A computer is like any other machine, it needs to be properly and regularly maintained to work as it should. Some people don't realize this and think that their computer should run in tip top shape all of the time for years on end, while they continually download programs and install/uninstall multiple drivers. What they fail to understand is that even with just normal computer use spy ware, ad ware, and other scary things are put onto the computer. But alas there is something that can be done! Actually there are a few things that a person should do on a regular basis to keep their computer running nominally. Did you know that some experts suggest formatting your hard drive and reinstalling your operating system every few months?
As I said, there are several things you can do to "maintain" your computer. I will break these down into two groups. The physical side and the software side. On the physical side of things you have the actual components in the computer itself. Depending on your environment the components can get pretty dirty. I would usually recommend using a "duster" spray can that can be purchased at a store like Walmart or any computer store, once every two to three months. Then just open your computer case and spray out the dust and buildup that you see inside. Be sure not to touch any of the components inside with your hands unless you are properly grounded using E.S.D. straps. Also be careful to not spray a bunch of the dust/dirt onto electronic components. Sometimes if there is a lot of buildup inside I will use a dust buster or vacuum cleaner hose above the computer case. That way when I spray the dust/dirt up out of the case it will get sucked up and not fall back down onto the computer or go all over the room.
If you have really dirty components there IS something else you can do, but be cautious when doing it. You can use a solvent like rubbing alcohol or something similar that will evaporate quickly and clean off the components very tediously. This also works well when cleaning out keyboards (when SOMEONE spills soda in them) or for cleaning out your mouse. Remember that anything electronic you touch with something CAN get damaged. I accept no responsibility for any damage you do to your system! I also clean computers among other things for people so if you don't want to do this yourself then send me an email to nebraskacurt@hotmail.com
The software side of things is a bit more time consuming and/or in depth than cleaning the physical components. Not only that but while core fundamentals of this process will be the same, some aspects will vary depending on what operating system you are using. Since some 90% of persons out there are using Windows (yeah I know...yay) I will be covering that operating system. I'm sure that if you are using Linux or some Apple OS like OSX then you will know how to accomplish these same processes. If you don't know exactly how to do the same type of thing on your operating system then I would suggest searching the net for information, contacting your OEM support, or even calling up a local computer shop/store and asking some basic questions regarding this. If they are a good store then they should give you some pointers, if they aren't a good shop then I would hang up...call another shop...and then immediately after that call everyone you know and tell them to napalm the first shop you called. (again, I accept no responsibility for any actions you take and if you don't realize that was a joke then please grab a stick, hit yourself over the head, and yell "NO")
Okay, getting back on track now. There are many different things a person can do to "clean" up the software side of their computer. Oh and from here on out in this article if I say "clean up" I am referring to the software side of things. Now, you can really do this in any order you wish, it doesn't REALLY effect things that much unless you are experiencing a specific problem. If you ARE experiencing an actual problem with your computer (error message, specific things not running properly or not at all, blue screen of death, etc.) then please either contact tech support for your computer or operating system vendor, your network administrator, or a computer repair shop. Or you can be smart about it and send me an email ;) lol.
The first aspect of cleaning you will want to do involves NOT using any third party software programs (programs that are created by another company that is NOT the company that created your operating system or OEM). We will get into some of these programs later on. Now then, what I would do first is to make sure your computer is off. You want to do a cold boot (starting your computer from a completely powerless state) and boot into safe mode with command prompt. You usually do this by holding down the F8 key when your computer is starting up. This will give you a boot menu and you should be able to key down and select 'Safe Mode With Command Prompt'. You CAN just boot into safe mode but I usually boot into safe mode with command prompt just in case I need to use DOS...or command prompt as it is now called. When Windows starts up it should show you the command prompt window. Go ahead and type in 'exit' and hit enter or click the [X] to close the window as we will not be using this right now.
*NOTE: if any of the steps covered in this article do not work in Safe Mode then boot into Windows normally and perform them. I simply advise booting into Safe Mode because it enables you to get rid of files that may be loaded by virii, programs, or other strings of code that you may otherwise not be able to delete.
We will first do some basic cleaning using features that are build into Windows. This will be deleting cookies, temporary internet files, and history. Cookies are small files that hold information on the times and dates you have visited web sites. Other information can also be saved to your hard disk in these files, including information about online purchases, validation information about you for members-only web sites, and more. The only real downside to deleting your cookies is that you will have to enter information into forms on websites when logging in, etc. Regardless to horror stories you may have heard about cookies they are harmless like 95% of the time. Still it is a good idea to delete your cookies every now and again. To do so, make sure you close your web browser first. Then follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER
2. On the General tab, click Delete under Browsing History in the Internet Properties dialog box.
3. In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, click Delete Cookies.
4. In the Delete Cookies dialog box, click Yes.
To manually delete cookie files for Windows 98, Internet Explorer 5 or 6 follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
2. On the General tab, click Delete Cookies in the Internet Properties dialog box, under Temporary Internet Files.
3. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the Delete all offline content check box, and then click OK.
To manually delete cookie files for Internet Explorer version 4.01 or version 5.0 for UNIX on HP-UX or Sun Solaris follow these steps:
1. Change to the .microsoft folder in the user's home folder.
2. Change to the Cookies folder in the .microsoft folder.
3. Delete all .txt files that are located in this folder. For example, delete the 'user@www.example.com.txt' file.
You can also follow some steps to verify that the cookies are deleted. To do this for Internet Explorer 7 follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
2. In the Internet Properties dialog box, on the General tab, click Settings under Browsing History.
3. In the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings dialog box, click View Files. This opens the folder where your cookie files are stored.
