• PC World
• »Software
• »Utilities

Optimize for Speed

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner

One major cause of system slowdowns is a bloated Registry filled with out-of-date or bad entries. Your Registry gets junked up in many ways, notably when you uninstall a program that is ill-behaved and leaves traces of itself behind. As a result, one of the best ways to improve PC speed is to use a Registry cleaner or fixer. Plenty of for-pay fixers exist, but if you want just the basics, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is a good bet. It scans your Registry for problems, reports on what it finds, and then fixes the problems you tell it to address. You can also restore your original Registry settings if the new ones cause problems themselves.

Download Eusing Free Registry Cleaner | Price: Free

CCleaner

If you're looking for the ultimate free PC cleanup tool to help boost system performance, look no further: You've found it in CCleaner. For a start, it cleans out junk and unnecessary files in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, your overall Windows system, and many applications. It also includes a Registry scanner that hunts down and fixes problems, and it offers an uninstaller for removing unwanted programs. In addition, it deletes traces of your Internet activity to protect your privacy.

Download CCleaner | Price: Free

Auslogics Registry Defrag

Cleaning your Registry with a tool such as Eusing Free Registry Cleaner (see above) will go a long way toward improving PC speed--but it won't go all the way. Even after you scrub the Registry, it may still suffer from bloat, because over time the Registry becomes defragmented, particularly when you add and remove entries. The free, simple Auslogics Registry Defrag utility defragments the Registry and gains you a bit of hard-disk space. More important, though, is that it speeds up your computer's access to the Registry by compacting it--and that means a faster PC. The program is free, it's simple to use, and it revs up your PC...what else could you ask for?

Download Auslogics Registry Defrag | Price: Free

Advanced Windows Optimizer

The?all-in-one Advanced Windows Optimizer offers numerous modules for optimizing, speeding up, and cleaning your PC. Its Registry Cleaner will kill invalid Registry entries that may slow down your system, and its Startup Cleaner will help you eliminate unneeded programs that launch on startup. It also has assorted cleaners for wiping out junk files and other excess material, plus system optimizers for deleting invalid shortcuts, optimizing Windows' use of RAM, and related tasks.

Note that the trial version has some limitations compared with the full version. For example, it will correct only up to 20 Registry flaws.

Download Advanced Windows Optimizer | Price: $40 (free trial for 15 days)

Advanced Windows Care 2 Personal

Here's a quick, easy, and free way to juice up system performance. It has all the basic tools you'll need for raising PC speed, and it is exceedingly simple to work with. It even has a one-click fix function in which it analyzes your machine and then corrects any problems it finds.

Most useful are the startup manager, which shows you all the programs that run on startup and lets you kill any that you no longer want to start; the Registry fixer, which addresses invalid or incorrect entries and values; and the system optimizer, which alters the way Windows runs in order to improve performance. The app has a slew of other tools as well, such as a spyware remover, a junk file cleaner, a privacy sweeper, and some very good tools that show details about your hardware and software configuration.

Download Advanced Windows Care 2 Personal | Price: Free