Best way to "Clean up" a computer?

    Alright, so I'm back from college after a year and a half. Havent been home in that ammount of time. I've been using a laptop in the dorms, now I'm moving to an apartment and I want to use my desktop again.

    I finally got it working, but there is a problem. There is so much shit on it. From random programs I dont use anymore to a whole bunch of highschool shit. (I didnt take very good care of it.) Now, I want to start over new.

    But I dont have the XP disk or Microsoft office, or my Photoshop stuff. So, I want to get rid of everything but the necessary programs. So re-formatting is out of the issue.

    It seems add/remove programs takes too long and doesnt work very well. So, what is the best way to clean up all of this shit on my desktop?

CCleaner

Or, you could torrent XP and reformat...

If you want to get full potential out of it, you'll have to reformat it.  I would recommend backing up things like your documents and favorites folders.  At the very least go through your add/remove programs and uninstall anything you won't use.  It shouldn't take  /that long.

you probably don't have the XP/office/photoshop disks because they were all pirated anyhow.  just get Ubuntu and feel nice about yourself for once

The long but non-format way:

A) Open Add/Remove programs and make a pass there, uninstalling everything you don't need.
B) Open Windows Explorer, and go through your root folders list and Program Files folders list, deleting and/or uninstalling empty stuff, leftovers, and programs that weren't in the Add/Remove Programs list.
C) Go through My Documents and do the same for your files there.
D) You now have a refreshed Windows, which should hang on for a good while for you to do your thing.


The short but better way:

A) Backup your critical documents.
B) Format the disk and partition at your discretion.
C) Install Windows, clean and fresh.
D) Use an imaging program a la Norton Ghost (for example) to create an image of your Windows installation, to be restored in a jiffy if you ever need a quick refresh, without going through the hassle of reformatting and re-updating and re-installing everything.

HiJack this, it's very good at finding those hard to get rid of background services http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10379544.html . Follow the instructions though, so you only uninstall what you want. After that you'll need to manually delete the directories in program files.

I don't think you have any alternative but a reformat.  Don't worry about the lack of Windows CDs--this is a good excuse to change to something better like Linux/BSD.

get all the warez you need
then reformat
it really is the only way