Checked your hard drive free space lately?
Also, you should be doing the following manually, on a regular bases:
Win Updates: When Windows installs updates, it makes backups of the changed files so you can uninstall them via Add/Remove Programs. These backup files also take up much hard drive space.
If an Update has been installed AND working without a problem, you will unlikely uninstall it. So the backup file is no longer needed. You need to remove the backup file, AND the entry in Add/Remove Programs, but leave the Update Logs so Win Updates always sees them as installed.
One safe way I recommend is using the Update Cleanup (shareware). See the screen shot. Very easy and safe to use. Worth the cost. I use it at home and work. I just keep 6mths of updates.
Registry Cleanup: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and report errors, and remove them.
The utility I use is TweakNow RegCleaner. The Standard version is free, the Pro version is small cost (worth it) and backs up changes (see comparison on page).
It is very easy to use and clearly indicates Safe to delete, Unknown (use Deep Scan to resolve), and Unsafe to delete.
Hard Drive Defrag/Optimizers: There are 2 good utilities I've used. Auslogics Disk Defrag (freeware), and Perfect Disk (worth the cost).
One advantage of Perfect Disk is that, with Smart Placement enabled, it uses the WinXP LAYOUT.INI (Prefetch file that lists all the software loaded during bootup) to move all those files to the head of your drive, in order. This results in slightly faster and smoother bootup.
Also, you should be doing the following manually, on a regular bases:
- From the Command Prompt, run CHKDSK C: /F (will require reboot)
- Defrag/Optimize your hard drives (suggest a better utility than Win Defrag, see below)
- Run Disk Cleanup in System Tools (do not clean compressed files)
- Use [Delete files] in Internet Options between runs of Disk Cleanup
- Remove unnecessary backup files (see below, JAVA & Win Updates)
- Run a good, safe, Registry Cleanup tool (see below)
Win Updates: When Windows installs updates, it makes backups of the changed files so you can uninstall them via Add/Remove Programs. These backup files also take up much hard drive space.
If an Update has been installed AND working without a problem, you will unlikely uninstall it. So the backup file is no longer needed. You need to remove the backup file, AND the entry in Add/Remove Programs, but leave the Update Logs so Win Updates always sees them as installed.
One safe way I recommend is using the Update Cleanup (shareware). See the screen shot. Very easy and safe to use. Worth the cost. I use it at home and work. I just keep 6mths of updates.
Registry Cleanup: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and report errors, and remove them.
The utility I use is TweakNow RegCleaner. The Standard version is free, the Pro version is small cost (worth it) and backs up changes (see comparison on page).
It is very easy to use and clearly indicates Safe to delete, Unknown (use Deep Scan to resolve), and Unsafe to delete.
Hard Drive Defrag/Optimizers: There are 2 good utilities I've used. Auslogics Disk Defrag (freeware), and Perfect Disk (worth the cost).
One advantage of Perfect Disk is that, with Smart Placement enabled, it uses the WinXP LAYOUT.INI (Prefetch file that lists all the software loaded during bootup) to move all those files to the head of your drive, in order. This results in slightly faster and smoother bootup.
