How I maintain my computer

[jimnyc]

Far be it from me to tell anyone how to maintain their own computer. I only offer my routine to allows others an opportunity to maybe grab a few pointers. This routine helps keep my machine free of viruses & spyware, and also helps keep things running smoothly and quicker. Without utilities, we are all susceptible to viruses and spyware/adware. Without maintenance, our computers will eventually bog down and become a pain to use.

Crap Cleaner - This nifty utility allows me to clean out pre-determined areas of my hard drive. It'll handle most temporary files, deleted files, history, index.dat files, clipboard, memory dumps and log files. This not only protects your computer from storing private information after your browsing, but also keeps the machine clean of files that will ultimately slow your machine down. Program is 100% free. http://www.ccleaner.com/

Tune Up Utilities - This is my favorite and most used program. This program can check your hard disk for physical and data errors, can optimize your system and browsers, clean system (like ccleaner), and help maintain your registry. Honestly, I mainly use just the "1 Click maintenance" which will run through all aspects of your registry. It will optimize your registry, remove errors & unwanted or duplicate entries. They offer a free trial, but ultimately a license will cost $40 http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

.tmp files - Even though the programs should clean all .tmp files, I occasionally do a search on my computer for *.tmp files and delete all that are found. These files are not needed, they take up disk space and can cause slowness.

C:\Program Files - When you remove a program via the Control Panel, it rarely removes the programs folders from this directory. Sometimes it even leaves certain files. After I remove a program from the CP, I like to verify in this folder that the contents have been totally removed. Call me crazy, but I like my machine to be as clean as possible.

AVG - This is a free Anti-Virus program. It runs constantly and is capable of monitoring your hard drive, downloads, and outgoing/incoming email. It is capable of automatically updating itself daily with the latest signature files. http://www.grisoft.com/

Spybot - Another great program for keeping your machine free of spyware and adware. I often find crap on my computer with this program that Ad-Aware doesn't find and vice versa. I generally run this 1x per week. http://www.safer-networking.org/

Ad-Aware - Program to assist keeping your computer free of spyware and adware. I run at least 2x per week. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware

Unneeded programs - I often find myself installing programs that eventually I stop using. I'll go through my installed programs monthly and uninstall programs I no longer use. No sense taking up space or taking a chance on program conflicts if the program is no longer needed.

Turn off visuals - I'm using Windows XP Pro, but this applies to all windows versions. The software comes made to be as visually appealing as possible, but unfortunately a lot of these visuals will slow down your machine. Fading in and out of menus, animated windows, shadows, background images for folders... There are lots of hidden settings that can be optimized for a smoother running machine. I can expand on this if anyone likes.

Startup & Taskbar programs - A major pet peeve of mine! I hate computers that have programs automatically starting on bootup. This should be kept to a minimum. If I want to use a program, I can handle double clicking on the icon. I also hate computers that have the taskbar filled with a gazillion icons. These are all loaded into memory and can cause your machine to perform poorly. If it's not 100% needed on bootup, remove it! The only must I can think of is anti-virus programs. All this crap can be removed from the startup folders, or the run section of your registry. Again, I can expand on this with specifics if anyone is interested.

Hopefully others will share any tips they use.

[Hagbard Celine]

Thanks Jimny, good post. I already use Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I'll check-out these other programs too.

Do you use any of the open-source programs like firefox mozilla or any of the open-source word processors like Abiword or Openoffice.org?

[jimnyc]

Thanks Jimny, good post. I already use Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I'll check-out these other programs too.

Do you use any of the open-source programs like firefox mozilla or any of the open-source word processors like Abiword or Openoffice.org?

I use the latest version of Firefox as my browser. I don't necessarily think it's "that" much more secure than IE, but hackers tend to prefer to go after Microsoft products!

I use "Filezilla" as my FTP program, and I tend to use open source programs/scripts for my other websites. Honestly, I mainly do so because most of those are free!

I've used Openoffice in the past but since I got my latest version of MS Office for free, I figured I would continue to use that. But I would recommend Openoffice for anyone who doesn't want to lay out the dough for MS. Never heard of Abiword before but I'm looking through their site right now...

Here's a great source for open source programs if you like:

http://sourceforge.net/

[Hagbard Celine]

Did you remove or turn-off internet exploder from your system to save memory since you use firefox? Or do you run both at the same time?

[5stringJeff]

Hagbard, I tried open office, but I found that it ran slow on my PC and wasn't very user friendly compared to MS Office. Plus, I'm getting MS Office 07 for free, so I'm going to stick with that.

The other program I'd offer up, for advanced users, is HijackThis. I used it to do some deep cleanup of startup programs, unneeded registry keys/programs, etc. This really is for people who know what they're doing, though, so user beware!

[Hagbard Celine]

Hagbard, I tried open office, but I found that it ran slow on my PC and wasn't very user friendly compared to MS Office. Plus, I'm getting MS Office 07 for free, so I'm going to stick with that.

The other program I'd offer up, for advanced users, is HijackThis. I used it to do some deep cleanup of startup programs, unneeded registry keys/programs, etc. This really is for people who know what they're doing, though, so user beware!

Yeah, I've used HijackThis before to remove a stubborn spybot program from my laptop. I agree, everything is more stream-lined with MS Office because it's made to run on Windows by the guys who designed Windows, but OpenOffice is great for people like me who can't afford to pay $200 for a computer program. If you can get it for free, more power to you!:cheers2:

[diuretic]

On my number two XP machine (Athlon) all those programmes sit and they do well and I make sure I run them on a schedule very similar and of course keep MS updates. That machine has Office which I think is an excellent suite. I've never had a problem with Office, runs sweetly. Only one difference, I use Avast! a-v.

On my number one computer (P4) I only have Ubuntu and a whole bunch of free (as in free beer), open-source software. I use OpenOffice a lot and while it doesn't have the sweetness of Office it is free. I can also make pdf files with it but since I have Acrobat Distiller on the other one I tend to use that (I got my Office/Adobe stuff at a reduced academic price).

[jafar00]

I don't have to do any of the above nonsense with windows since I run Ubuntu Linux. I do have one machine running windows, but that is just for games. I don't do any web browsing or email on the windows machine so a copy of Avast! and the linux firewall and XP default firewall is enough to to keep it relatively safe. Since it's not booted to windows that often, it doesn't have a lot of gunk to remove anyway.