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Monthly PC Maintenance Routine

Monthly PC Maintenance Routine

Postby phileysmiley » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:26 am

Programs: a Checklist for Tuning Up Your PC
Sat Dec 4, 2004 08:47 AM ET
By Gene Emery

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Reuters) - You change the oil in your car every 5,000 miles or so. You clean your house every week or two. Your PC needs regular maintenance as well -- especially if you're using Windows and you spend a lot of time on the Internet. Virus checkers need to be updated. Spyware or adware may have sneaked onto your PC and the clutter could be slowing everything down. I have a checklist I follow at the end of every month for keeping my computer properly tuned. The steps may differ slightly, depending on your operating system. Clicking the "Start" button, going to the "Help" section and searching for a feature will show you how to adapt this list to your machine. Here's my drill:
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CLEAR THE DESKTOP. I look at my desktop icons to see if I can consolidate some of them in folders. To create a folder, put your cursor in a blank portion of the screen, click on the right mouse button, select "New" and "Folder." Click on the folder to rename it. Then you can drag desktop icons onto it. I had a friend who, until I taught him this trick, had a screen so cluttered with icons he could barely see his wallpaper.

CLEAR THE PROGRAMS. Next, I get rid of unused programs. But beware: Dragging their desktop icons into the Recycle Bin won't work. Instead, click on the "Start" button, select "Programs," find the program you want to remove, and look for an "Uninstall" option. If there isn't one, click on "Start," select "Settings," then "Control Panel," double-click on the "Add/Remove Programs" icon, look for the program on the list, and then click "Add/Remove." If that doesn't work, I insert the original disk that contained the program. The opening screen often has an "Uninstall" option.

UPDATE AND RUN THE VIRUS CHECKER. This should be done at least once a month. I've been using McAfee for years and, once you're connected to the Internet, updating is as simple as opening the main program and clicking the "Update" button. Once that's done -- the computer can appear to stall for many minutes, so be patient -- reboot the computer and run the virus checker. By the way, if you keep your computer on all the time -- which I do not -- most virus checkers can be programed to run at specified times. I recommend 3 a.m. daily.

CLEAR THE CLUTTER. Running the "Disk Cleanup" program, found by clicking on "Start," "Programs, "Accessories," and "System Tools," will get rid of temporary files, empty your recycle bin and eliminate other junk.

UPDATE SPYWARE/ADWARE REMOVERS. Spyware and adware -- also known as scumware -- are programs that can sneak onto your computer via the Internet, slow your PC down, give you unwanted ads, and snoop on your Internet browsing habits. I use "Ad-aware" from http://www.lavasoftusa.com. Use the "Check for Updates Now" feature and let the updates install. But wait before you actually run the main program. By the way, many readers have told me they run both "Ad-aware" and "Spybot: Search and Destroy" from http://www.safer-networking.org, another free program, to be sure all the spies are out of their system.

GO INTO SAFE MODE. I close all my programs and restart the computer in "Safe Mode." In my case, after the rebooting process has begun, I have to hit the "F8" key when I hear the beep. The process varies from computer to computer. In safe mode, the graphics look horrible, but it doesn't load programs that will interfere with what I do next.

RUN THE SPYWARE/ADWARE REMOVERS. They work more effectively in the "Safe Mode." For me, Ad-aware takes about 5 minutes to run. The remaining steps don't need to be done regularly, but it's a good idea to do them once in a while. Again, make sure you are in "Safe Mode," and turn off your screen saver by going to "Start," "Settings," "Control Panel," "Display," clicking on the "Screen Saver" tab, and using the pulldown menu to select "None." Then click OK and close all windows.

RUN SCANDISK (unless you have Windows XP). "ScanDisk" can be found by going back to the "System Tools" folder. It checks your hard drive for problems. Make sure the "Automatically Fix Errors" box is checked and do a "Thorough" scan. Don't plan on using your computer for quite a while. It typically takes many hours.

