Heres my latest and greatest computer maintanence guide!

As time goes by, computers become stacked with junk files, registry entries, unnecessary programs and even Virus'. Some simple, regular maintenance at intervals of 3 months (at most 6 months) at a time will save you a lot of time waiting for programs to load and your computer to boot and get you computer back to that fresh baby it once was.

As a professional IT Technician, I have developed a set of procedures over time for use not only on my own personal computer but also on clients computers. You should follow this guide in the order it is laid out.

Contents;
Topic Description

- Introduction.

1 - Unnecessary, unused programs.

2 - Unnecessary files.

3 - Unnecessary start up programs.

4 - Missing, invalid registry entries.

5 - Hard Drive Defragmentation.

6 - Malware.

7 - Hardware maintenance.

8 - Hardware checks.

9 - Miscellaneous.


1 - Unnecessary, unused programs

Unused programs take up unnecessary disk space, bog down your registry, your Desktop and your Start Menu, All Programs list and are simply a nuisance in general. When you do your maintenance you should remove programs that you do not use and will never use, or programs that you tried out, and decided didn't work for you. Simply do this by going to the Start Menu, clicking on Control Panel and then using the Add, Remove Programs function (Called Programs and Features in Vista). This part is extremely simple, just go through the list until you have weaned out all unnecessary programs. Then go through it once more just to be sure.

2 - Unnecessary Files

Unnecessary files sometimes take up HUGE amounts of disk space and make your computer wade through loads of files before it can find what it's looking for. Cleaning these up will gain you disk space and make a slight difference to the speed of your computer. There are various programs and utilities used in this process, the links for these will be listed at the end of this Topic.

First we start off with a cleaner that doesn't need to be installed, and will remove junk files from the most common places on your PC. This is called ATF Cleaner, after downloading it, simply open it, tick all boxes, then run it. After it is completed it will tell you exactly how many MBs it has cleaned. Now close ATF Cleaner. The next one we use is CCleaner (previously known as Crap Cleaner), this is a very thorough cleaning utility and it will scan your system for junk files. After downloading it and installing it, open it and in the Windows tab, ensure all Internet Explorer boxes, all Windows Explorer boxes, all EXCEPT the bottom two boxes in System and Old Prefetch Data and IIS Log Files in Advanced are ticked. If you use Windows XP, you may also tick Hotfix Uninstallers in Advanced. Then go to the Applications tab, ensure that all of these boxes are ticked. Then hit Run Cleaner in the bottom right corner of the screen. After doing this, CCleaner will tell you how much space it has freed. DO NOT uninstall CCleaner, we will be using it later.

Lastly, we will use Advanced System Care by IObit WITHOUT the registry function. Download and install it, open it and before doing anything, click Check For Update in the bottom right corner of the program. After updating the program, select Settings, and start at the top, General Settings. Ensure that Execute at Windows Startup is NOT ticked. Now move on to Privacy Sweep, tick ALL boxes in this section. Now move on to Junk Files Clean, ensure that all boxes EXCEPT the last one (Enable Secure File Deletion DOD 5220.22-M (Slower) are ticked. In the Automated Care section, ensure that it is Disabled. Now you may hit Apply. Now in the Maintain Windows section (the topmost icon), ENSURE THAT REGISTRY FIX IS UNTICKED, then hit Scan. After the Scanning phase is finished, select Repair. Once the repair phase is finished, move on to the Diagnose System icon (the rightmost icon). Untick the Disk Defragment and the Security Analyzer stages and hit Scan. Again after the scanning phase is complete, hit repair. You have now completed the Junk Files segment.

Links:
ATF CLEANER
CCleaner
Advanced System Care


3 - Unnecessary start up programs

Unnecessary start up programs are the biggest culprit of RAM usage, slow boot times and CPU utilization. There are some programs that you don't even see running that are still running in the background taking up CPU power and RAM. It is very simple to remove these programs and is made easier with tools such as the tool incorporated into CCleaner.

