experience is that the only good way to clean the registry is a clean install of the operating system. By the time the system becomes noticeably slow and flakey, it’s more trouble than it’s worth to attempt to clean all the junk out of the registry.

5

I completely agree, however, that suggestion is not always well met in threads asking for advice that seems on the face less drastic.

6

[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
Here’s a basic tutorial of basic computer maintenance:

[/QUOTE]

Sage Rat

Thanks for this. I didn’t say so but I’ve already done most of the things they’re talking about on that site. I’ll scrounge through it a bit more and see if they have anything that will make a difference.

Thanks again

Testy

7

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
and
Norton may have been installed from the get-go, but I’m betting the single most significant improvement to your machine’s performance would be the removal of any Norton/Symantec products, replacing them with something else (almost anything else) such as AVG for the antivirus and ZoneAlarm for the firewall (if the built-in Windows firewall isn’t adequate). Norton products can be incredibly resource-hungry and intrusive.

I’ve used registry cleaner type products more than once and although they seem to clean up a fair bit of stuff, the performance improvement isn’t always particularly noticeable, but they might work for you; this one seems to be fairly well spoken-of

If you’ve installed and uninstalled a few different bits of hardware (even including just moving a device from one USB port to another), there could be redundant entries in your device manager. To clean these up, do the following:

-Set a System Restore point (details)
-Click Start>Run and type CMD<enter>
-In the command window, type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1<enter> (NB, there must be no spaces either side of the = sign, or it just won’t work)
-Type start devmgmt.msc<enter>
-The Device Manager window will appear. Click View>Show Hidden Devices
-Expand each device category in turn - unused entries will have faint icons next to them and can generally* be uninstalled by right-clicking them and picking ‘Uninstall’

*Exceptions that you probably don’t want to uninstall, even if they have a faint icon:
-Items in the category Network Devices, unless they are obvious duplicates
-Any devices that you know are still valid, but just aren’t connected right now - your USB memory stick, perhaps, or maybe a webcam or something.

Even if you accidentally uninstall something you shouldn’t, it generally means Windows will just reinstall it next time you restart and if the worst comes to the worst (it won’t), you have the fallback position of the System Restore point.
[/QUOTE]

Mangetout

Thank you for your advice. I did have Norton installed from the get-go and would like to get rid of it. Unfortunately, the only way I’ve found to really get rid of it is to adopt a “scorched earth” policy on the system drive and start over. I’m a bit reluctant to do this right now.

I’ll check the device manager thing and see if I can’t improve things a bit. I have been hooking a lot of stuff to it via USB lately so maybe that is the problem.

Thanks and regards

Testy

8

[QUOTE=mks57]
My experience is that the only good way to clean the registry is a clean install of the operating system. By the time the system becomes noticeably slow and flakey, it’s more trouble than it’s worth to attempt to clean all the junk out of the registry.
[/QUOTE]

mks57

I agree with both you and mangetout but right now I don’t have the time to do this. It usually takes me several days to get everything set up and running again after I do this and right now I don’t have the time. In a couple of weeks I’ll be done with what I’m doing and I’ll be able to tear the thing down and do a proper job.

Thanks

Testy

9

I am currently loving this app: Tune Up Utilities. Cleans your registry and more.

Free for 30 days then you get a nag screen.

Also cool is O&O Defrag (link goes to free trial download signup)

10

Mangetout

Just to get back to you. I tried your advice on removing unnecessary devices. Now THAT was a surprise. I had an enormous number of unused devices in “Storage devices” and “USB devices” categories. It seems that every time I plug my Creative MP3 player or my little USB storage device into the system, it created another entry. It is a VERY subjective analysis, but the system seems a good deal quicker than it did. All things considered, I have to say that you put your finger right on the problem. Also, I was spared having to root through the registry, something I’m grateful for.

As an oh-by-the-way, I have a similar system setting next to it running Fedora Core 5 and NEVER have a problem with it.

Thanks again

Testy

11

[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
I am currently loving this app: Tune Up Utilities. Cleans your registry and more.

Free for 30 days then you get a nag screen.

Also cool is O&O Defrag (link goes to free trial download signup)
[/QUOTE]

ZipperJJ

Thank you. I’m D/Ling the tune-up thing now and will get back to you in a few minutes with how it went. I’m hoping this can straighten-up a few nagging problems.

Thanks and regards

Testy

12

Raymond Chen (Microsoft old timer) describes some of the headaches of USB devices here. In short, it is not always easy to tell if the device you have plugged in is the same one you plugged in yesterday, or a different identical device, because manufacturers don’t necessarily give each device a unique USB serial number. Windows needs to keep track of the devices separately in case you have different customised settings for them. I guess something like that is responsible for your plethora of USB entries.

