Simple weekly (or bi-weekly) computer maintenance can alleviate a lot of problems, quicken your computer's load-up time, have games and programs perform faster and overall, just less problems and frustrations. I've seen quite a few people complain on how their computer "sucks" but in the end, it's the person(s)' fault for making their computer like it, heh, sorry to break it to you all like that.
So this guide will provide seven steps to help maintain your PC. This guide is written to assume that you have Windows XP, administrative access to your computer and access to Internet Explorer
First and foremost, I would like to direct folks to
TweakGuides.com. The guy who runs that wrote
many tweak guides for games or general Windows programs. One guide in particular (that most of this information comes from) is a 175 page
free "TweakGuides Tweaking Companion" guide. The current version (3.00) is a complete system optimization guide for Windows XP users. You can read more about that
here. Even if you're not a big PC user, I still suggest to look at the guide, you can learn some things.
So without further ado, here are the seven steps to PC happiness.
Step 1: Scan for Malicious Software
This post contains many free anti-virus/spyware/single file scanners that you can use to keep your computer free of any malicious software. Update your scanners (and keep them updated!) every week and run a full system scan.
I recommend
AVG for anyone's anti-virus and
Spybot and
Ad-Aware for spyware needs. Keep them updated and run a system scan every week or two.
If you find things (spyware or viruses or cookies from "bad" sites) that keep coming back after a scan, try booting in safe mode and doing a scan (I know Spybot suggests that) or going to whatever browser you use and blocking cookies from whatever site they're from (Spyboy points out where bad cookies are).
Also I suggest to turn off background scanning on whatever anti-virus you use. For AVG, you would have to turn off "Resident Shield Box". Sometimes, the background scanning
can conflict with games or programs but overall, they take up memory and resources that your computer may need (i.e. things may run slower). But, of course, if you're wary for your safety, by all means, leave it on.
Scanning for Trojans:
a-squared (need to make a new account but it's free)
Step 2: Update Windows
Go to Windows' Update
Site once a week and see if there are any updates available. Of course, download anything that's under the "High-priority updates". There are Windows' haters out there but in the end, it's greatly recommended you download any of the high-priority updates because they protect Windows.
Step 3: Check for New Startup Programs and Services
I'm sure we know people who have 10+ icons in their taskbar (the little bar at the lower right corner with the clock) and that's pretty mind-blowing considering that people don't really take the time to turn them off because even though you may use the associated program from time to time, the icon can be easily turned off
and the program still be easily accessible. Also all of these little icons take up memory and resources.
First and foremost, you can see all the programs Windows starts-up by going to Run and type in "msconfig" (without quotes) and go to the Startup tab. All of the checked startup items are started up everytime Windows loads. So if you find Windows taking a long time to load up, un-check all the programs you don't use or don't need. Like I said before, all the programs that are not checked are still on your computer, they just don't initally load up when Windows start.
While looking through all the programs, the names can seem confusing but a quick google search will usually net you an answer of what it does and where it's located. I suggest to use
this site as well. Just type in whatever startup name in there and it'll point you to what it does. If you don't want that running, uncheck it or remove it via the registry (more on the registry in step 6).
Anytime you install something, it will most likely install a quick launch icon to your taskbar. So check to see if there's an option to either not install that or to remove it after installing it.
For my system, I have
two things that initally load up when Windows start, my firewall client (Zonealarm) and my volume control for my speakers/PC (Creative). That's it.
Under the Services tab, that shows all the services that's installed on your computer. From here, you can seemingly turn off selected services, or set them to manual. One thing I suggest is to check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and see all the third-party program services installed on your computer. From there, you can turn them off to your liking.
Step 4: Run a Disk Check
This is quoted directly from the TweakGuide:
Quote:
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Open Windows Explorer, right-click on your main hard drive and select Properties>Tools>Check Now. Tick "automatically fix system errors", click OK, then reboot your system to allow Windows to run a Check Disc scan and repair your hard drive.