To use this tool, simply open CCleaner, select the Tools icon on the side and then select Startup. Use this utility to remove all programs unnecesarily starting up with Windows. These include, Adobe Speed Launcher, Apple Updater, FreshUI, uTorrent, Limewire, Unlocker 1.8.7, etc. These programs DO NOT include, back up utilities, Antivirus programs, Firewalls etc. To stop an entry from starting up, DO NOT delete it, simply DISABLE it. If you are not sure what to Disable, post a screenshot of the list here and I will help you.

Links:
CCleaner
http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html
4 - Missing, invalid registry entries

The way that Missing and invalid registry entries are portrayed as affecting the speed of a PC is completely blown out of proportion. These entries most definitely make a difference, however are not a huge culprit of PC slowdowns. Basically, the more programs you have had on your PC, the more it is used and the older it is, the more registry entries you will have. Under normal circumstances, the registry is a VERY delicate area and should NEVER be played with by even the advanced user. Only the most expert of users should play around with the registry manually. HOWEVER, some tools such as CCleaners Registry Cleaner make it easy AND SAFE to do so. In my experience, CCleaner is THE ONLY safe one. (Thus why I told you untick the Registry Fix box in Advanced System Care earlier.) CCleaner will only remove registry entries that it knows are not necessary and before it removes them, it gives you the option to Back Up the changes BEFORE it makes them, THIS YOU MUST ALWAYS DO, this is what makes CCleaners Registry Cleaner safe.

To use it, simply open CCleaner, click on the Registry icon on the left, ensure that all boxes are ticked and click Scan For Issues. CCleaner will scan your computer for issues, once it is complete, click Fix Selected Issues down the bottom right hand corner. CCleaner will then ask you to Backup Changes, select Yes, then leave it at its default name or change it to something you can remember, then select Save. Now a little box will pop up, select Fix All Issues, press Yes to the confirmation that appears then once it has finished repeat the process until CCleaner finds no more issues.

You have now completed the Registry segment of this guide.

Links:
CCleaner

5 - Hard Drive Defragmentation.

Another huge culprit of PC slowdowns. A fragmented Hard Drive. This process is very easy, however time consuming. For highly fragmented drives or large disks, allow several hours. There are defragmentation programs called Smart Defragmenters, these programs not only Defragment the data but arrange the data on the disk in such a way that the heavily used data can be accessed faster than the less used data. Fragmented data is basically a string of Binary that is split by another string. Basically, Normal (defragmented) files on the HDD will look something like this (with * signifying the start of the string and % signifying the end);

STRING 1 *0100001100111110000011101010111010101010% STRING 2 *0111000100010001001010010010100000010101011101010110%

Whereas fragmented files on the HDD will look something like this (with * signifying the start of the string, % signifying the end of the string, $ signifying a break in the string and ! signifying the continuation of a string.

STRING 1 *0100000111110$ STRING 2 *01110001000100010010100000000000000101011101010110% STRING 1 !010010001000010000%

Notice the break in String 1? This means String 1 is a FRAGMENTED file, because the data is in two pieces. Defragmenting puts these pieces back together, decreasing the time needed for the HDD to find the data. Defragmenting is easy, its just set, go and walk away for a couple of hours. In this guide we will simply download and install IObits Smart Defrag. Install it, open it and go to the Options icon. Ensure that Load Automatically at Windows Startup is NOT ticked and that Skip files larger than (xy) GBs IS NOT ticked. Now click on the Defrag Now icon, tick all of your Hard Drives. Next to the start button there is a drop down list, select Deep Optimize, hit start and walk away. Come back and check it every couple of hours, once it is complete the STOP button will be greyed out and the ANALYZE and START buttons will be available to be pressed again. Once the Defrag is complete, hit Start again, this second Defrag should only take 30 minutes to two hours.

After this is complete you have completed the Defragmentation segment of this guide.

