Computer Spring Cleaning
There’s good procrastination and there’s bad procrastination. Waiting for your computer to boot up is bad procrastination. Follow the steps below to get your computer back to top shape:
1) Defrag your system. Download this: jkdefrag-screensaver-and-pagedefrag file (JkDefrag ScreenSaver and PageDefrag.zip), unzip it and follow the instructions. It will install two free programs on your computer. One will defrag your system in place of your screensaver, so it only runs when you’re not using the PC (don’t be afraid to interrupt it when it’s running either, it’ll just start up where it left off the next time it runs). The other defrags system files when your computer reboots.
2) Scan for spyware. Download the free version of SuperAntispyware. After it installs have it update and run a full scan on your system. When it’s done and you’ve deleted anything it may have found go into the “Preferences” and untick the “Start SuperAntispyware when Windows starts” box and the “Show SuperAntispyware icon in the system tray” box. This way the program will only be running when you want it to.
3) Clean junk files from you hard drive and Registry. Download CCleaner (stands for Crap Cleaner). It’s free, just pay attention when installing it as you’ll need to uncheck the option install a Yahoo toolbar. After it’s installed run the “Cleaner” option and then the “Registry” option. When it’s about to make changes to the Registry it’ll ask you for a place to save the backup file. I just put mine in the same folder I installed CCleaner to.
When you run CCleaner it’s best to close any open browsers first so it can properly clean out your cookies. Some websites, like Yahoo! Mail, use cookies to keep you logged in, though. So if you like that option you can make CCleaner keep specific cookies. The best way to do it first run CCleaner and delete all your cookies. Then open your browser and login to the sites you want to keep cookies for. Open CCleaner -> Select “Options” -> Select “Cookies” and then simply select the few cookies you want to keep.
4) Reduce the number of programs that start with Windows. Lots of programs try to be “helpful” by preloading when Windows starts. Some will also load update checking modules when windows starts as well. Most of the time they do not need to be running at startup (Quicktime, Adobe Acrobat, etc.).
Download Autoruns from Microsoft. The program doesn’t need to be installed, but you should place it in its own folder before you run it. This program is going to give you a list of everything that starts when you computer boots. The list is huge and can be intimidating. You really only need to concern yourself with one of the tabs. So after the program starts click the “Logon” tab. Any program that does not list Microsoft under the “Publisher” column is pretty much fair game. If you don’t want it to start just untick the box next to it.
If you are not sure what a program is just left click on it and select the “Search Online” option to see if you can get info about it on the internet. If you think you’ve made a mistake just start Autoruns again and tick the box. It’s that simple.
Additionally, some programs will have a setting for preventing it from starting up with Windows in the program’s own Options or Preferences settings.
5. You should also run a check disk on your drive(s). When you do it select both options (“Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan and attempt recovery of bad sectors”). After you click “Start” it’ll tell you that it can’t run right now, so it’ll offer to run on the next reboot. Accept that and then reboot your computer. DO NOT MAKE ANY PLANS TO USE YOUR PC FOR ANYWHERE FROM ONE TO FOUR HOURS. It’s best to start this before you go to bed at night. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE CHECKDISK PROCESS ONCE IT HAS BEGUN.
6. One last thing you can do (after running the defrag and checkdisk) is to make sure you hard drive is running in DMA mode. Whenever your computer loads data off the hard drive it runs error checking on the data. If it detects too many errors it will slow down the data rate by putting your drive in PIO mode. Here’s some info on checking your hard drive’s transfer mode and how to change it back to DMA. If it is in PIO mode doing the maintenance I’ve previously mentioned should allow it to run in successful in DMA mode.
If your system keeps switching your drive back to PIO mode you’ve got a problem. You may need to replace your hard drive.
7. One final tip: uninstall all the programs you don’t use. If you never use it I’d uninstall JAVA and then disable its use in your browser. If you do get rid of JAVA you should also uninstall the version that comes with Windows by running this tool.
