Best way to clean a PC
 

By clean I don't mean physical cleaning. I mean the HD. My PC suddenly slowed down tremendously and I have been taking lots of steps to sort it out...I performed the following tasks:

Registry Cleaner
Spyware Scan
Virus Scan
Cleared History + Cookies

Will do:

Defrag it.
Clear out temp files.

I also used Msconfig to sort out the startup programs...Any other tips will be helpful.

Thanks.

Delete all downloaded files or put them on disks that will free up memory and speed you should try that.

Not planning to do that soon. I am at the moment defragging my PC. I did a Error Check on my HD before that which took about 1.5 hours and Defragment will surely take me 5-8 hours. Lets hope it gets better by tomorrow.

Thanks for your suggestion though.

I just reformat and reload. It sucks but it's either that or get a new computer. :)

I agree with a reinstall being the best method. Sometimes viruses or spyware programs download and install all sorts of hidden junk on your computer.

Better than reinstalling, though, would be to make a backup image of your hard drive after you have everything reinstalled and updated. Then if anything happens that requires a reinstall all you need to do is restore your hard drive from the backup image, which saves a great deal of time. Basically the same as reinstalling but a lot more convenient.

Definitely make a backup. I just don't want to go Vista so I'm trying real hard so I've been doing this alot with my XP computers to keep them going.

I had a virus attack to my PC and I reinstalled my OS and now it is so slow that I can't get the work done.

You've done most of the task how to clean up you computer, but try to delete all your temporary download internet files and do clean up your cookies too.

still in my system...
 

This is also bugging my computer. How can I remove totally an old version of msword and other programs? I did all possible remedy but still it's there in my system.:( only a few were removed...huhummmm:mad:

You could run the diskcleanup with CCleaner, its an excellent program. Also defrag your MFT and Page File if required, you may need to get a third party defragger like Diskeeper for that though.
Make sure all Microsoft security updates are applied.