Hello and Such

After a few lurks here and there, I figured it was about time to register. No clue how that'll work out, but I'm here now. Whee!

I'm a modestly-experienced Windows user (XP to be precise, though I once rocked the face off of a DOS to write crappy middle-school fanfics) trying to keep her elderly machine alive. She's been a right trooper since early 2005, and it's high time I started learning some things to pay her back for putting up with me. Thanks to MajorGeeks, I have managed to keep her as safe and secure as possible.

Would you like some datas on my lovely old girl? Sure! I've always wanted to show her off. (Oh dear, I know she's long in the tooth and was built to do homework, but darnit she's my first computer ever and I do love her muchly.)

Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU, 2.80GHz
2.00 GB of RAM (caniballized from another computer, she started with a half-gig of RAM on two sticks, still got 'em in my storage closet for posterity)
70.9GB of hard drive, 35.8 of it's still free (I love external storage, yes I do)

Currently cleaning and protecting her with:
Online Armor firewall
CCleaner
Avast! 5 antivirus
Sophos Anti-Rootkit
Emsisoft HiJackFree (which I need to learn)
StreamArmor
Ad-Aware Free
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Auslogics Disk Defrag

I like to roll with FireFox, NoScript included. I've done what I can to make sure my computer runs as safely and smoothly as possible. Still, I don't know much past clicking "scan" and taking a can of air to her innards. Hopefully I can use what time I have left on this current computer before moving on to a newer machine. If current trends hold I'll be on this girl for several more years, so I may as well get the most out of it.

As for some big questions I might have (if you're still reading, thanks!), I have a few.
1- When using HiJackFree, what sort of activity should I be looking for? I'm getting to know what my programs use to scuttle around the internet, if nothing else.
2- I've been experiencing out-of-the-blue crashes lately. I'd just be in the middle of something and, pff, she restarts. No BSOD, no improper shutdown boot scans, nothing. All I have to go off of is an error message from RUN.DLL saying "dfshim.dll" doesn't exist. My computer has done this sort of random restart before, but only a couple of times in all her 5-6 years of operation. Within the past few days it's happened at least 3 times. Internet says dfshim.dll's absence from the Microsoft.NET framework could be mucking things up and causing crashes. Where could I get some help on this? Has another thread cropped up with this problem?
3- How often should I clean up the fans and interior with a long-haired cat in the house? He doesn't tend to play near the tower, but I know how much cat hair loves to get in everything.

That should just about do it. I've chewed through just about enough time and I'm being bugged to restart. So glad there's an AutoReboot Setter here, I nearly went mad before finding it.

Thanks for reading!

 

Greetings, Genya.

Welcome aboard! :major

Please try this: go to Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Advanced > Startup and Recovery settings. Make sure 'Automatically restart' is not checked, and OK out. The next time your machine crashes, hopefully you'll get a blue screen - if so, record any information that you can.

And, since you've referenced "dfshim.dll", you could try uninstalling any old versions of the .NET framework, download and reinstall just the latest version.

Be advised: this thread may be moved to the Software Forum.