A good free registry cleaner

[Abraham Smashington]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Oh snap. I hope it doesn't mess anything up. Hah.

[Abraham Smashington]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

I'd bump it up to recommended or a bit more if you have the HD space.

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Cool. I'll try it out. Thanks for the help. You're alright for a cracker.

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Oddly enough, the two computers that had the most problems had their VRAM set to the maximum allowed: 1280MB. I still think there is some crud on those machines (they are the oldest in rotation currently). People put all kinds of different stuff on those machines back in old days.

[Abraham Smashington]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Have you gone through them and cleaned them up by hand? Also, check out spybot:Search and Destroy. Like AdAware but sometimes catches things that slip through.

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

I've gone through the add/remove programs thing and taken out stuff I know we don't use.

[patronsaintofcheeseburgers]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Does everyone here work in IT?

[ScooterLaBeef]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Helper Monkey!

[Alwyn]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

I was just browsing over your earlier convo about the VRAM... and here is my 2cents, let?s take a moment to understand what VRAM is, it?s the operating system(OS) that takes a chunk of your Hard drive (HD) and converts it to temp storage space (page file)... if you have a little amount of memory(RAM) say 256MB then the chunk needs to be huge because windows XP and all the other apps need to have a small piece of memory to use in order to function. So the OS has to juggle the RAM space and the temp storage a lot. The OS monitors what is in the physical memory and what is in temp storage, so if some physical memory isn't used, the OS moves that data to the HD and frees up physical memory for other apps that request it... If the data that was moved to the HD is needed again the OS will move it back to active RAM. The OS will be moving data constantly if you have just a little bit of RAM in the machine. This action of moving data degrades the HD and depending on the memory size could cut the life of your HD in half... Basically the more memory you have the less the OS needs to "page" stuff to the HD, thus reducing wear and tear on the HD. Most BSODs are caused by failing or dead RAM... good brands are kingston, corsair and samsung IMO.

**RECOMMENDATION**
I recommend that a machine that runs Windows XP and all the other basic stuff(AV, Office, internet) needs at least 512MB RAM if you want to use the machine with a reasonable amount of efficiency. ;D

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Thank you for the breakdown. We have 512MB on all our machines, but the data collection software we use (I work in a sleep lab) is a resource hog, and it seems that if you try to do too much during data collection (even within the software itself) then you get BSOD. Sometimes. Its weird.

[Alwyn]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

The BSOD could be caused by crappy software that doesn't work efficiently with the memory or the app doesn't release the memory after being closed down. OR you could try and upgrade one machine to about 1-2 GB of RAM and see how that goes. If you have machines that you bought in bulk from a company like HP or CDW etc. they ship with very cheam RAM in them and does go bad after a while, so check that and the possibility of the machine still being under warranty and have the RAM replaced. Hope this helps.

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

Definately helps. Our machines are all Dell and came prepackaged with all the software/hardware required to run our sleep studies. Some are pushing 5 years old at this point. I would love to upgrade the RAM but we might be getting all new machines. But that could be awhile. And our stuff is very past warranty coverage.

[Alwyn]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

hmmm... well at least u have your options... ram or new machines... i guess it depends on how much cost plays a role...

[Nathan]

Re: A good free registry cleaner

BIG role. Getting all new machines wouldn't be that bad, but if we upgrade the other hardware it ends up being rediculous. Or if we changed equipment/software companies it could be $17,000 pre room, and we have 8 rooms. Gotta love software licensure.