From what I gather on the opening screen, Scott's on vacation, so he may reply in a few days:
1. I am not certain your customers would feel such a service was worth it. You can certainly recover a lot of disk space on a hard drive that has not been properly cleaned over the years. Undoubtedly, there are many such computers out there. And similarly, you can defragment and remove intervening space between files for such customers. This MAY result in a perceived speedup, but I imagine it would not be great. W2k, XP and I assume Vista (courtesy the NTFS file format) do a nice job of ignoring fragmentation.
2. I would
CCleaner any computer before defraging it. I would probably turn off the option to clean cookies in IE and Firefox, as your clientèle may not appreciate all of their password autologins gone. But otherwise have at it.
3. The commercial gold program is:
Diskeeper. As you said, I do not think licensing would allow legally what you want. However, you may be able to use a setup where you remove a client's hard drive and defrag it on a computer setup in your shop for this purpose that would be perfectly under the EULA.
Diskeeper will perform reasonably fast, and shuffle certain files into an "optimal" position, for speeding operation.
There are others competing that make similar claims to Diskeeper. I will let others state their opinions.
Scott is a big
vopt fan. They use very fast, tight code. Much to like. Web site is a bit uninformative in what their product does. They want you to download a trial and see for yourself.
The commercial freebies:
Defraggler from the folks who bring you CCLeaner. And
JkDefrag. I have used both (as well as
O+O freeware -- which while free is not free to commercial users), and they work well, faster than Microsoft's defrag, but not much faster. They do the job, but not much else.
I occasionally get someone wanting me to make their old computer (anything over three years, and I frequently encounter very old P4s and even P3s still chugging away) more stable and speedier. I generally try to dissuade them as I charge $100 just to touch their computer, and such a service usually ends up costing them near $300. As I point out, reusing their monitor, for $200 bucks more $500 will buy an incredibly fast and powerful computer these days. There old trusted friend just is not worth it. And I would be happy to do an initial setup and file transfer from their old computer for $100.
Still some are willing to shell out $300. I have a list of complaints. I will usually run
BelArc adviser and
Everest on the system to see what I have in addition to what dxdiag/ sysinfo and the hardware device manager (I check settings) have to tell me. [There are a lot of software tools to see what is on someone's computer, much of it freeware (z-CPU and crystalmark comes to mind) even for commercial users.] I typically look at their startup and services to see what is running. I may make alterations depending upon the complaints and what I see. After making a list of the attached equipment, and making sure their computer is working before I touch it, I bring their computer back to my living room, er, shop. Be warned, older computers that are on the edge can break.
I open up their case, clean out all the dust bunnies and note what I see inside, especially the power supply. I have a small 2.5" SATA 250Gb external USB hard drive that I have loaded with various utilities and because it is a Seagate (the free Acronis software) will allow me to make a image of the drive, which I do before all else in case something goes wrong. If the computer is so old it does not support USB 2.0, pull that hard drive and make a copy in a testbed computer that has a Maxtor or Seagate HD for the free software.
For them I update their BIOS, their drivers [some may have to wait until their equipment is reattached, so I download from the manufacturer and will burn a CDROM], their operating system, I often replace their optical drive (usually CD ROM or burner) with a new DVD burner (plus Roxio or Nero) or at least make sure their firmware is current, update their ram to 2 Gb, or the max (some cannot go over 512M).
I then make sure their firewall (if they have one) and their antivirus are up to date. They usually are if XP is the OS. W2K or Win98 usually no firewall, and especially Win98 an old Norton long out of date. I run the antivirus scan or run a modern one from a boot CD..
Assuming everything is good -- it usually is except for some occasional inactive or relatively harmless trojans -- I run several spyware programs which almost always cleans up a lot of crap, because people who do not maintain their computers generally don't seem to have spyware blocker/ removers. Computers that have heavy viruses and spyware will run much, much better when you are done (unless viruses have damaged files). You may have to reinstall OS. [On occasion, I have upgraded Win9x users to Win98SE+SP2.1a with one of the copies I have and no longer use with customer approval.]
I may update some of their other software (Office, MediaPlayer, IE, etc.).
Then I run CCLeaner.
Then I run a defrag -- truthfully I usually use MS defrag and just let it run.
Then I briefly test it, cleanup anything I left on there and make arrangements to bring it back set it up and install any remaining drivers. I never add software to a client's computer without discussing it thoroughly -- antivirus, firewall, spyware, utilities, etc. Whatever I think they need, whatever I think they are capable of. I usually create a folder for their current drivers, BIOS and manuals that I could download from the manufacturers -- and usually burn a CD. I may create a utilities folder that contains either maintenace software or shortcuts to MS maintenance software for them to monthly maintain their computer. I usually set Windows Update on automatic ... even though I hate this normally. I often have to drop by and make a quick adjustment a day or two later after I call them up, but usually they are happy with a stable and speedier computer. Be warned, most people are great, but there are a rare few who frankly are embezzlers -- people who will needle and complain and accuse until you give them their money back to make them go away. The joys of a business. Don't count on getting rich. I do it as occasional pocket change.
If I did it a lot, I would probably set up a bootable disk to run some of this stuff, including programs that run better and faster than MS's included maintenance tools. I have several bootable rescue disks available for computers in trouble (viruses, unstable, Knoppix, PE Builder, Hiram's Boot comes to mind), but I would make a current antivirus disk if that was the problem. Have a open, simple testbed computer with a slipstreamed setup so if something gets on your testbed you can wipe it and reinstall.
And as a plug, I keep Scott's
Upgrade & Repairing PCs and his
Windows books (update any month now;-) handy. There are plenty of other very good Windows XP books, but I have only found one other hardware book that I liked: The Thompson's "Repairing and Upgrading Your PC." Different approach, but a lot of nice tips. The rest of the non-Mueller PC repair books have left me wanting rather badly. Really, really rather badly.
