# How to take care of your computer



## Guest (Jan 28, 2003)

This is simply a list of things that you should do. I know most of you know this, but just in case someone is new to computers and doesn't know who to ask or doesn't know at all that you actually have to take care of your computer, not just use it, this is what they'll need to know.

Also, is there anything else I should know that I don't know?

What to do to take care of the computer

Have Anti-Virus software -- Get Free AVG antivirus from 
-- http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm?session=080c66523c373d91bcd215b960a41b27

Have a Firewall -- ZoneAlarm is free -- http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Defragment your hard drive(s) -- Use Windows' 
Defragmenter or use a professional defragmenter like Diskeeper.

Scan your hard drive for errors -- Use Windows' Scandisk or get Norton Utilities,
which has a better scanner.

Windows Update -- http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ -- This keeps your security and
other Windows stuff up to date.

Update your antivirus software.

Check for spyware -- get adaware -- http://download.com.com/redir?pid=1...=2094&dlrs=1&destUrl=/3001-2094-10121984.html

Update Adaware. Go to adaware's homepage and there's a link to get updates.


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

Good list, but 2 reccommendations.

Always run scandisk _before_ defrag.

And dont use adaware. Version 5.83 does not have updates, and there is no freeware edition of 6.0 yet. When there is, I wont use it, Lavasoft kinda missed the boat on Spyware scanners. During the no update period, they could have at least fixed it so it wouldnt trash your internet connection if used on CommonName.
Use Spybot instead.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

I agree. If you're going to run both, run Scandisk first.

Ad-aware 5.83 is outdated. SpyBot - Search & Destroy 1.1.4 does a much better job. Remove everything that appears in red.

Don't forget to clean out the buildup of temp files in:

*.TMP
C:\TEMP\*.*
C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*

and don't forget to delete them from the Recycle Bin before defragging the hard drive.

Frank's Windows 95/98 Tips


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## pyritechips (Jun 3, 2002)

Here's a great method of file cleanup coourtesy of Rog. It is run in DOS (I'm not sure if this works in anything other than W98):

At the prompt enter: smartdrv

enter: deltree tempor~1

enter: temp

enter: history

enter: locals~1\tempor~1

enter: win (this will boot your computer back into windows)

This elimantes the possibility of a file not being deleted because it is in use by windows.

Works for me!


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

c:\Recycled\*.* 
c:\Windows\Tempor~1\*.* 
c:\Windows\History\*.* 
c:\Temp\*.* 
c:\Windows\Intern~1\*.* 
c:\Windows\*.TMP 
c:\windows\cookies\*.* 
c:\*.tmp
c:\Windows\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.*
c:\*.chk (not sure of exact location, but all .chk files can go)


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## Rhettman5.1 (Sep 25, 2002)

Dreamboat posted this some time ago, I saved it for referance...a goodie !!

** Periodic Hard Drive Maintenance ** 

To troubleshoot and avoid: ·Illegal Operations, Invalid Page Faults, 
Lockups/Freezeups, the following steps can be used, regardless of the 
program (and whether Microsoft product or not) that causes the fault. Use 
them under Windows 95, 98, or NT. If you use your PC regularly, take these 
steps every week or every other week. 

1. Close all programs. 

2. Hit Start-Find-Files or Folders. In the Named box, type the following 
exactly as it appears (but it is not case-sensitive), and without any 
spaces: 

*.tmp,~*.* 

Make sure the Look-In box contains the hard drive from which your 
applications run, usually (C. Make sure the Include Subfolders checkbox is 
checked. Hit Find Now. 

When the little magnifying glass stops, searching has completed and you can 
see how many files were found at the bottom of the dialog box. If you feel 
bad about having so many, the author's record on a user's PC is 6,600, 
though less than a hundred is typical. On your keyboard, hold your Ctrl key 
down and hit the letter "a"; this selects all the files that were found. Hit 
your delete key and say Yes when asked if you want to send all the files to 
the recycle bin. 

If you are asked if you are sure you want to delete a file because it is a 
program that you will not be able to run again, or because it is a read-only 
file, say Yes. Program files do not start with a squiggly line (~ it's 
called a tilde - till-duh), nor do they end with "tmp." 

If you are unable to delete some of the files, hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and End 
Task on everything in the list EXCEPT Explorer and Systray. (It is okay to 
End Task on your antivirus software because you will be rebooting your PC, 
which should restart your antivirus software again.) Once you have ended all 
of the tasks (except Explorer and Systray), try selecting (ctrl-a) and 
deleting the files again. It is usually okay to leave several files in there 
if you are unable to delete them. 

Close the Find Files window when you are done. 

3. Empty your recycle bin. Shortcut: right-click the recycle bin and hit 
Empty Recycle Bin. 

4. Run Scandisk (not for NT users), should take a minute or two. Hit 
Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Scandisk. Make sure the hard drive 
is selected (usually C, do a Standard test (run a Thorough test the first 
time and every few months), and check the Automatically Fix Errors box. The 
first time you run Scandisk, hit the Advanced button and make sure that 
Display Summary is set to Always and hit OK. Then hit Start to run Scandisk. 
Close the Scandisk report after it is displayed (and after you've read 
it--and hopefully there were 0 bytes in bad sectors), then close Scandisk 
itself. 

5. Reboot your PC (you're not getting out of this one, NT users). 

About once a month, run Defrag (not for NT users). This is best performed at 
the end of the steps above, but particularly if you have installed, 
uninstalled, or reinstalled any programs, or if you have added a lot of 
files to your hard drive or deleted a lot of files from your hard drive. 
Just make sure you close all programs first. Hit 
Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. Run it on the C: 
drive. The author suggests running it regardless of Windows' suggestion. 
Reboot your PC after running Defrag.


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