13

[QUOTE=Usram]
Raymond Chen (Microsoft old timer) describes some of the headaches of USB devices here. In short, it is not always easy to tell if the device you have plugged in is the same one you plugged in yesterday, or a different identical device, because manufacturers don’t necessarily give each device a unique USB serial number. Windows needs to keep track of the devices separately in case you have different customised settings for them. I guess something like that is responsible for your plethora of USB entries.
[/QUOTE]

Usram

Maybe that is the case. My USB usage is fairly basic, just storage devices and an MP3 player that I treat just the same. Windows seems to repeatedly mess-up by trying to provide services I never asked for and don’t want.

Thanks

Testy

14

[QUOTE=Testy]
Mangetout

Just to get back to you. I tried your advice on removing unnecessary devices. Now THAT was a surprise. I had an enormous number of unused devices in “Storage devices” and “USB devices” categories. It seems that every time I plug my Creative MP3 player or my little USB storage device into the system, it created another entry.
[/quote]
It seems to create an additional entry each time a device is plugged into a different port.

Biggest difference it makes is to the speed of Windows startup - the system will look for each of those devices when it boots, and on some of them, there may be some kind of timeout that must expire before the system decides it’s not connected. But because Windows shows you the desktop before the startup processes are complete, a sluggish boot can make the whole thing feel slow - because the first thing you do is try to fire up your email client and web browser (or some such), and then you wait a long time to see it.

BTW, to completely remove Norton/Symantec products from your computer, you can use the Norton Removal Tool (assuming regular uninstallation fails).

15

Mangetout

I’ll kill-off Norton tomorrow when I get time. In general I’m not plagued by viruses and the like because I don’t click on things I don’t understand. You say ZoneAlarm works OK? I’ll give it a try.

Anyway, thanks again. You’ve been a great help.

Testy

16

ZipperJJ

I ran that application and it showed a HUGE amount of problems. I had it fix most of them and did a reboot so it doesn’t seem to have harmed anything.

Thanks for your help.

Testy

17

[QUOTE=Testy]
Mangetout

I’ll kill-off Norton tomorrow when I get time. In general I’m not plagued by viruses and the like because I don’t click on things I don’t understand.
[/quote]
Of course it could be argued that you’re not plagued by them because you have Norton installed - I’m not going to make that argument though. You definitely should have some kind of resident antivirus installed, but I think AVG is fine.

I’ve never actually used it myself (I still use Sygate Personal Firewall, which is no longer easily available), but everybody seems to rate it highly.

18

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Of course it could be argued that you’re not plagued by them because you have Norton installed - I’m not going to make that argument though. You definitely should have some kind of resident antivirus installed, but I think AVG is fine.
[/QUOTE]

AVG has a paid version and a free version, which can be found here. There are some limits on how you can use the free version (I think the free version only lets you schedule weekly scans, while the full version gives you more flexibility), but it auto-updates and works quietly in the background, while not messing up any of my programs (Panda Anti-Virus was a great program worth the money I paid for it, but it unfortunately futzed up my Thunderbird mailboxes whenever I got a virus in my email. Easy to fix, but a pain in the hindquarters).

And of course, if you’re ever in doubt of your virus scanner, you can back it up with one of the numerous free online virus scanners offered by various companies (Panda has one, I think McAfee has one, and there are some others).

19

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Of course it could be argued that you’re not plagued by them because you have Norton installed - I’m not going to make that argument though. You definitely should have some kind of resident antivirus installed, but I think AVG is fine.

I’ve never actually used it myself (I still use Sygate Personal Firewall, which is no longer easily available), but everybody seems to rate it highly.
[/QUOTE]

Well, I’ve only had viruses three times in the last 18 years or so and I was responsible for two of those as I was playing with viruses to see how they worked. I did have someone do a buffer-overflow attack once but, once again, I have to take responsibility for that. I do like to do a scan every week or so just to be sure.
As we’ve been talking about Norton, I’ve been peeved at them ever since they failed to detect the Sony root-kit. Actually, I understand they detected the thing but didn’t report it.

Anyway, I’ll pick up AVG tomorrow.

Thanks again

Testy

20

[QUOTE=Raguleader]
And of course, if you’re ever in doubt of your virus scanner, you can back it up with one of the numerous free online virus scanners offered by various companies (Panda has one, I think McAfee has one, and there are some others).
[/QUOTE]
This is a strategy I use quite often, as it is sometimes the case that a badly infected machine can’t be completely fixed by one solution alone. Panda’s Activescan appears to be detection-only now; if you want it to fix the things it finds, you have to buy something at the end of the scan.

Trend’s Housecall is still free and fully functional.