Kinda Off Topic- About Retail Software

[CALM]

I am running 2 computers, one being a AMD333/W98-2. It is kinda slow workhorse and it has aLOT of stuff loaded on it (not many games) Anyway I saw a retail program in a store the other day that is supposed to delete duplicate files and the help speed up the system and other stuff. I do NOT mess with registry files and was wondering if these utilities actually work. The price is kinda steep--50$ and am hesitant to spend that much. It is an Iolo program.
Feedback welcome. Thanx.

[locustfurnace]

A 333Mhz, CAN be made to perform very well. the first thing is delete the programs you no longer use, via the Windows ADD/REMOVE programs. Keep using Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter to keep the system tuned-up.
the program you mention is common, and most likely can be had for free/shareware, check out tucows.com for similar shareware apps.
another good program is Disk Data, it gives an easy chart view of whos taking up the largest amount of data on the disk, so if ya want to delete it, you can.
be sure to clean out the temporary internet files, and the TEMP folder within C:\windows\Temp
that can store masive amounts of useless data, which was used when you installed apps. and were never removed for some odd reason.
the program you mentioned will clean dup files, by eliminating the backup Windows makes of some files. alot of programs when installed will make backup files, so if you installed 100 apps and each one made a backup, it will have hundreds of duplicate files stored on the HD.

do a search via START/FIND/FILES, and search for these files
*.LOG, *.OLD, *.BAK, *.000, *.001, *.002 *.---

delete em to the recycle bin, reboot computer, if everyhting goes fine, empty bin. if a file claims it need such n such file, see if it is in recycle bin, click RESTORE, to restore it.
after a day or so, with no error messages, empty the bin.
you can also do the same procedure with *.bmps, if you dont have a use for them. after finding em, look through em, delete if no longer want.

but if you want that progam, see if there is a demo, shareware version first.

[suds]

Great info !......Thanks for sharing !

[CALM]

yes, Thanks!

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by CALM@Jul 3 2003, 08:53 PM
Anyway I saw a retail program in a store the other day that is supposed to delete duplicate files and the help speed up the system and other stuff.
I found a product9(s) you can try, and you just meet the "requirements" with a 333.

G-Lock Temp Cleaner , "most hard drive are full of junk files that have been left behind by other clean up software. These junk files waste space and can even cause problems with the normal operation of your computer"
http://www.glocksoft.com/temp_cleaner/index.htm
CM DiskCleaner, a small disk cleaner application developed to keep your computer in good shape. (FREE)
http://www.cmdiskcleaner.com/
Kleen-It, Kleen-It will search through your hard drive for files that are leftovers and can be safely deleted.
Mister Clean 2.5, utility to reclaim hard disk space taken up by forgotten large files.
note Mr Clean & Kleen-it are on the same site
http://www.overware.com/os/os.php?mode=con...&title=Freeware (http://www.overware.com/os/os.php?mode=content&type=freeware&title=Freeware)
Space Odyssey fixes and prevents errors in Windows 95/98/2000 and Windows NT by finding and cleaning error-producing and space-wasting garbage files.
http://www.ultrasoft.ro/page_so.htm

[Goslow]

A small tweak involves pinching a bit of space off the recycle bin which is probably at the default of something like 10% of hard drive.
Right click the recycle bin icon - properties - adjust the slidebar to something more resonable like 4-6%

Had to edit this cause I forgot to metion its free !!

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by Goslow@Sep 11 2003, 10:50 AM
A small tweak involves pinching a bit of space off the recycle bin which is probably at the default of something like 10% of hard drive.



Yes, which is a pain when you have Drives C: all the way to Drive Q:, and each one is holding 10%. One can also eliminate the Recycle Bin from other drives, but even if you delete the recycle bin, Windows re creates it, so the solution to that is to make a txt file called "recycled" in place of the recycle bin, then windows will stop making recyle bins on all your drives you don't want it to.

10% is rather a large amount, when you have hundreds of Gigs, say you have 200gigs and a recycle bin is 10%, thats 20gigs being reserved for "deleted files".

Its best to hold the shift key when you delete something, so it does not go to the recycle bin - IF your certain your wanting to delete it.