Trying to speed up old laptop - what to do after emptying recycle bin

[NotBeingRudeBut]

I have a very old Toshiba laptop which operates on Windows Vista.
It's so slow so have been doing various things to speed it up including disk clean-up, defrag, uninstalling things, deleting documents etc. I'm pretty sure they're aren't any photos on it.

However it is still only showing the C: drive as only having 7.24GB free of 37.1GB.

What on earth could be taking up all the memory?

I have been emptying the recycle bin regularly but do I need to do more than this to get rid of everything completely?

Also, when trying to uninstall ITunes, it won't let me as I apparently have to be an administrator!

Please could somebody technical/geeky help me - thank you.

Viva, it sounds like you need to run an anti malware check.

I've run avg which was ok.

It could've been downloaded and set as default when you downloaded Registry Reviver due to a fault in Java. This link will help you get rid of it without too much pain.

Remember to shut down your browser before you uninstall it via the Control Panel in Windows, then follow the steps in the link to remove it from your browser before running CCleaner.

In the past I got done by not unchecking a box to make Ask my default search engine, and once made Chrome my default browser by mistake. Nowadays I read before I download. Anything that wants me to download something I'm not interested in is denied now that I'm more cynical.

Thanks Doctor, that's sorted it.

There are endless scammy so called registry cleaners that are definitely not free.

I swear by spybot, search and destroy! It's a super free malware cleaner. Not registry of course but it lists crap and gets rid of it not present you with a bill!

To set your homepage as google you need to go into control panel...Internet options....under general type in www.google.co.uk. Make sure there are not other pages listed...just delete.

Pingolingo

I have a spare laptop hard drive complete with the fixing to attach it to a desktop pc hanging around. Would my sluggish computer run faster if I piggy backed it in as a secondary drive? Thanks for info on disc space, mine is now at 50% but I have paid pc world £5 a month for about 3 - 4 years for a tune up but never bothered to take it in

sneezecakesmum - if you have 50% free space then its probably not the main cause of a sluggish pc. It only becomes a real speed issue when space is tight.

By all means use connect up the laptop drive as extra storage. But laptop hard drives are generally slower than full size PC hard drives (they spin slower) and unless you specifically set the operating system to utilise the second drive for its swap files (files of temp data) then the operating system wont actually use the second disk anyway.

Most common reasons for slowing PCs is things that people have mentioned above in the post

• lots of programs that your PC is constantly running in the background when it doesnt need to be. The more icons there are on your start bar the more things you have running. google MSconfig file to see how to stop things from loading up automatically.
• A PC that has repeatedly had programs installed & uninstalled will have a messy registry. Free software can be especially bad for this as it installs extra "advertising" type things all over the place. (My Nan is a bugger for downloading every free game/browser add on that comes her way and every 6 months I have to go and clear out a PC that has almost grounded to a halt)
• temp folders / caches become full or very large - so empty recycle bins, internet caches etc
• if you have the spare slots then adding more memory is always a cheap(ish) upgrade/fix.
• defrag reguarly to try and keep the data on the disk as tidy as possible.

You might as well take it in to PC world if you are paying them for it. Although they will probably just do the same things that are already listed on the thread.

I would go with what life of po said, wipe the whole thing and re-instal the OS. Windows Vista is notoriously shit.

There are many things that have been suggested that are good things to do, like defragging etc. But you have vista and thats just bad.

YOu can get a copy of windows xp on ebay, here is an example of a sale.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Microsoft-Windows-XP-Professional-Service-Pack-3-CD-and-COA-OEM-SP3-7-/161119097275?pt=UK_Computing_Software_Software_SR&hash=item25837251bb

and here on your tube is literal step by step instructions on how to wipe your pc and re-install.

other than that, it will be things like virus checks and low ram usage that slow machines down turn these off and you will see a huge improvement.

Many thanks for the information. Probably not bother with the extra hard drive as I've still got enough.

I do have a lot of stuff running in the background like Dropbox and audible download, so I'll tidy that up. I do the file deletion and temp whatnots so I'm ok with that. I've done the msconfig thing before so I'll look at that too. I'll also take a look into my recycle bin.

I've wised up to downloading free software and other crap with it. The dreaded Babylon bar to name but one, but I chased it out of all it's sneaking hiding places and think its now gone

I'll also take it into pc world as it's paid for but just keep a better eye on it.

I have DBAN 'd a different hard drive. Terrifying!

Vista is bad even by Windoze standards. Hose it and install Ubuntu.

To find out where the space has gone look at WinDirStat.

Also Google deleting old restore points.