Are there any OS optimization programs that really work?

[MadScientist]

All of us would like to have our computers boot up faster and run faster. There are plenty of programs out there that claim to be able to do this.
Out of curiosity I downloaded the trial version of one of these, Ashampoo WinOptimizer 5. You can read about its features on their website.
I wasn't impressed with it. Ccleaner does just about everything WinOptimizer 5 does for free.
After Googling I found this site that has some useful manual tweaks:
Win XP Optimization Tweak Guide

 

[BD2003]

I've never seen one that didnt do more harm than good.

 

[Nothinman]

Tweaking in general is largely pointless.

 

[Crusty]

The best tweaking you can do is keeping your system clean of malware.

 

[MadAmos]

Originally posted by: Crusty
The best tweaking you can do is keeping your system clean of malware.

+1

 

[Genx87]

These applications remind me of "Brawndo:The Thirst Mutilator". It's got electrolytes so you know it is good. What are electrolytes? It is what Brawndo has.

I ask people what they got out of their registry optimizer application. They cant name a single verifiable fact. They just repeat. It optimizes the registry. Do you even know what optimizing the registry does? It is what this optimizer has.

Then they boot into their machine and get error after error about missing reg keys and broken applications. Much like the crops in Idiocracy that got Brawndo instead of water. It kills the system.

This scene seems to pretty much mimic most of these conversations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...D1imNo&feature=related

 

[MadScientist]

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I could see streamlining a Windows installation/services being rather useful in terms of running a VM, like persistently using XP or Vista under VMware Fusion in OSX, as it seems many mac users do (as would I).

 

[techmanc]

Tweaking for me mainly these days is using Autoruns or another startup manager to minimize the programs running at startup a lot are just added without user consent these days. I dont trust most tweaking programs as I want as stable and unaltered system I can get.