Tools for "speeding up a pc"

[mrapoc]

Iv got a "job" tomorrow at a relative's work place, a little nursing home in the middle of nowhere - lol

Apparently their work pcs are just so slow nowadays and iv been asked to go "speed them up".

At most cases id just format but they are work pcs, i cant afford to spend all day installing drivers etc. and what if something mucks up kinda thing.

So im thinking of stashing my usb pen full of tools

Any recommendations would be useful (install on machine/run/remove or run off usb will do)

Im thinking Ccleaner to clean any cr*p. Some form of portable antivirus (?) which will definately catch anything, some form of antispyware (superantispyware?) and then a quick look at the msconfigs. May also turn off any visual effects - if there are any.

Any ideas are gratefully received. thanks

[Lance]

i think ccleaner will be a big help, as it will clear out all the old temp files as well. A defrag will be a good idea as well.

[mrapoc]

ahh yes and windows defrag

any point in a disk check as well?

[Lance]

Certainly wouldn't do any harm!

[Lance]

Another thought, assuming they are using xp, get a copy of bootvis, which will show you what is slowing down the startup and is good for finding troublesome drivers.

[mrapoc]

i dont know if its startup causing the issue

she literally said to me "the work computers are really slow now" which in my books could be a hell of a lot of things

any ideas on the anti virus/spyware front?

i plan to unload them onto each pc (nt knowing how many im dealing with) - scanning and going for a nice cuppa with the elderly residents 

i cud try bundling the whole eset folder on and seein if that runs 

[Lance]

You could try the eset online scanner, but i've never used it myself so don't know any more about it. Surely the computers have antivirus software installed anyway? If not, download avg or something and just use that.

[Den]

If the computers are not on line it is unlikely to be a virus. Defrag is more likely to speed them up. 

[somanyholes]

good for the toolkit "Sysinternals Suite"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/0e18b180-9b7a-4c49-8120-c47c5a693683.aspx

[kinmel]

and never forget Hirens Boot cd

[Dangerjunkie]

I'd echo with So's recommendation of the Sysinternals tools. I would go armed with Autoruns, Process Explorer and Rootkit Revealer. Autoruns is worth it's weight in gold as the one thing every piece of scumware has in common is that it will try to autostart somewhere (and in my experience, anything that tries to autostart in more than one section is almost invariably bad) Tell it to hide MS entries and then have a sort through the rest, particularly anything that doesn't have a name in the who wrote it column.

Symantec's online virus scan works pretty well and I've only ever seen one virus that was aware of it and managed to kill it.

I usually scan machines with Spybot Search and Destroy and adaware (both available from download.com) Neither is perfect but between them they don't miss much. If you're still suspicious Windows Defender is a lot better than it at first appears as a backup.

Do you know the spec of the machines? If they're a few years old and were bought as business machines they're probably a bit underpowered. It may just be that they've installed more and more junk until they've stretched the machine a bit far. I would check how much RAM they have. Less than 512MB is a complete no-no for XP but I wouldn't recommend anyone run a machine with less than 1024MB. I recommend Orca Logic as a RAM supplier http://www.orcalogic.co.uk/asp/default.asp

I'd remove any unnecessary junk that is starting up and sitting in the tray too.

If you suspect any of the machines may be infected I would get a copy of Wireshark ( http://www.wireshark.org ), close all programs then run it and see if anything on the machine is talking on the Internet. Many scummy things are spam/DDoS zombies and they will be talking on the net. The program will be able to hide but its traffic can't hide from Wireshark.

If you're comfortable with it I would also take a copy of the Ubuntu or Knoppix Linux boot discs along. If you get something bad that has locked its files so you can't delete them a Linux disc is very useful. It lets you start the machine but without Windows running so no files can be locked and you can delete them. Windows file-hiding tricks also don't work against Linux.

Good luck,
Paul.

[talos2]

Some very useful tools there, is there somewhere on this site where these and others can be archived, and used for reference?

[Rik]

I'll sticky this thread, Bob.

[somanyholes]

driver max for worst case ......

http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/

[talos2]

I'll sticky this thread, Bob.

Thanks Rick, you never know when you may need these, but with luck you may not.

[Noreen]

The free standalone version of SIW may be useful.  http://www.gtopala.com/

[Baz]

dont know if this helps any but I have nod32 anti virus which is eset and I tried to put the folder on my sons system upstairs and it wouldnt run, need a separate license for each system.

[Gary]

Windows defender is doing well in tests as a antispyware app these days, it does have daily updates sometimes as many as 3-4 but you need to intall them manually rather than wait for the once in a blue moon auto update from MS you can get updates from here
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/ADL.aspx#top

In a vb test the Microsoft suite with windows defender got about 97% of spyware now and about the same for malware, they really have pulled forward since they first released their antivirus and spyware tools.

http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02

[Lance]

I find i get at least daily updates through the Windows update, Gary.

[vitriol]

me too

[Noreen]

Does Defender still make a System Restore point every time it installs a def update?

[vitriol]

Just had a look at my System Restore history and there is one for just about everyday.  So I would guess so Noreen.

Next time defender updates I'll take a look.

[Noreen]

That's why I stopped using it, seems unnecessary to me, no other anti-virus or spyware program seems to need to do it.

[vitriol]

It is a Microsoft program though.

[Sebby]

True!