My trusty old laptop is in need of a tune up.

looking to generally have  a bit of a clear out of all the many broken files, junk and clean the registry. Anyone have any recommendations ? Even better if there is something that will do the job and it's free 👍

At best those things are pointless. At worst it breaks things. 

I use, Glary Utilities', and 'CCleaner'. Don't know if they actually work, but regular use seems to keep me out of trouble!

Just make sure you do the usual dance on downloading them to get the FREE version rather than them trying to upgrade you to premium...

You really shouldn’t need to use anything other than the built in disk cleanup.

1 minute ago, alexp999 said:

You really shouldn’t need to use anything other than the built in disk cleanup. 

In the same way that you shouldn't need to use anything other than E10 petrol, but some of us like to use premium E5 LOL

Just now, StephenFord said:

In the same way that you shouldn't need to use anything other than E10 petrol, but some of us like to use premium E5 LOL

Tools like this rely on people that don’t understand enough about computers and is just an opportunity to try and sell you something. Wouldn’t surprise me if they even have an awful privacy policy and make a bit of money that way too. 
 

E5 is quantifiable if potentially unnecessary on some engines. These tools give the impression they do something useful but either don’t do anything useful or can actively break things. 

5 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Tools like this rely on people that don’t understand enough about computers and is just an opportunity to try and sell you something. Wouldn’t surprise me if they even have an awful privacy policy and make a bit of money that way too. 

Both of those programs do not require any type of 'registration' so privacy leaks are purely via cookies. If they make money from me, sobeit... It's a long time since I defragged a disk LOL

Just now, StephenFord said:

Both of those programs do not require any type of 'registration' so privacy leaks are purely via cookies. It's a long tome since I defragged a disk LOL

Because Windows defrags HDDs in the background for you now. SSDs don’t require defrags. 
 

A better car analogy. You don’t load up Forscan once a week or once a month to clear out the lost communication DTCs that gradually build up from normal use. You just get on and use the car. Same with a computer.

Modern operating systems are very good at managing themselves and have built in tools to clean up update files and temp files if you need to free up some drive space. 

Also you can get so much data without cookies from an application that’s running with admin privileges, basically everything that’s on your pc, all your browser history if it wanted. I can guarantee it’s submitting something back about your pc, installed programs, etc. 

You are giving some random third party tool unfettered access to your pc to do anything with, look at everything and it has an internet connection to submit what it likes back to a server. 

1 minute ago, alexp999 said:

Modern operating systems are very good at managing themselves and have built in tools to clean up update files and temp files if you need to free up some drive space. 

I think the issue is that Windows7 isn't a cutting edge OS and often needs a bit of help chugging along. Kinda like using ForScan to clear the odd error codes so car isn't worrying about unnecessary stuff and showing errant warning lights...

Just now, StephenFord said:

I think the issue is that Windows7 isn't a cutting edge OS and often needs a bit of help chugging along. Kinda like using ForScan to clear the odd error codes so car isn't worrying about unnecessary stuff and showing errant warning lights...

Warning lights are a problem that needs fixing though. This is doing stuff that doesn’t need fixing. I can bet these tools are not making any measurable difference. 
 

The reason that old computers get slower with time is because the software gets more complicated. The software needs to do more things, security vulnerabilities get patched which slows things down, programs get new features, websites get bigger, more complicated. That hardware hasn’t moved on since the day you bought it but the software and online content continues to push forward. 

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

The reason that old computers get slower with time is because the software gets more complicated.

and bloated! My own Windows 7 laptop has been upgraded to a SDD which changed a cold boot up from 6 minutes to 38 seconds! I know modern OS like windows 10/11 are much quicker, but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with my 7, apart from MS abandoning support for it and trying to force me to spend money on an upgrade.

Same ethos of my 19 year old Focus, it works perfectly, is reliable, and I don't need anything more fancy so suits my life perfectly...

4 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

and bloated! My own Windows 7 laptop has been upgraded to a SDD which changed a cold boot up from 6 minutes to 38 seconds! I know modern OS like windows 10/11 are much quicker, but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with my 7, apart from MS abandoning support for it and trying to force me to spend money on an upgrade.

Same ethos of my 19 year old Focus, it works perfectly, is reliable, and I don't need anything more fancy so suits my life perfectly...

Windows 10 has the same minimum hardware requirements as 7. It wouldn’t run any quicker than 7. You could probably update to Windows 10 on the same hardware but you’ll still only have about another 18 months security updates, unless MS extend the Win 10 EOL. 
 

And you car isn’t internet connected. Much easier to keep that going, it’s not having to deal with any significant changes to the way it operates. 

Have always used and recommended C-Cleaner the free version is good and a few little safe tweaks makes it better, However much of the crap is browser based, if only someone - anyone could invent a browser that didnt use webview 2 we could maybe get some control of our systems.

Well using the inbuilt Windows 7 disk cleaner hasn't gone very well so far 🙄

After it took about 15 minutes to 'clean and delete' what it thought needed doing the laptop rebooted. Then it was doing an update, crashed, and it decided to undo the update. I had 4 rounds of it doing the install, crash, undo, and redo.

