The software listed on this page are products that I have used over the years and have had great success with. They are all either currently installed on my own computer or are services I am subscribed to. I use these products because they work to keep my video editing computer running smoothly.
The first order of business here is housekeeping. There are three areas that are the major sources of computer slow down. Messy Windows registry, clutter and disc fragmentation.
CCleaner
First, it’s time to take out the garbage with one of my favorite feeebies! This is a program that started life a few years ago under the name of “Crap Cleaner.” I thought it was a great name because, well, that’s what it does!
However after a few years the owner seems to have developed marketing skills and changed the name to CCleaner. It is a great program for cleaning out all the garbage that builds up on your computer over time which causes the computer to slow down. I usually run it once per week. It has great controls for determining just what you want cleaned out or you can use the default settings with confidence.
Windows Registry Utilities
Now that we have taken out the garbage it’s time to put everything back where it was supposed to be in the first place.
This is a category I pay for. In the past I have tried not to pay for it and at those times I either gained little or no benefit from the software or suffered complete catastrophe.
My conclusion from those experiences has convinced me that when it comes to playing with the Windows registry I would prefer to pay for certainty, safety and effectiveness.
Windows is a pig when it comes to useless or incorrect entries building up in the registry and this is a major cause of computers slowing down or becoming unstable. The addition and removal of software and just general use of the computer cause these useless entries to build up in the registry.
The registry is at the very core of the operating system and as this area becomes more cluttered and disorganized Windows has to sort through an increasing amount of data to get to what it wants.
The answer is to regularly and SAFELY remove these entries to keep the registry neat and tidy. Noticeable improvements in speed and stability can be achieved by doing this.
Most registry cleaners are either too aggressive leaving you with a crashed PC or unresponsive programs or are too conservative and don’t really do anything to improve performance.
For me Registry Mechanic delivers the right balance. It cleans the registry safely and thoroughly, creates backup points before doing so and has a “compactor” feature to keep the registry efficient and fast.
Defrag – Diskeeper
Now that we have thrown out the trash and tidied up that leaves only one other step to keeping your computer lean and mean.
The subject of defragmentation of hard drives is another area full of opinion and facts and it is very difficult to separate them out. Most of the free software around for defragging seems to me to be intent solely on the purpose of producing the most defragmented hard drive possible.
Of course you only have to use the computer for two minutes afterwards and it is already suffering at least some fragmentation. Perfect defragging is not the point. Additionally, constantly and totally defragging the hard drive can also get to a stage of not really being worth the effort, given the excessive workload being placed on the hard drive itself. You may end up with a perfectly defragged, but broken down, hard drive of no use to you or anyone!
This is why I use Diskeeper. The program is recognized all over the world as being at the forefront of hard drive drefragging utilities and has held that position for many years now.
The reason I use it is because it has a “set and forget” element to it. You can just install the program, set it up and then instruct it to just keep the discs on the computer defragged. It then monitors the hard drives constantly and when they reach a certain level of fragmentation Diskeeper swings into action and defrags the disc.
It does all of that using microscopic amounts of computer resources so even when it is running there is no noticeable difference in computer performance.
It is so well mannered that if you begin a very resource hungry task on the computer while it is running it will suspend itself and wait until you are finished. How civilized! Most importantly though, it defrags for the purpose of computer performance, not for the sake of defragging.
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