PC "tune up"- is it worth it?

[splunge]

:?: While shopping at an office supply store I saw an ad for a PC "tune up" for $10. When i asked, they said it was a spyware/virus scan, a removal of temporary files and fixing the registry (I'm not sure what that entailed)
I'm a fairly savvy user- I have Ad Aware, and AVG antispyware updated and run often, I keep my Symantec antivirus defs up to date and occasionally defrag and use the XP program Disk Clean Up to remove temp files. Is this service worthwhile? Is there a downloadable (hopefully free/cheap) application that does simialr things? Thanks.

On a related topic- the local computer shop offers a service where he backs up the hard drive, wipes it and reinstalls to help the PC run better. Is this worthwhile? Risky?
I use Acronis True Image to back up to an external drive. Is this something to do on my own or do I risk copy errors or the like?
Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[edklite]

OK well PC tuneup = BS

you wanna make your PC run much better? here are some real things you can do.

first off get rid of that crappy symantec, its too heavy and does not need all those processes that eat up ram and drive CPU high.

you don't need adaware and avg anti spyware, here is why:

1. both put together are not as good as spysweeper

2. instead of symantec which is slowing down your PC get Nod32 its much lighter, faster and better then stupid symantec.

as for backup your PC shop will not give you the PC the way you gave it to them (personal apps installed and configured they way you like them now) the only thing they can do is format your drive then install windows on it but they can't put back all your apps and set their options to how you had them, the only way to do that would be to copy your stuff over from the old install in which case it makes the whole process pointless.

you have Acronis and that is what anybody that knows what they are doing uses. just make sure to backup your OS drive to an external via the clone feature, but to avoid problems make the rescue media with Acronis and boot off of it and do the clone then

have more questions or need more help or something does not make sense just ask

 

[splunge]

Thanks for the advice!
I'm using Symantec Anti-virus only- no blockers, email checkers, spyware what have you, just the trimmed down client anti-virus. Is it really that much of a clunker?
How's Avast?

 

[edklite]

use nod32, forget the rest

even your symantec with just the anti virus has a bunch of processes, look at your processes you will see for yourself ; )