Are the "PC Tune Up" programs any good?

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

I have been searching the web for a while looking for some optimizers for my PC, something that makes it faster, and I found these "PC Tune Up" programs that offers (what sounds good to me) various theoretical solutions to common pc problems, in example:

Software Publisher's Description:
XP Smoker allows you to change various settings in the Windows Registry. These settings can improve the performance for your computer drastically. You can also stop and disable useless services in Windows XP. And in the end, you will reduce subsystem bottlenecks, increase application and boot speeds, and ultimately increase the stability of your system. Simple for Beginners. Powerful for Experts. And it really works.

And there's another one called PC BOOSTER that offers the same results, well, there are a few of this programs, but back to the question... are any of these really good?, do they really work?.

I don't want to install any of these programs just to find out that my registry is now even more filled with unuseful lines.

If somebody here has used this kind of programs, I could use a little advise here.

[Scottie]

I've tried a few of these types of programs and they never seem to do any good, but I also Reforat and install my OS very often 3 Months MAX and have spyware scanners so unless you do this to they might help abit.

[Jester700]

There are a few things you can do...
1) Get rid of unused services. Most are small and use few resources, but on a slower PC they can add up. But you don't need a program to do this. You can follow the directions at www.blackviper.com or use his .reg files.
2) Clean out & compact the registry. This is less of a big deal these days, since it's basically a big text file that doesn't take up much room. Plus, if you remove the wrong stuff you could be stuffed, so make sure any proggie makes a backup file. Microsoft had an old "Regclean 4.1a" program, and JV16's freeware regcleaner is still available on oldversion.com. And the ERUNT & NTREGOPT duo is nice for backing up easily & slack space compaction.
3) Spyware - yeah, it's good to keep this crap clean. Get Spybot, AdAware, and Microsoft's new AntiSpyware (all free) and you should be good to go. If you want to keep MS's one running that's cool, but it will take a little bit of your resources.

What else do you need? So far you haven't paid any money and you're as good as the commercial stuff. Probably better.

Need a 2 way firewall? Sygate, Kerio, ZoneAlarm.
AV? Avast 4.5 or AVG 7.

[redwudz]

I would agree with Scottie. I also tried some 'optimizers' in the past with no visible improvement. If you system has slowed down lately, there may be other problems.

If it's always ran the same speed, I doubt those type of programs will help much. You can go into your control panel and make changes there and get much better results for free and these are unlikely to cause problems like external programs might.

[Jester700]

BTW, if it wasn't clear, I agree with the other guys - you won't see much speed increase (unless you have some nasty malware that you get rid of). It's usually pretty slight.