Links:
Smart Defrag

6 - Malware.

Malware is another culprit of a slow computer, Malware ranges from, Spyware to Adware, from Trojans to Virus'. You should ALWAYS run Malware scans every three months, even if you have no symptoms of don't think you have any. There are two programs that I use, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and Super Anti Spyware (MBAM and SAS for short). Download and install them, after installing them, open SAS and click Check For Updates. Once downloading updates is completed, click Preferences, in the General and Startup tab, ensure that Start SUPERAnti Spyware when Windows starts IS NOT ticked, then move onto the Scanning Control tab, untick the first four, and tick the rest. Now run an SAS scan, go to the main page and click Scan Your Computer, tick all of your HDDs and any USBs attatched, select Perform Complete Scan then hit Next. SAS may take from 1.5 hours to 6 hours to scan your PC. Once it is complete, fix all items detected and restart. Once you have rebooted, open MBAM, go to the Updates tab, and, as always Check for Updates, after downloading and installing all available updates, go to the Settings tab, and untick the top checkbox while ticking the rest. Now go back to the Scanner tab, select Perform Full Scan, hit Scan and again, select all Hard Drives and USBs. WARNING MBAM DOES CONFLICT WITH NORTONS, this WILL NOT harm your computer, it just means MBAM may take up to 15 hours to complete the scan. So run this scan overnight if you have to. After this scan is complete and you have removed all detections, restart your machine again.

After this is complete, you have successfully completed the Malware segment of this guide.

Links:
Super Anti Spyware
MalwareBytes Anti Malware

7 - Hardware Maintenance

This will not increase the speed of your machine, however it will lengthen the life of the Hardware in your computer, and cause it to run cooler. Turn your computer off and remove all cords from the front and rear of the machine. Remove the side cover so you can see all of the internals. The best way to clean these is with an Air Compressor. !%&# WARNING #&%! IF YOU PERFORM THIS SEGMENT WRONG YOU CAN PERMANENTLY DAMAGE COMPONENTS INSIDE YOU COMPUTER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Safety steps when handling components of a computer;
1 - ALWAYS ground yourself on a metal part of the case of your computer before touching any components.
2 - ALWAYS be EXTREMELY careful with computer internals, DO NOT DROP or handle them rough.
3 - IF A COMPONENT GETS WET, leave to dry COMPLETELY before reinstalling.
4 - ALWAYS be sure of what you're doing when working with computer components.
5 - NEVER EVER disconnect or connect internal components or cables with power to the machine.
6 - When blowing out fans NEVER allow them to spin, you will destroy the bearings, hold them with you finger or insert a screwdriver between the blades.

When cleaning a computer, I personally use an Air Compressor with blower attachment and a pressure release valve at the lowest point of the Air Tank, so before I use it, I can release all moisture in the tank. Alternatively you can buy a can of compressed air. Simply blow out your entire computer, taking special notice of heatsinks, fans and case openings. Make sure you give your Power Supply Unit a good blow out. The biggest two to pay extra attention to are your CPU Heatsink and Fan and your GPU heatsink and fan. BEAR IN MIND, BEFORE GIVING POWER TO YOUR NEWLY CLEANED SYSTEM, ALWAYS LEAVE FOR A GOOD FEW HOURS, TO ELIMINATE ANY POSSIBILITY OF MOISTURE BEING IN YOUR SYSTEM AS A RESULT OF THE COMPRESSED AIR.

Also, if the Thermal Paste on my CPU gets older than one year, I replace it by habit. But it should be replaced AT LEAST every 2 years. When replacing Thermal Paste, remove ALL of the old paste with a Microfiber cloth NOT a paper towel or tissue etc as they leave a residue. place a small amount of Mineral Turpentine on a clean part of the cloth, rub it over the top of the CPU and the bottom of the heatsink, leave them both to dry for a couple of minutes. Once a couple of minutes has passed put a dob of Thermal Paste on, approximately a tiny bit smaller than a 5c piece. ALWAYS use good quality Thermal Paste, the stuff I use is Arctic Silver and the tube is a bit smaller than my little finger, and yet it costs me $16 AUD. After applying the paste, press down hard on the heatsink, then secure it down.

