old dll's in winxp - how to

id and removed old dlls. Over the past year, i have done a lot of installs and
unstalls. Realizing that MS does not do the best job of cleanups that it could do,
was wondering if there is a way (or a utility) to do a proper job of cleaning out
these old dll's.

And, while i'm at it, i'm open to other suggestions on how to clean up WinXP
without doing a fresh install. Some sites or pointers to web pages would work
also.

PS: a search found the page of lots of utilities and their links. Making a sticky
of that or a forum of its own dont sound like a bad idea to me. I have a couple
of them and they help.

thanks,
savagcl
(Clif)

 

Unfortunately, there is no absolutely safe way to clean all of the dll and Registry garbage.

Registry cleaners are either ineffective or dangerous - depending on which one you use. DLL cleaners are a c rap shoot at best and can introduce problems that won't show up until some time later and you'll not know how to fix it then.

The only safe way to clean up a system is to do a new clean install and reinstall all the programs you want to keep.

Short of that, it the thing works well enough, leave it alone. I don't mean to say that you shouldn't do the normal maintenance using the Windows System tools but for the most part, the 3rd party system cleaners are of little value.

 

Kinda was expecting that answer.

Thanks for the info tho. A good cleaner would be nice to have - someday maybe.

savagcl