Is a fresh Windows 7hp install needed?

[kb0sdq]

Howdy Folks,
I was wondering, I have been running win7 or two years now after I got this machine new I put a fresh instal of win7 in order to get rid of all the Asus bloatware. I ran crap cleaner and it cleaned up my drive. But do you think it would be better to do another fresh install?
Thanks in advance for any info
ciao,

 

[Dngrsone]

Are you having issues of some sort? Otherwise, why fix something that isn't broken?

 

[kb0sdq]

Not really. I have a 465g hard drive and only have 104g left. Just figured I'd clean up all the old left behind files. But I guess c cleaner would get them.
This is a Asus g73jh laptop. And has been great since I bought it.

 

[palmtree5]

If you're looking to clean up, I would recommend starting with any programs you have installed that you don't need

 

[kate]

Not really. I have a 465g hard drive and only have 104g left. Just figured I'd clean up all the old left behind files. But I guess c cleaner would get them.
This is a Asus g73jh laptop. And has been great since I bought it.

Ccleaner should get most junk files. You can also use Disk Cleanup. Keep in mind if you have many programs, music, videos, etc. those will take up lots of space.

Unless you're having issues there's no need to reinstall.

 

[Dngrsone]

Chances are, there's a bunch of crap in your download folder that you could delete...

100GB is plenty of room to install a Linux in for a dual-boot machine; if you're ready for a change of pace.

 

[kb0sdq]

Thanks so much. Yea I run c cleaner every month so I guesd it is ok. Thanks folks.

 

[Slug]

Chances are, there's a bunch of crap in your download folder that you could delete...

Don't forget c:/temp and/or c:/windows/temp.....

 

[kb0sdq]

very true Slug,
the cc cleaner take care of those areas even empties the recycle bin.
Thanks again for all the great info,
ciao

 

[Dngrsone]

Oh, and if you use/used Internet Explorer, there's this nice little tool called iehv which will allow you to monitor and delete the hidden IE history.

 

[PaulS]

I find a small program called,"Treesize" is really useful for checking file/folder sizes and things I may have overlooked that can be deleted,

JAM Software - Windows Freeware

I run a dual boot on this little Lenovo with Win7 Starter and WinxpPro as it runs much faster on the specs of this system.

I also use an excellent free program called,"EaseUS ToDo Backup",

Best free backup software and Norton Ghost alternative - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

to make a mirror image and a bootable flash drive to be able to restore the full system fast if I should need to.

HTH

 

[jefboyardee]

Got to Regedit and check for unnecessary freeloaders in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

[unnamedny]

First of all you need to figure what "left behind files" are. It sounds like you have too many things downloaded and installed. Just go through uninstaller and remove whatever you don't need, then check your download folders. I think 300gb of cache and cookies is not even remotely possible.

 

[Davdi]

Just backup your data and run CCleaner and a decent defrag (Auslogics free defrag is way better IMO than the MS one) or, better, after backing up your data, zap windows for Linux with XFCE or LXDE desktops. Both are very lightweight in terms of resources and very tweakable. You don't need MS Offoce now that Libre Office is so mature and handles MS File formats (Probably) better than office can.

 

[kb0sdq]

Thanks for all the great info. I will leave it be like almost everyone suggests. I have noticed it takes the lappy longer to boot then it used to. But all in all it works so as it says if it is not broke do not fix it
ciao

 

[SiempreTuna]

If it's taking longer to boot you need to check what's included in startup. Windows Defender (if that's what it's called these days) has tools to help with that - you'll probably find masses of things auto-starting that you don't actually need.

You could also go through your services - there are probably lots that auto-start that could be switched to manual or even disabled.

Re disk space, if you have a bunch of old files - or even programs - you rarely use, compress them - you can even compress entire folders of stuff. I wouldn't compress the OS or things you use a lot but otherwise, it has a negligable affect on performance because HDDs are really slow so the time you gain reading less data generally more than offsets the time you lose un-compressing.

 

[kb0sdq]

Hey thanks, I do have the asus fastboot program will see what all I can turn off.

 

[PaulS]

Check out,"Soluto",
https://www.soluto.com/

It's free and I've used it to successfully find and disable programs loading that slowed my Lenovo laptop down in Win7.

HTH