RUN DISK DEFRAGMENTER. This is also found in the "System Tools" folder. It consolidates the files on your hard drive, making things run smoother. I start this when I'm ready to go to bed. It takes all night. When I'm finished, I reboot the computer and it brings me back to normal. If you're having problems, visit the site http://www.pcpitstop.com. Their free scan can be very helpful. (Gene Emery is a columnist who covers science and technology. His Internet address is GEmery(at)Cox.net. Any opinions in the column are his alone.)

:source: Reuters
Last edited by phileysmiley on Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby tWeaKmoD » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:33 am

The MOST IMPORTANT part of this is the spyware removal. Virus are the easiest thing to prevent if you are a smart computer. However, spyware cannot always be avoided by even the most technically advancted users. Booting into safe mode is also very crutial when scanning for viruses and spyware. Safe mode is the only way to insure that everything can be removed!
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Postby imnuts » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:31 am

a good firewall like zonealarm and smart e-mail use can prevent almost all viruses, and firefox can prevent almost all spyware
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Postby Grav!ty » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:15 am

hardware maintenance on a regular basis is equally important - especially for those of us still using "legacy" cooling systems :()

i find that cleaning out my cpu and gpu heatsink and fans (psu fans as well come to think of it) on a regular basis really helps - its just amazing how much guff collects on them :yesnod:
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Postby gries818 » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:18 pm

Good little guide thing. I more a less follow the same set of rules however I check for updates. And I pretty much try to do it every 2 weeks if possible. Keeps my computer running great!
Last edited by gries818 on Fri Jul 28, 2006 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby kd1966 » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:39 pm

Grav!ty wrote:hardware maintenance on a regular basis is equally important - especially for those of us still using "legacy" cooling systems :()

i find that cleaning out my cpu and gpu heatsink and fans (psu fans as well come to think of it) on a regular basis really helps - its just amazing how much guff collects on them :yesnod:


Don't I know it; just a month ago I noticed my temps were running a bit high on the system (In the sig), usually averaging around low 40's celcius, the system was now topping out around 55 celcius. I opened it up and not only was there lots of dust on the HSFU, but just to check, I pulled the HSFU and there was no more thermal past on the CPU, just "around" the perimeter, and the remaining paste was fairly hard/brittle. I just so happened to have some Arctic Silver for my 64bit system I'm building, so it got "shared". I also checked my vid card and the old paste was pretty hard there as well...........

After all my cleaning/reapplying, I can run F@H for nearly 3/4'ths of the day and top out at ~44 celcius (Got a Zalman HSFU, pretty good piece of equipment.....)
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Postby Neuromancer » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:34 am

Good stuff. A 3rd party defragmenter seriously cuts down on defrag time too. I use )&) defragmenter and I defragged a fresh install and apllicatinos of xp home on a 50GB partition. (~30% fragmented) and a 120GB storage ddrives about 30GB actual usage and that was about ~40% fragmented

Both were done in 10 minutes.
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Postby phileysmiley » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:42 am

Wow! An oldie but a goodie. Nice to know that this info still applies! ^*^
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Postby augie » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:47 am

What I like to do though mainly in spring and summer, because of the pollen, is to get my vacumn cleaner out and a can of compressed gas, it's not air, power the cleaner up and blow the crap out with the gas and have the cleaner suck up the bunnies. Don't get too close to the electronics and make sure the PC's off, and I mean the LED on the mobo. No fuss or muss!

I do the rest on a weekly basis. :yesnod:
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Postby kd1966 » Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:10 am

On a side note, but not OT, I did a one day job last summer that involved cleaning computers..... about 20 of them in an office. I took my canned air and a Rainbow vaccuum (For those of you who don't know, a Rainbow is a "special" vaccuum where the filter is water). After a full day and 3 bottles of canned air, my Rainbow had a ton of sludge to clean out...............lol And this was in a "CLEAN" office building..........lol
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