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Step 5: Clean Windows
First, it's best to delete any files/folders that you know you no longer need. Uninstall programs you don't need/use, remove unnecessary files, etc.
After that, it's best to run the Disk Cleanup program by going to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup. Initally, it'll calculate how much disk space you can free up. Check the different options on what you want to remove/compact (things like Recycle Bin, Setup Log Files, Temporary Files, Temporary Internet Files [if you want] and Catalog Files for the Content Indexer should be checked) and let it run. Note, this process might take a little while.
If you go the other tab in Disk Cleanup, "More options", you have a few more options available, like removing optional Windows components you don't need (like Mindsweeper, heh), removing installed programs, or clearing out old restore points (recommended).
Lastly, download and run
CCleaner. This program automatically tracks down and removes useless files on your system. It has quite a few options on what you don't want to remove so you can choose what you want and don't want to get removed. Analyze your system first (so you know what will get removed), check things over and run the actual program.
Step 6: Clean and Optimize the Registry
The Windows Registry (as defined by
Microsoft) is: "The Registry contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer and the types of do***ents that each can create, property sheet settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists on the system, and the ports that are being used."
So another words, anytime anything is installed, or something is changed on screen (ranging to something small like resizing a window) it's all logged and changed in the Windows Registry. So seemingly, thousands of entries can be created in the Registry.
Two things to do here:
1. Compact the registry. Nab the program
NTREGOPT. It compacts the registry and can improve load-up time. Install it, let the program run and it may prompt you to reboot. That's it.
2. Clean the Registry. Nab the program
RegSupreme 1.3 (it's a trial offer though), and let that run. Upon start-up, it'll scan your registry and will provide a type of scanning after it's done, I suggest Aggressive (it won't cause problems). Let it scan and once it's done, the program will say how many "invalid" entries it counted and you can "fix" them all. Go to the Select menu and choose all to select all the invalid entries and hit the fix button. From there, you should be able to name a back-up file (I date mine) for anything that may go wrong, you can find this back-up file and re-enable it. Finally, it should remove/fix all the old registry files and that's it.
Step 7: Defragment
Depending on your system, this may take the longest. First, any information that's put on your hard drive (and ultimately removed from your hard drive) will become fragmented and spread around your whole hard drive. Using a program to defragment all of these files and compact them together can (and will) improve general PC performance, especially in games.
Windows comes with its own defrag program and by all means, it's fine, but there are a few commerical (and free trial) defrag programs out there that are
way better. To access the Windows defrag program, go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools. Upon loading it up, analyze your system. In the end, the more red, the more fragmented your system is (and the longer the process will take). Defrag your system after that, preferably over-night. In order for the program to work, you need at least 15% free space.
As for commerical products, I suggest to use
Diskeeper. Download the trial (you have to input some information thought), and run it. It's seemingly similar to the Windows one. Select what hard drive (if you have more than one), and analyze it. After that, hit the defrag button (choose the top option since it's the more efficent but may take longer) and that's it.
Note about Diskeeper, even though it has a 30 day free trial, if you clean the registry file for Diskeeper (cleaning the registry is talked about in step 6), you can seemingly use Diskeeper forever.
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That's all the steps, I hope this helps. Any comments are appreciated. In the end, all of these steps (on a clean set-up) can take upwards to an hour at least (minus defragging sometimes). If your computer is in pretty bad shape, running all of these will guarantee improved performance.
Word of warning though, this may not suitable for everyone because in the end, you can screw something up. So if you're not comfortable doing any of these steps, by all means,
don't do them!.
Also, I'm not considered a computer professional or expert, so don't consult me if your computer has some crippling errors or problems. The knowledge above should be known by any and all who use a computer.
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Guide log:
4/9/06: Inital guide release
5/16/06: Added note about Diskeeper
Regular Computer Maintenance
Linear Mode