8 - Hardware Checks

Once a year you should check your Hardware. For Hard Drives, that means SMART tests and chkdsk /r. For everything else, it means Stress Testing. Funnily enough, Western Digitals Data Lifeguard utility will actually work on all Hard Drives. With this utility, you can run Formats with it, you can run a Quick SMART Test and you can run a Full SMART test with it. SMART tests will NOT run on HDDs connected via USB. The first check you should complete is a chkdsk /r. You must complete this on all HDDs. To do this, go to the Start Menu, and click run, and type cmd then press enter. Alternatively go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt or CMD. After CMD is loaded, type chkdsk /r #: (where # is the Drive letter). In most cases, the prompt will ask you to lock the drive, press y and enter, then it will ask if it can perform it on restart, hit y and enter, then restart. Constantly come back and check it and when it gets to Stage 5 and is almost at 100%, sit there and watch it as its easier to find the log later. The only thing you need to take note of is whether you have any Bad Sectors, if its above 0 your Hard Drive is starting to die, if it's between 0 and 40 your doing ok, when its between 40 and 100 you should replace it ASAP, when its above 100, it should have been replaced yesterday. Remember, repeat this process, until all drives (or partitions) have been checked.

Once this has completed, download and install WD Lifeguard. Open it, accept the license agreement and select a drive, do a right click and select Run Diagnostics. Click run Extended Test and let it run. Again do this on all drives. If all drives pass, your HDDs are ok. If they don't you should replace the HDD that didn't.

When it comes to stress testing, there is one all in one solution called BurnIn Test by Passmark. You must simply download and install it. Next to the big green play icon, there is an icon that looks like a Tachometer on a car, click on it. Tick every test that applies to your system. And move the slider up to 100 for every test you have ticked. Then next to that icon there is an icon that has two big red ticks, click on it. Go to the RAM tab. If you have 0 - 1 GBs of RAM do not change anything, if you have 2 - 4 GBs of RAM change the RAM test to the Multi-Process Torture test. Press continue on the confirmation and go to the 3D Graphics tab. Change the Window resolution to your Desktop resolution. Now hit ok and press the big green play button to start the test. Continue on any confirmation boxes you may get and let the program run. Once it is completed (15 minutes), it will come up with a big flashing box that either says PASS or FAIL. If you have passed, great! You're done! If you haven't, you must look into the error that you received, if you cannot figure out how to fix your error, post here and I will try and help you.

If you believe your GPU is in need of further testing as a result of incomplete images, streaky lines etc. I recommend DX9 Real-Time High-Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting Version 1.2. Simply run it and watch it, if anything appears out of place, incomplete, missing etc then you should start updating Drivers, DirectX etc.

Links:
Passmark BurnIn Test
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tool
DX9 Real-Time

9 - Miscellaneous

If you want that liiiitle bit more power to play with from your system you can use IObits Game Booster. I do. It is basically a utility that temporarily closes unnecessary Windows Services and background utilities and restores them when you're done gaming.

Also, if you're getting power hungry or just haven't got enough the most cost effective PC Component for speed is your RAM. Increasing the size and speed of your RAM is the most cost effective way to increase your PCs speed. Keep in mind the limits of your motherboard.

Links:
IObit Game Booster

Congratulations, you have now completed Drizzles' Computer Maintenance guide. You should now have a faster PC, a cleaner PC, more disk space, and maybe even have removed a few virus' (hopefully not).

Enjoy!

This Guide is designed for Windows XP and Vista. If you have any further comments, suggestions, queries, please, do not hesitate to post.

