Quick shout for help -

My sis's laptop has less than 6GB free and is generally running like a dog with three legs.
There are three accounts set up - hers, and two for the kids.
Looks like the kids have probably filled it with music and movies.

If it was a Mac, I'd suggest something like WhatSize to read the drive and give a report on what's taking up the space.
Anything for the PC I could suggest to her?

Also is there any way of limiting the amount of space the kids accounts get to play with?

Ta much

CCleaner it is freeware, download it from a repository you trust or direct from Piri

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCleaner

This will delete temporary files and clean up problems in the registry.


Does she have admin access? If so, then running Treesize http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

Additionally, I'd run MyDefrag over the machine, I'm guessing they never did that. With Windows 7 and Windows 8, this isn't necessary, it defrags itself on the go, but XP needs defragging every now and then.

http://www.mydefrag.com/

Cheers Dave - I got her to download Treesize, but she freaked out when she ran it for the first time and it started asking for domains and things like SQL servers to store the database. I'm on the end of a phone, so I can't just do it for her. She's barely a computer person, and I'm not a Windows person!
I'll see if I can get her to run the other stuff.

She's on Vista, btw.

Treesize free doesn't ask for those things. She may have got the wrong thing http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

WinDirStat is another good one - http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

Weird - that's the URL I texted to her last night!
I'll get her to look at WinDirStat too.

I use Logmein to do stuff like this, especially when you can't trust the user. I imagine she downloaded the wrong software - they sell a few different products on that site.

I use join.me to connect to any of our works laptops if the guys/girls have problems when off-site. It is free and can be found here https://join.me just remember to pick the "share basic" option for the person who wants to share.

I use logmein for accessing work and have an iphone app so can often get stuff done whilst in bed.