[Organic Panic]

I have found ZERO third party programs that actually help with sluggish windows machines. There are dozens that say they will “clean” the registry, remove unwanted services, etc.

Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on your outlook) the best method is a clean install. ESPECIALLY if the Windows was preinstalled on the laptop.

When I need to clean up a windows machine it has always been quicker for me to wipe out the entire hard drive and start from scratch.

Of course make sure to take the proper steps to back up your files. AND!!! Do not forget to check in liecnses for the software. For example. I have installations of NX (engineering software) and if I don’t check in my license it is a pain in the butt to get the license reset for a new installation.

Good luck.

[dennisw]

I have done many clean installs. I will see what kind of restore DVDs and recovery partition this laptop has tomorrow when I get it.

I would love to clean it up enuff without resorting to clean install.

[zeugma]

A windows 7 fresh install is pretty much an all day affair unless you baby-sit the thing. Once you get the OS installed, then it's off to get patches/updates. (The first batch will be huge). Once that's all done, it will reboot and notify you that you have more critical updates. Once that is done, it will reboot and notifiy you you have more critical updates. Once that is done, it will reboot and tell you that you have more critical updates. I recently did a clean install in a VM (which is the only safe way to run windows), and I think I did 5 of those patch/reboot cycles.