Eventually Windows booted back up to a working desktop. That was short lived after 10 minutes I got the blue wall of death and the whole thing just hung. 🙁

So I'm now just going to leave it a few hours and see if it might calm down. The only reason i wanted to clean up the operating system was because once a day I'd get the blue wall !!

6 minutes ago, unofix said:

Well using the inbuilt Windows 7 disk cleaner hasn't gone very well so far 🙄

After it took about 15 minutes to 'clean and delete' what it thought needed doing the laptop rebooted. Then it was doing an update, crashed, and it decided to undo the update. I had 4 rounds of it doing the install, crash, undo, and redo.

Eventually Windows booted back up to a working desktop. That was short lived after 10 minutes I got the blue wall of death and the whole thing just hung. 🙁

So I'm now just going to leave it a few hours and see if it might calm down. The only reason i wanted to clean up the operating system was because once a day I'd get the blue wall !!

What is the error code on the BSOD (Blue screen of death)?

You can also use something like Whocrashed to check the event logs.

It could be a software, hardware or driver issue.

It's a bit like DTCs 😉

9 minutes ago, unofix said:

Well using the inbuilt Windows 7 disk cleaner hasn't gone very well so far 🙄

After it took about 15 minutes to 'clean and delete' what it thought needed doing the laptop rebooted. Then it was doing an update, crashed, and it decided to undo the update. I had 4 rounds of it doing the install, crash, undo, and redo.

Eventually Windows booted back up to a working desktop. That was short lived after 10 minutes I got the blue wall of death and the whole thing just hung. 🙁

So I'm now just going to leave it a few hours and see if it might calm down. The only reason i wanted to clean up the operating system was because once a day I'd get the blue wall !!

That's a sad state of affairs. I haven't seen the BSOD for literally years (not since my windows 3.1 & XP days). My '7' desktop is slow, because it has the original HDD. I only use it occasionally when I need to print something as it's connected by a good old reliable cable to my trusty 15 year old Epson printer.

I'm wondering if you have a reliable local computer shop that can copy your existing hard drive, and re-load it onto a SSD? I know I use to have frequent crashes (not BSOD) on my '7' laptop, but after it had the SSD fitted, it was a real flying machine.

Bl**dy computers - who'd have'em...

1 hour ago, alexp999 said:

What is the error code on the BSOD

Hi Alex, I don't know but when it happens again (which I expect will be soon) I'll take a photo of it.

I'm thinking of changing the hard drive to a SSD but need to be able to clone the existing drive.

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Well using the inbuilt Windows 7 disk cleaner hasn't gone very well so far

It might be worth running the System File Checker which will detect and try to repair any damaged files in the operating system. Open a command-line window with admin privileges and type

sfc /scannow

See what it reports. Hopefully you should see a message that says, "Verification 100% complete".

It may report damaged files and whether it was successfully able to repair them. It may need running more than once to clear all the errors.

Both of our desktop PCs running W7 Professional SP1 have several damaged files which can't be repaired because it says the copies for repair in the cache are also damaged. Both machines still soldier on. I've considered doing repair installs from the original OEM CDs but worried about opening a can of worms

8 hours ago, alexp999 said:

Also you can get so much data without cookies from an application that’s running with admin privileges, basically everything that’s on your pc, all your browser history if it wanted. I can guarantee it’s submitting something back about your pc, installed programs, etc. 

You are giving some random third party tool unfettered access to your pc to do anything with, look at everything and it has an internet connection to submit what it likes back to a server. 

Sorry, but that's simply wrong.

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I'm wondering if you have a reliable local computer shop that can copy your existing hard drive, and re-load it onto a SSD?

There is a computer shop nearby but I don't like the idea of them copying my drive, look what happened to Hunter Biden 🤣

I'm more concerned about banking details and passwords for various accounts but it may well come to having to trust them to do the work. If I had a desktop machine I'd be able to do it myself which in the past I have done.

2 minutes ago, orangecurry said:

Sorry, but that's simply wrong.

Do tell?

I read the privacy policy on CCleaner and as expected, it sends back details about your PC and installed programs.

I also know what access admin rights gives you. I work in IT for a living.

11 minutes ago, mjt said:

Open a command-line window with admin privileges and type

Hi Mike, I've just tried that and it seems to have done something. It took a good few minutes to do the verification and it got to 100%

It seemed to just then sit and then suddenly it flashed a message (too quick to read) that said something along the lines of files repaired.

I've rebooted the laptop and it decided this time to do a Windows update which has installed, and as far as i can tell everything is working. 👍

For drive cloning you can get USB enclosures for about £30 that you can plug in to copy the drive across. Have done that a few times with laptops. It's not particularly fast but it gets the job done. If you do a search on Amazon for "hard drive clone" you'll see a few. 

1 hour ago, erictcleric said:

If you do a search on Amazon for "hard drive clone" you'll see a few. 

I've never been able to clone a operating drive that was actually in use at the time, I used to always use a separate machine and connect the drive to be copied and the new blank to that.

I think using the USB enclosure it would be possible to make a copy of all data on the drive but not make a working, bootable clone of the operating system. Can you please advise me on this @alexp999 ?