PC Cleaner Pro

I'm trying to get my computer to run faster. The PC Cleaner Pro Tech is trying to tell me that I have a lot of things that show errors or have failed. He's claiming that he can hook me up with a Microsoft Tech to fix these issues at a third of the price that a Microsoft Tech would normally charge. I'm not sure if I should trust was he's telling me .

You are being scammed.

Give some information about your computer.  Processor speed and number of cores, amount of system memory/RAM, amount of hard drive space (total and free), video card manufacturer and model...  Use Belarc Advisor [<-- that is a link] to figure out the answers to those things *if* you don't have your receipt, your system specifications, can look them up by make & model, etc.  (In fact - give the make & model in any case of the computer in question.)

What is the operating system you are using...  Fill in the blanks:

Windows 7 _________ Edition, __-bit.

Check for malware:

Download, install, run, update and perform full system scans with the following two applications:

• MalwareBytes (FREE)
• SuperAntiSpyware (FREE)

Removing everything they find. Rebooting when needed. (You can uninstall one or both when done.)

Then perform an online scan with the eSet Online Scanner. Remove whatever is found.

Reboot.

Uninstall all Internet Plugins (Real Player, Quicktime, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, Adobe Air, Microsoft Silverlight, K-lite codec pack, etc.) from your computer.

Restart.

Reset Internet Explorer to defaults.  If used, reset Firefox to defaults.

[side note: if you do not have alternate browsers installed at this time, try some.  Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera are decent ones.]

Restart.

Install Adobe Flash Player (both in Internet Explorer and Firefox separately) and Microsoft Silverlight.  Be sure to UNCHECK any boxes to install other software along with them.  Install the BASIC K-Lite Codec Pack.

Restart.

Free up some hard drive space and get it organized:

Open an elevated command prompt by clicking on the start orb and browsing through All Programs --> Accessories and right-clicking on "Command Prompt" and choosing "Run as Administrator".

Type in the following in the command prompt:

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

... and press ENTER.

The process takes a few minutes to complete, it ends with the sentences “Service Pack Cleanup operation completed. The operation completed successfully”.

Use Disk Cleanup to eliminate more temporary files safely. May want to schedule this regularly.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)

http://www.ccleaner.com/

( just the disk cleanup - don't play with the registry part for now )

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView

http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport

http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used. Then you can determine what to do and what to delete/archive.

After that - you will want to check for any physical errors and arrange everything for more efficient access...

CHKDSKHow to Run Disk Check in Windows 7

DefragmentHow to Defragment your hard drives* will take time

The less you have running all the time, the better the things you want to run will perform:

Use Autoruns to figure out what all is starting up when your computer does/when you log on. Look up anything you do not know about using Google (and/or ask here.) You can hopefully figure out if there are things starting when you computer does (or you logon) that you do not need and then configure them (via their own built-in mechanisms is the preferred method) so they do not start up - using your resources without reason.

You can download and utilize Process Explorer to see exactly what is taking up your processor/CPU time and memory. This can help you recognize applications you might want to look into alternatives for and/or get rid of all together.

Registry cleaners will not improve performance, double the speed of a computer or any other spurious clams made.

Back in the days of Windows 9x, it was important to control the size of the registry, and for this purpose, Microsoft released their very own registry cleaner which only removed entries which were absolutely safe to remove.

BUT, that was back in the days of Windows 9x. Windows NT and all of the operating systems spawned from NT do not handle the registry in the same way as Windows 9x did. Windows NT and higher have a much larger limit to the size and they ignore orphaned entries.

The Windows 7 registry can grow to 2gb before the OS falls over, and even a well used system is unlikely to have a registry over 250mb.

PC Cleaner Pro.. The truth?

It's like selling a puncture repair outfit to a person who owns a vehicle with solid tires.

OK?

You have to watch out for spurious claims in consumer guides too.. see here..

http://consumersguides.org/speed_up_software_reviews.htm

This consumer guide is sponsored by the likes of the PC Cleaner Pro authors. You may even get the impression that all of the competing products in the consumer guide are from the same source.. :-)

You can screw up your registry, by the way. Installing programs which will obviously never run in the current OS is one way. Tinkering with registry on the advice of the 'street' expert is another good way.

BUT, still the best way is to run a registry cleaner utility which makes claims that are too good to be true, and all for just $50 or thereabouts..

Try Ccleaner, works on all windows versions and doesn't cause problems, you can set it to keep any cookies you need. The only problems I have heard of are on machines that have problems in the first place and that would be the case for all cleaners. Auslogics have a good registry cleaner that will do more than the ccleaner one as do Wise. All of these are free but you can buy or donate if you like them and wish to do so.

I'm trying to get my computer to run faster. The PC Cleaner Pro Tech is trying to tell me that I have a lot of things that show errors or have failed. He's claiming that he can hook me up with a Microsoft Tech to fix these issues at a third of the price that a Microsoft Tech would normally charge. I'm not sure if I should trust was he's telling me .

PC Cleaner Pro claims to be a partner with Microsoft. Are they a partner? Can I trust them?

Wouldn't care if they were...

What is it you are trying to accomplish?

There's probably better advice for whatever you want to do - one things - stay away from cleaning the registry.  It is unlikely to resolve any problems or increase performance in any noticeable positive fashion.  It is possible it could cause problems and even stop your computer from working properly in a number of ways.  Generally - if you are not willing to search and clean manually, you shouldn't trust something to do it for you.  :-)

So please - let us know what it is you are SPECIFICALLY trying to accomplish and allow someone to give you advice.