Computer Spring Cleaning

As we spruce up the house and clean up the car preparing for summer (at least those of us in the northern hemisphere), let’s not forget doing a few tidy-up items on our computers.  Note that these suggestions are aimed at users running Windows 2000 or XP, if you are running a different version you may or may not be able to do some of these tasks, or they may be found in different places than indicated.  These steps are meant for a person with beginner to intermediate familiarity with Windows and it’s structure.  If you are uncertain of a process don’t follow it as some of these suggestions could harm your operating system if not followed correctly.  JAG Computer Service is not responsible for any data loss or issues caused by incorrectly following these steps or unknown conditions that may arise from following these suggestions.

If you are a computer novice, there are several programs out there that can do these processes for you, including Symantec’s Systemworks or these utilities from TuneUP Software.

Anti-Virus Software – Check to make sure if it’s up to date.  If it’s not, or expired or soon to expire, I recommend choosing one of these free (for home use, inexpensive for business use!) anti-virus programs.  If you are a business with 5 or more PC’s to protect and have a central server, than I recommend Trend Micro’s Client Server product.  It’s inexpensive, does an excellent job, and requires less administrative overhead than competitive products.

Clean-out spyware.  Download and run Adaware from Lavasoft.  Remove the items it finds.  If you are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, download and install Microsoft’s Windows Defender.  It will help keep spyware off your system.

Spam – How about cleaning up your incoming mail?  If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, try Cloudmark’s Desktop solutions.  You can get a 15 day trial here, and the annual fee is reasonable.  If you have a mail server at your site, there are several solutions for filtering mail before it hit’s your user’s mailboxes, including Cloudmark’s Server filter and GFI Mail Essentials.  Call JAG Computer Service to find out how to implement these technologies today.

Bring out your temp!  Bring out your temp!  (With apologies to Monty Python’s Flying Circus).  Your hard drive is nothing more than a filing system.  The more files on it, the more to keep track of, the slower the access can be.  So let’s clean out those temp files.  First, let’s clean out your internet explorer files.  With Internet Explorer open, click on Tools.  Choose Internet Options.  Click the Delete Files button to delete the temporary files.  When it’s finished (it may take several minutes if the temp folder contains a lot of files) click on the settings button.  Change the size of the temp folder to a manageable amount, such as 20 megabytes.  You can also delete your cookies from here if you want.  You’ll need to do this for each Profile or user that logs onto your PC.

Next, let’s find other temp files to remove.  Click on start, click on search, choose all files and folders, then put this character string in for the file name:

*.tmp

The * symbol is a wildcard.  In this case, we are telling Windows to search for all files that end with tmp, which is the temp file extension.  When it’s done searching, click on any file in the results window, press the ctrl key and the a key at the same time to highlight all, then press the delete key.  Not that some files may not be able to be deleted and this is normal (the operating system and other programs may have tmp files open).

Windows XP Prefetch folder.  With Windows XP, Microsoft introduced a folder inside the Windows directory called Prefetch.  The purpose of the folder is to keep often used program files in one place to allow for quicker load times.  The folder has also been used by malware and spyware to keep themselves reloading.  I haven’t experienced any ill side effects from deleting all the files inside this folder, and the folder will be repopulated as you launch programs.  Open My Computer, browse to your system drive (usually the c: drive), browse to the Windows Folder, browse to the Prefetch folder.  Highlight any file in the folder then press the ctrl key and the a key to highlight all files, then press the delete key.  There is a lot of debate about how to handle this folder, but I have found numerous malware and spyware programs that hide themselves here, and there is not a whole lot to be gained by leaving the contents intact.

Time to take out the trash.  If you’ve been deleting items and they end up in the Recycle Bin, they still are files that exist on your hard drive.  If you are sure you don’t need to recover any of these files, right-click on the Recycle Bin and choose ‘Empty Recycle Bin’.  Once the files are deleted, now right-click on the Recycle Bin and choose properties.  On the global tab, choose the selection that says Configure Drives Independently.  Now go to each drive and change the amount of space set aside for holding deleted files to 1% or 2% of the drive size.  Choose apply, then click okay.

Defragmenting.  It’s now time to put those bits on the hard drive in order.  Open My Computer, right-click on the hard drive you want to defragment, choose Properties, then click on the tools tab.  Click on Defragment Now, highlight your drive and choose Defragment Now.  Once it’s done, defragment the other drives in your PC.  You can find alternative defragmenter programs from Executive Software, O&O, and Sysinternals.

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