Using CCleaner at max on brand new computer

CCleaner for Windows
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Later today I'll pick up a new Sony SZ670, which is a great lightweight laptop. Sony, however, is (in)famous for many gigabytes of crap including nagware, bloatware, time-limited demos, advertising, and various other junk. In fact, reviews of this laptop are superb except for that one detractor.

One choice is to erase the hard drive and do a clean install of Vista Business. I've just been told that this is a difficult process with Sony as it does not come with restore disks, and when you generate them with the laptop you get disks that loads all the junk as well as restoring the OS!

Does it make sense to install CCleaner and let it run in a rather unlimited and unsupervised mode? I understand that safest use of CCleaner requires serious skills that I may not have, but is that true for a new machine as well?

Thanks, gurus

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Hi notaguru,

I am not a Guru either.

IF you will follow the Beginners Guide and don't change any settings for Advanced cleaning, you will be safe.

As far as "junk" files installed by the manufacturer, you will need someone to help you to decide how to delete and what to delete.These "junk" files probably exist somewhere where CCleaner is not set up to clean.

Otherwise most users would clean them out right away.Of course the manufacturer is going to put them where they are harder to get rid of.

You don't have to have special knowledge to use CCleaner.

I highly recommend it to clean out the normal temporary files that build up from using the Internet and normal use of your computer.

CCleaner is being used on millions of computers!!!

In many ways I am still a new user.

Have fun with your new computer,

:) davey

The following link will take you to the Beginners Guide.

http://www.internetrotsyourbrain.com/ccleanerbeginnersguide/

DON'T FORGET TO CREATE THOSE BACK UPS RIGHT AWAY. NOW!!!! KEEP THEM IN A SAFE PLACE !!!

BACK UP EVERYTHING !!!. "JUNK" AND ALL.!!! RECORD THOSE SERIAL NUMBERS ALSO!!!

.

3

In my experience with Sony computers, I've found that the "recovery disc" is not a disC (CD) at all... It's actually a disK (Hard Drive). If you go to My Computer, you should see two hard drive partitions. Your C: partition should be your operating system, programs, etc. Your D: partition should be your recovery disK.

If the above is true in your case, you should theoretically be able to wipe your C: drive and install a new operating system from scratch (Vista Business).

I should also mention that any recovery disc for brand name computers is almost obsolete if you understand how to properly back up your data to another partition, removable media such as a USB drive or DVD, or preferably both.

Here's what I would choose to do, myself:

- Backup your D: partition (where all your Sony data is saved) to a CD so you will have access to all drivers for your proprietary Sony computer. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't have drivers for many of the odd hardware bits that Sony provides (all those flash drives on the front of your tower, etc.)

- Delete both C: and D: partitions.

- Create two new partitions.

- The C: partition will be used for your operating system (Vista Business) and as a general rule I make this partition about 10% of the size of the hard drive, with the minimum size being 10 gigs.

- The D: partition will be used for all your programs and data and will be the size of all available space. Separating the operating system and your data will allow you to simply reformat the C: drive and reinstall Windows at any time without losing your precious data.

- Install Windows Vista Business on the C: drive.

- Install all other software on the D: drive.

- Move your My Documents folder to the D: drive. Unfortunately, this is not as simple as it was with XP. Vista actually stores all My Documents subfolder information (such as My Music, My Pictures, etc.) in different places on your drive and then "links" them all in the My Documents folder. The easiest way to do this is to create a folder on the D: drive called "My Documents" and create any new folders in there that you would like (My Music, My Pictures, etc.) Once this is done, simply right-click on your My Documents folder on the desktop and change the path (the location it's linked to) to D:\My Documents.

After this is done, I'd recommend the following, which I do with all my machines.

- Install Spybot Search & Destroy. (www.safer-networking.org) This will remove all Spyware from your machine, is free (donations encouraged), and is regularly updated. A major feature is an included program called Tea Timer, which monitors all changes to the Registry (that viruses and spyware love to do) and gives you a simple option to allow or block them. This protects your machine wonderfully and isn't a resource hog like most anti-virus.

- Install CCleaner (of course).

- Visit http://www.tweakhound.com/vista/installguide.htm and follow the instructions to streamline, tweak and secure Windows Vista. You may also want to browse the main page for any other tips, tweaks and programs you find useful.

- And as always, INSTALL FIREFOX.

Hope this helps.

4

There's an application that deals with the crap on new PC's called PC Decrapifier which has a freeware personal use version, and it does not involve formatting your disk partitions.

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There's an application that deals with the crap on new PC's called PC Decrapifier which has a freeware personal use version, and it does not involve formatting your disk partitions.

Good to know. I've noticed with some brand name machines that removal of the propriety garbage can cause other things to stop functioning (for example, on Sony machines, if you remove one of the Sony programs...can't remember which one... it will cause the card slots to stop functioning).

Does this program have any kind of exclusion list or a form of smart removal? If so, this will save me a lot of time on future machines.

Thanks for the suggestion!