4. In the folder that you opened in step 3, verify that there are no .txt files.
To verify that the cookie files are deleted for Windows 98, for Internet Explorer 5/6 follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
2. In the Internet Properties dialog box, on the General tab, click View Files under Temporary Internet Files.
3. In the folder that you opened in step 3, verify that there are no text files.
To verify that the cookie files are deleted for Internet Explorer 4.01 or 5.0 for UNIX on HP-UX or Sun Solaris follow these steps:
1. Change to the .microsoft folder in the user's home folder.
2. Change to the Cookies folder in the .microsoft folder.
3. In the folder that you opened in step 2, verify that there are no .txt files.
If either of these options do not apply to you or do not work, you can search for a folder called 'cookies' and delete all of the .txt files in the folder. Or you can click Start>Control Panel and then go into your internet options. On the General tab there will be a button called 'Delete Cookies'. Click that and you will be prompted to confirm the cookie deletion. Then click the OK button.
Next we will delete your temporary internet files. The Temporary Internet Files (or cache) folder contains Web page content that is stored on your hard disk for quick viewing. This cache permits Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer to download only the content that has changed since you last viewed a Web page, instead of downloading all the content for a page every time it is displayed. To delete the files in the Temporary Internet Files folder, follow these steps:
1. Quit Internet Explorer and quit any instances of Windows Explorer.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Internet Options.
3. On the General tab, click Delete Files, under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the 'Delete all offline content' check box, and then click OK.
5. Click OK.
*NOTE: if the Temporary Internet Files folder contains a significant amount of Web page content, this process may take several minutes to complete.
*NOTE: an administrator can customize your Temporary Internet Files settings and prevent you from changing them (for example, by removing the General tab from the interface in the Internet Options dialog box). If you cannot access the Internet Options dialog box or the General tab, contact your administrator for more information. Or email me ;)
*NOTE: files that start with the word "Cookie" may remain in your Temporary Internet Files folder after you follow these steps. These files are pointers to the actual cookie files that are located in your Cookies folder.
Now that we have deleted cookies and temporary internet files, we will delete your history. This is relatively easy to do by following these steps:
1. Click on the Start button.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Click on Control Panel.
4. Double-click Internet Options.
5. Make sure the General tab is selected.
6. Click Clear History in the History box.
7. Click OK when it asks if you want to delete all items in your history folder.
8. Click OK at the bottom of the General box to exit.
That's it, we have completed the first basic steps to cleaning up junk on your computer by doing some manual steps. Now we will use some automated features built into Windows to go a little more in depth. The first tool we will use is called "Disk Cleanup". The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk by searching your disk for files that you can safely delete. You can choose to delete some or all of the files. Use Disk Cleanup to perform any of the following tasks to free up space on your hard disk:
- Remove temporary internet files
- Remove downloaded program files (ActiveX controls, Java applets, etc.)
- Empty the Recycle Bin
- Remove Windows temporary files
- Remove optional Windows components that you are not using
- Remove installed programs that you no longer use
You can start Disk Cleanup, by doing any of the following:
1. Click Start, and then click Run, in the Open box, type cleanmgr, and then click OK.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
3. In Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, click Properties, click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
To remove files stored on your hard disk that you no longer use, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
3. Click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab (if it is not already selected), click to select the check boxes next to the files that you want to remove, and then click OK.
5. Click Yes to the process with this action, and then click OK.
To remove Windows components that you are not using, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
3. Click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
4. Click the More Options tab, and then under Windows components, click Clean up.
The Windows Components Wizard will then start
5. In the Components list, click to clear the check box next to the component(s) that you want to remove. *A shaded check box next to a component indicates that only some of its subcomponents are installed. If you want to remove a subcomponent, click Details, click to clear the check box next to the subcomponent(s) that you want to remove, and then click OK.
6. Click Next.
7. In the Completing the Windows Components Wizard page, click Finish.
8. Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.
To remove programs that you no longer use, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
3. Click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
4. Click the More Options tab, and then under Installed programs, click Clean up.
The Add or Remove Programs dialog box is displayed.
5. In the Currently installed programs list, click the program that you want to remove, and then click Remove (or Change/Remove).
6. If you receive a prompt to confirm the removal of the program, click Yes.
7. Repeat step 5 and 6 to remove other programs that you no longer use, and then click Close.
8. Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.
Now that we have completed those steps we will use the Disk Defragment utility to Defrag your hard drive. The defragment utility locates and consolidates fragmented boot files, data files, and folders on local volumes. A volume must have at least 15% free space for a defrag to completely and adequately defragment it. Defrag uses this space as a sorting area for the file fragments. If a volume has less than 15% free space, defrag will only partially defragment it. To increase the free space on a volume, delete unneeded files or move them to another disk. Also, you cannot defragment volumes that the file system has marked as dirty, which indicates possible corruption. You must run CHKDSK on a dirty volume before you can defragment it. You can determine if a volume is dirty by using the fsutil dirty query command. For more information on using that please do a search on it. There are a couple ways to start Disk Defragmenter....
Method 1: Use the Properties of Your Local Disk
1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties.
3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now.
4. Click Defragment.
Method 2: Use Computer Management MMC
1. Start Computer Management MMC (Compmgmt.msc).
2. Click Disk Defragmenter.
3. Click the volume that you want to defragment, and then click Defragment.
Method 3: Use Disk Defragmenter MMC
1. Start Disk Defragmenter MMC (Dfrg.msc)
2. Click the volume that you want to defragment, and then click Defragment.
*NOTE: Disk Defragmenter will usually take awhile to run, especially on larger volumes or if you have not run it in awhile.
Well this is about it as far as basic cleaning and maintaining goes. In my next article we will go more in depth into spyware/adware, virii, and registry edits. I mainly just wanted to get some basic steps covered in this article. So look back soon for the second part of this series..
-Curt
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