Free up some space in XP

You can get a lot of space back if you delete all of the files in:
C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch

Sometimes you have a lot of these if your computer crashes frequently
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump

How to protect against Spyware:

Use programs like Ad-aware
and Spybot Search and Destroy
Don't download activeX controls from the internet.

Spyware can make your system slowdown

Thanks! You deserve a hands up ! But I strongly advise against deleting ALL files in the prefetch folder, because some of those files are linked to the registry and can mess up your computer if you don't know what your doing....And thanks for the Minidump folder thing! It had loads of files!!!

You can delete the files in WINDOWS/Temp to. And a good thing to make your pc faster at the startup is to have a light destop, with few icones. That can make your computer faster at the startup.

It is also usefull to check your system-configuration on a regular base, to see what programs are launched during startup.

start>execute> type msconfig>startup

You can use this website: http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php to find out what files are needed by your operating system.

Files in the startuplist, that launch programs you don't need, can be deselected by clicking the checkbox.

You can get a lot of space back if you delete all of the files in:

C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch

 

Sometimes you have a lot of these if your computer crashes frequently

C:\WINDOWS\Minidump

 

How to protect against Spyware:

 

Use programs like http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
'>Ad-aware

and https://www.safer-networking.org/
'>Spybot Search and Destroy

Don't download activeX controls from the internet.

 

Spyware can make your system slowdown

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My computer crashes frequently ... one of these days it will likely burn too LOL. I've had a lot of problems with spyware and adware in the past but I run SpyHunter nightly now and as far as I know, it's keeping things clean.

I have never heard of prefetch or minidump before. Where do go to clean these out - and how can I be certain I won't be deleting something I will need?

(Sorry if these seem like stupid questions but I really hadn't heard these terms before)

 

Jodi H.

I reckon it's a wee bit safer to use a trusted cleaning utility to clean up useless stuff.

I use https://m'>WashAndGo to do that.

Here's how I make some space on my hard drive:

Im am using a registered version of TuneUp Utilities 2004 from /oldbrowser/index.html - works good on getting rid of junks and temporary files, also fixes and optimizes your system.

Using the basic disk cleanup utility on the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools

Using the defrag data utility on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools(only when the drive needs defragging)

I also clean up some folders that contains some unimportant files, some are as follows:

x:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp
x:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\<application that uses temporary file storage> - kinda useful(since some applications like Adobe Photoshop uses a lot of temporary memory[its scratch disk])

x=Disk Drive Letter

I always clear out my internet cache, cookies including all offline files that I get from the net. Internet Explorer Tabs -> Tools -> Internet Options... -> General Tab -> Delete Cookies/Delete Files(including offline files)

Check your download directory, especially if you have a fast internet connection.I often download large packages into temp. Sometimes you end up with a .zip file which creates a directory with the same name and all of the unzipped files underneath.I currently have 12.5G wasted in temp. One big one is the trial version of Dreamweaver.js

I just save my files to my desktop and delete them once I'm finished. Windows has many processes that are unnecessary. Goto http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and find the ones you can disable. This will increase speed for Windows by not running those programs you don't use.

Don't forget to delete the stuff in your temporary internet files folder. This folder gets filled up when you visit websites. Its the same place where it stores cookies and images to make pages load faster.

Does anyone think of freeing up some memory when you run Windows ? The programs we run will take up much memory of our computer. When we quit a program, the memory cannot or has not returned to its innitial state. The program we use is to do something like "refresh' the memory, and give computer the best use of it memory resource.I don't remember exactly the name of the software, does anyone know what software is the best to do this ?

there are some programs, you can find them on http://www.tucows.com/ or http://download.cnet.com/windows/. use advanced search and search for freeware that has "clean ram" in the description. i made my own program: it runs a very heavy sorting method and by doing so, it forces windows to clean it's ram memory to free space for the program. after 15 seconds, the program is finished and i have about 260mb of the 384 free again it's great and doesn't sit in my taskbar all the time. i just run it when my pc gets slow about freeing spacein your start menu -> accesoires -> system tools folder, you'll find a program called 'cleanup manager'. use it! besides that: if you have nero, try browsing your folders with it. it shows a lot of files that are hidden in windows. for example: every drive has a 'recycler' folder. open it and clean everything in it. you won't be able to erase one of the folders because that's currently in use for your recycler bin, but the other ones are safe to remove.if you run servers, you can look for *.log on your drives. those are logbooks you probably won't ever read. some of them get really big. when i installed oracle, i suddenly had a log of 3GB!!!!! they are safe to remove.

why oh why oh why would anyone want free ram !im Running an up to date Gentoo Linux (KDE desktop)im just browsing the web, listening to music.. and 100% or my 512 megs of ram is in use.this IS a good thing... whats the point in having RAM if ist not being used.80% of my in use ram is just Disk Cache, speeding up loading of programs and data.if my system suddenly needed the ram, then it will clear some disk cache.unised ram is wasted ram.this is the number one mistake that new linux users make. they come to online forums with angry posts like "hey.. i though linux was meant ot be fast an efficiant... its using all of my 1Gig of ram !!! windows only used 30%"

why you want to free ram:imagine, your ram is full and you're starting a new proces.1. copy files from ram to swap file to make space2. make place in ram by deleting unnecessary files or files that are saved in swap.3. start program.in photoshop, any operation will cause swapping and stuff... really, having some spare ram is good.

You can delete the files in WINDOWS/Temp to. And a good thing to make your pc faster at the startup is to have a light destop, with few icones. That can make your computer faster at the startup.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, same here. What i usually do to free up space is to clear out the temporary internet files, delete all files inside the "C:\Windows\Temp" folder, clear the recycle bin, etc. Also by selecting only the necessary programs on Startup would make your pc load faster.