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This amount was a few gb, don't remember exactly. After reading about CCleaner stalling, cleaning slowly, etc for so long I was ready for a long haul, but it was quite fast, not more than 2 minutes, probably less. That was with 1 overwrite.

Hi, dbailey60. Nice avatar. All the monitor apps I have used including Speccy are within a few degrees of each other on this win xp system. If there are big differences I expect the developers would like to know the actual numbers.

Lots of info, Tas. Good read. Thanks. If it pans out like microsoft says, there may be hope for my win 8 laptop after all. My family pronounced it to be The . Worst . Computer . Ever within an hour of delivery. Haven't started it since. Win 10 free upgrade may save it. One issue sort of nags, though. With all the cross platforming, interconnecting, OneDriving, etc, will there be more security issues? I sort of predicted security issues with the Android phone OS, and sure enough they arrived pretty quickly.

Just thought i would share an encouraging word. The posts on the forum are no doubt very helpful to the developers, but as they are mostly reports of bugs and glitches they make it appear that CCleaner is, errr, well, buggy and glitchy. It isn't. Just got finished cleaning up a win 7 laptop. It had nearly ground to a halt. It had a variety of pups, toolbars, and other junk software that the user had installed. No actual viruses, but a ton of other stuff. After the junkware was removed I ran CCleaner, one step at a time, and then the registry cleaner, also one step at a time. Sorry to say I didn't record the details like how much and what it was, but suffice to say that there was a ton of leftovers. When I saw the results of the analyze step my heart sank. I am not so young anymore. CCleaner analyzed fast, cleaned fast, got all the leftovers worth worrying about. Had to run the registry cleaner three times, the first run exposed some entries for the second run, I suppose. The third run was clean. The machine got noticeably faster after the first cleaning. It now runs much faster, and actually connects to the website you want. So there ya go. It works great: fast, light, & thorough. An encouraging word. edit: Now, the average reader may think I am just a fanboy, been a member here long time. S'not so, if CCleaner had not worked i would have just kept hanging around and not said anything. Fact of the matter is I never have to do that stuff to my computer, so didn't actually know how well CCleaner would work.

Didn't see that note before. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks, Hazelnut. Got it. Always wanted Google Earth for the win 7 box. Tedious registration process, but got it.

+1. Thanks for the info. Windows is like a messy spiderweb: Connections where you least expect them.

Kodak123 do post back what you find out. And a belated welcome.

Was your internet service provider able to say why you couldn't access the 'net with your other computer? Edit: OK, never mind, nergal is probably right. If you go to any of those sites they will work it out for you. I was thinking about some sort of router issue, or maybe a deeper issue with your non-functioning computer, but they will find it for you. Good luck. Let us know what you find.

+1 to Andavari's suggestion. Also, there is a list of free malware removal sites here, in item 10 http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showannouncement=15&f=4: quoting: "...unable to access the internet (the service provider ran diagnostic checks)..." Was your internet service provider able to say why you couldn't access the 'net?

Hi, Eli. Fwiw, this desktop is very similar to the description in your signature. I'm using Avast & Outpost firewall (an old version) & Sandboxie & Powershadow. Works very well. Just sayin'.

>ahem< Yep, I am. Does that make me a Klingon? [Get it . . . cling on . . .Klingon . . . ] OK never mind. Seriously, Winapp is right, but I think microsoft's broader objective is much simpler. They just want to keep selling OSs. Win 8 scared'em. Linux continues to scare'em. Edit: They have to do something to make us think we can't live without their newest OS. And rightly so. Their profit for the last quarter was under 5 billion dollars.

Outpost free gets mixed reviews, and iirc, one cannot skip the antivirus installation (the AV is apparently the weakest component). I share your need and concern for an effective defense system. . .there is a lot of trash info out there about it.

Just yesterday got this update for win xp, along with links to several reminders that support for win xp is discontinued. Probably unrelated to the original issue, but interesting. https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms13-090

Thanks, Alan. Got it.

Avast free here (on win xp & win 7), + an old version of Agnitum Outpost Firewall. I have been looking at the free Outpost Free Security Suite, not for win xp but maybe for win 7. Have not tried it. Also use Sandboxie as a sort of backup for the firewall & AV. Would be interested to hear what you decide. http://www.agnitum.com/outpost-security-suite-free.php

Lots of rain in the UK, I guess. Not easy to remain "chipper" without sunshine. I just gulp vitamin D pills and coffee, stare at the bright spot where the sun should be, and wait. It'll be back. It is for sure a wonderful world.

" ...this is your sole topic to do it in." Good move. Makes it easier for everybody to keep up with.

In addition to the above. Probably should not use the registry cleaner until you are absolutely sure what it will do. Go to the registry cleaner and UNTICK everything to start with. When you know what each registry item means, and how to save the backups, then take it one step at a time. Imho.

Ran these simultaneously: ccleaner 5.00.5050 with system monitoring ON, windows xp sp3, process hacker 2.33. CCleaner worked as usual, but was slow when wipe free space was checked. To be expected, I think. Registry cleaner worked as usual. So can't duplicate your problem here on win xp. Someone else might?? Fwiw, there is a software very similar to process hacker, Process Explorer by Sysinternals, it has never interfered with anything here. It is at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Glad you got it fixed, razz.

Probably good idea, to reinstall. Not sure about the registry editor workings. I haven't used a linux disk for repairs for a long time. Some of them, like Hiren's Boot CD, do repairs, including disk managers, but they are dangerous. They don't have the built in protections of windows. Still, if one repairs computer problems often, they're worth a look, and well worth the price of a CD or DVD. Hiren's content is described at: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd It downloads from: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ Be CAREFUL, don't click the big rectangles at the top of the page. Instead, go down the page to some small type that says this, and click the link to the zip file. : Filename: Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip Filesize: 592.5 MB (621283886 bytes) ISO MD5: 7EFC81ADBBD551D56F6021C439C6837C ZIP MD5: D342BBD6BF7554ABA24A376E41675DBF

Just a question, for mta or Hazelnut, can your instructions be implemented from a linux boot cd or USB stick? I say just a question I can't tell someone how to do it, not experienced enough, Some linux boot cds have repair tools on them, and will allow access to locked windows files. I would have no reservations about trying if I were in Hex's situation.

Doesn't seem to make much difference to delete them here. Might be a privacy issue, but doesn't affect performance much. I never have very many "old" ones.

More. After the chkdsk-ing, two processes were still iffy, may be fixed now. Going into power saving mode didn't work properly, neither did trying to reconnect to the 'net after once disconnecting. Process explorer showed that wuauclt.exe was running, so I ran it from Start > All Programs > Windows Update and the little shield appeared in the systray. It downloaded the malicious software removal tool and ran it, and everything seems OK now. Have successfully let the computer sleep then reconnected twice so far. Not ready to relax just yet, have no idea why it happened or why it quit. Sort of getting used to that. Edit 20 Jan 15: This problem seems to be fixed now. It actually was not at the time of the first post, but things have been back to normal for several days now. It seems to have been caused by the USB drive problem, and also because windows update was failing to run. Quoting Hazelnut: "Perhaps a small issue then got joined by other smaller issues . . .".