Optimizing and Cleaning Windows XP, Vista, 7: a practical guide

A selection of free, tested and approved applications!
This article is dedicated to the cleaning and optimization of your Windows XP, Vista and of course Seven operating system. The aim is to provide a toolbox of essential utilities which will resolve almost all reoccurring user problems ranging from the cleaning of your registry, the clean up of uninstalled applications, to the removal of personal information. There are numerous free and commercial options available for these tasks, but we will be concentrating on the most effective free programs that we have tested, and which we consider to be easy to for the end user to deploy.

Cleaning options for all needs?
To make things easier to follow, we have decided to cut the available utilities into groups. The first group of applications are general, looking at file system issues (registry, DLL…) the cleaning of the most used applications, the web browser and hard drive defragmentation. The second group will look at freeing up hard drive space (hard drive, folders, applications, double files…), while the third and final group is dedicated to specific cleaning tasks like the start menu, particular files (MP3, photos), the removal of personal information and annoying toolbars.

Priority to Vista, and especially Windows 7!
Most of the applications run on all three versions of Windows (XP, Vista and Seven). Having said this, our emphasis was on applications which ran on Windows 7 x86 and x64. If you use Microsoft’s latest operating system, you may find that some applications are only compatible with Windows XP or Vista. If this is the case, then run the application in compatible mode under Windows Seven by right clicking on the application, selecting Properties, Compatibility and "Run this program in compatible mode".