One on One Computer Consultants
January 2006 eNewsletter

Special New Year Edition – Getting your Computer Ready for the New Year

Step 1 – Download, Install, and Update these programs

Computer Associates Anti-Virus Software ( http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/Default.aspx )

SpyBot Search & Destroy Spyware Removal Software ( http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html )

Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware SE Personal Spyware Removal Software ( http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ )

Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware Software (Windows 2000/XP Only) ( http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ )

TweakNow RegCleaner Standard ( http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html )

Step 2 – Follow the instructions below to do a computer system cleanup.

You should backup any data files and your system registry, if you have that option. Run the steps in the order below, you might want to print these steps for easier referral.

Let's start by deleting unnecessary files

  1. Open Microsoft's Internet Explorer, click on Tools, and Internet Options. Under "Temporary Internet Files", click on the "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files" buttons. Under "History", click on the "Clear History" button. Close Internet Explorer.
  2. Go to Start, Run, and type in "%temp%" (without quotation marks). This will open your "temp folder". Click on the "date Modified" column heading to sort the entries by descending date (newest first). Skip all entries with today's date (you probably won't be able to delete them anyway). Click on the first entry after today's date, scroll down to the bottom of the page, hold down the shift key, and click on the last entry. This should highlight all of the entries to be remove. Press the delete key and click on "OK" to complete the process.
  3. Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Clean-up. Run the program and check everything that you can check and run the program. (This program can be added to the "Scheduled Tasks" to automatically run on the date and time you select.)
  4. Go to your Desktop, click on recycle bin, and empty everything from the Recycle Bin.

Step 3 - Now, let's check the condition of your files and hard disk drive.

  1. Windows 95/98/ME use a program called "scandisk". Scandisk offers two options, "Standard" and "Thorough" modes. There are "advanced" options and be sure to check the "automatically fix errors" box. Run the "Thorough" option the first time. Note: you might receive a message that Scandisk has restarted 10 times, do you want to continue to see this message. If you get that message, click on "No".
  2. Windows NT, 2000, and XP use a program called "chkdsk". Go to Start, Run and type in the command, "chkdsk.exe /f" (without the quotation marks). (/f : Fixes errors on the disk. The disk must be locked. If chkdsk cannot lock the drive, a message appears that asks you if you want to check the drive the next time you restart the computer.) Click on "yes", or type "y" and restart your computer.
  3. Run Disk Defragment to remove open space on your hard drive and remove fragmented files. In Windows 95/98/ME, you'll find the program under Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. In Windows XP/NT/2000, open "My Computer", right-click on your hard drive, left-click on properties, and click on the Tools tab.
  4. Update you anti-virus definitions and do a full system scan. If your definitions subscription has expired, then your anti-virus software isn't doing the job it was intended to do. Renew your subscription to your anti-virus software. If your software has been working well for you, don't upgrade. Most of the latest anti-virus programs load too many programs at startup and will dramatically affect the performance of computers running the older operating systems like Windows 95/98/ME.
  5. Update your spyware removal software definitions and perform a full system scan. I recommend SpyBot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware for Windows 95/98/ME users. Add Microsoft's Anti-Spyware if you're running Windows XP/2000. Each Spyware Removal program will find items that the others miss, so run them all.
  6. Run "TweakNow" to remove any extraneous registry entries. Be careful to remove only the "safe to delete" entries.

Step 4 - Restart your computer and your system should be operating at it's peak performance.

<Back to eNewsletter Archives Page>