 

Good one Drizzles ... there's some stuff there that I just HAVE TO try out!

Good job.
Thank you.

 

best one would be use linux

 

Not a problem :major

Let us know how it goes.

What are they BTW??

 

Based on your recommendations ... I will check out the following tools:

Advanced System Care

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tool

DX9 Real-Time ... and ...
Passmark BurnIn Test ....
I have been using prime95/futuremark/memtest86+/toast .... for stress testing
That is fine for my own use ... but it would be very difficult to try to get someone else to use these tools, if they were not familiar with them. The Passmark test sounds fairly easy to run in comparison.

 

Very true DL about CC slim
Unfortunately each time CC requires an update one is linked to Hippo/Mirror IIRC
and MANY if not most will loose their slim status :-D

Cheers...

 

Oh, really? Not the case here. CCleaner updates connects me directly to CCleaner's site. Then, I always navigate to Other Builds and select the Slim version.

 

Is the only difference between 'slim' and 'regular' the toolbar? If so, this is the easiest way IMO. Just uncheck the toolbar option while installing the update.

 

Lol true that ... if I could edit it I would however the edit button has been removed ... perhaps a moderator could edit the link for me?? I simply used the links I download from ... but because I check everything before I say "yes" to it I guess its alright for me lol :-D ...

 

Ok ... just remember with Advanced System Care NOT to use the registry tool ........ I was a bit iffy about putting ASC in at first but I figured if I stressed it enough maybe people would make sure to untick it lol .....

 

Lol (I normally don't use CCleaner I normally use HiJack This), ... however I figured HJT is simply to complex for the average user, so I replaced it with CCleaner ... but I might look at this Startup CPL ... Thanks Dr. Moriarty :-D:major

 

Dr. Moriarty,

Lets say...some of us were foolish and missed the point about not using ccleaner to control start up processes...and that we used it to stop a startup...and then in fact we DID subsequently uninstall that program, without removing it from ccleaner surpressed startup...

What do we do now?

For example, I downloaded dual corecenter, saw that it was loading when the computer booted...wanted it to not to, and used ccleaner to stop it.
I subsequently deleted/uninstalled the program.
It still shows up on the ccleaner startup program list...

Any advice?

Anyone else besides Dr. M please feel free to chime in.

 

In retrospect I did come across - sounding obnoxious...

MANY if not most will loose their slim status


It's Just that I fell for it a couple of times as well :-o

Unlike yourself I had failed to navigate then :-o

Enough of the hijack..

Cheers..

 

All right yous two, that's enough, hush. If yous wanna debate, argue, bicker or whatever you wish to call it, please do it elsewhere or in Private Messages, NOT in my Thread. Were supposed to be the professionals helping the amateurs, you're making yourselves and everyone else look silly by turning that around. Please do not argue here.

Any positive comments, constructive criticism or questions are welcome. Lets get back on topic please.

 

hi, this I do it everyweek of my laptop and I used auslogics and tune up and ccleaner

 

:clap

Good point, well made.

Superb guide, btw, especially for a numpty like me. A big thank you, Drizzles.

 

Thank you Drizzles for this info.It is very helpful

 

Good post Drizzles - a lot of hard work.

But a caveat for all.

There are no guarantees.

I'm sure anyone who has worked with computers alot can find a counter example to almost any proposed action schedule where it failed for 1 in a great number.

The golden mantra in pc servicing and maintenance is patience.

One change at a time.

It's very easy and tempting to say I'll do these two (or three or four...) things and then restart..

So then you never know what to undo when something goes wrong ... and it will.

 

Thanks dude Good luck :major

Not a problem, dude.

Agreed, definitely lol ... that's why I always make sure I do the safe things first and the harder things (not mentioned here) are done after, and one at a time. The only thing that goes wrong more often than others is the Hardware Maintanence segment ... usually not on a new computer, but on an older, really dirty computer, things regularly go wrong, but usually things work for better rather than worse.