Speed up 30 gig hard drive?

[Simon73]

I am helping a friend out with freeing up some space on his computer as it has slow down quite a lot. By the way he pretty poor and can only afford a 30 gig hard drive so no saying update the hard drive. He just wants the very basic so he can use the net and type up letters nothing fancy as he his very little knowledge about computer.

He has asked me to put on the following I.E.8. He no longer like Firefox
question.

Do I download IE and take off Firefox and once download extract the IE8 to make it work? Will I need any codes or once extracted the IE8 will just come up so he can look at the web?

I also intend to using software to free up the temporary internet files by using Advanced SystemCare which has loads of other freebies as well. And be checking for Malware and spy things and will defrag his computer which has never been done in years.

I know defrag can be very time consuming is there any quick software that I can have to help me out or is it just a case of be penitent?

The problem is he has a 30 gig hard drive but he just wants the basic on word, internet, windows movie player, CD burner for back ups, and E-mail

can you recommend a anti virus that will not be greedy on his hard drive and if I set it up to up date itsself this will save him forgetting to do it.

Last question
Somewhat not surprise that he has never updated his security for windows. I will this for him and put it on atuo update. But, as you already know that many issues and security to download my wuestion is will this use up all of his space of his 30 gig?

One final question. Will he have plenty of space (hard drive) once I have done what I said so his computer can run smooth and a little quicker? He not after a rocket of a computer just something to enjoy.

Many thanks for your help and your replies

Simon

 

[Aastii]

uninstall everything he doesn't need, then install IE8 if that is what he wants.

Then, download avast! for a very lightweight but still very efficient and secure virus protection, or download AVG for a little more options but a little more resources used, not alot, but with such a low end system it may be noticable. I have avast! on my computer and every other computer in the house and had no problems with it, it has picked up every virus that has tried to get in and has never actually contracted a virus:

http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html

download it from there.

To get your key on that same page hover your mouse over support and at the top it has free home edition. Click this, fill it all in and check your email for the code and put it into avast to activate it. This lasts 12 months and then just do the same again to get a new code (no need to download again.

download ccleaner to clear out all old files, unused files, dodgy registry entries etc:

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

that too is free and prossibly the best free ware for this task.

if your friend is on Windows XP then the defrag on it is ok, but you would be better getting another free program called defraggler:

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

It is made by the same people that make ccleaner and again is very very good for freeware.

because you now have avast! on, turn off the windows security and the updates, it isn't needed and will just use much needed resources.

After that the system will be as clean as it can be and secure and should have quite a bit of space (none of the programs i put there use much hard drive space)

 

[Simon73]

Aastii many thanks for your good advice and help. I will let you know how I get on with his computer and see how much rubbish he has on. Not surprise it runs slow too much cr^p on it with very old documents and software that has been put on a number of times.

Wish my luck

 

[tyttebøvs]

Aastii, are you telling him that updating your OS and installed software is not necessary because you install some AV software?