Post by Solloby on Jan 4, 2008 9:00:03 GMT -5
Anyone that uses a computer regularly will know that PCs can do strange, strange things. Ever had your computer ask if you were sure that you wanted to delete Windows? I have. I told it no, of course. But the point is, what do you do when your computer does strange or annoying things, and how do you prevent them from happening in the first place? How do you protect your computer, and fix it's problems? Hopefully thigs guide can be a good starting point.
Updates
5 Jan 2008: Added System Tools & Disk Space Sections, and added more Anti-Malware links
1: Malware
Q. What is malware?
A. Malware stands for Malicious software. This includes viruses, adware and spyware.
Q. What is a computer virus?
A. A computer virus is a program that is secretly installed onto your computer without permission for the purpose of corrupting it or destroying data.
Q. What can viruses do to my computer?
A. There are many, many viruses, and they can all do different things. Some viruses download other malware onto your computer without your knowledge or permission, or tax your computer system by using heaps of RAM, or corrupt or delete your files, or edit your Winsock Catalog Provider to limit your internet access, or cause your computer to freeze... you get the picture.
Q. How do I know if my computer has a virus?
A. Unless you have an egotistical virus that announces itself to you, you probably aren't going to know until you get some software that can identify, quarantine and destroy it. Some viruses are subtle and you may not realise that you have them... for example, your computer is running a little slower than usual. Or your computer may be having more serious problems such as freezing, throwing strange error messages frequently, or randomly restarting.
Q. What is adware?
A. Adware is malware designed to download ads onto your computer, or cause pop-up ads to appear. Not only is adware annoying, but it uses up some of your computer's precious CPU - it's wasting your RAM!
Q. What is spyware?
A. Whilst adware is annoying, spyware is dangerous. Spyware can be used to steal information (such as credit card details) to steal your identity or track your activities.
Q. How can my computer have malware installed?
A. Via the Internet or through storage devices such as disks.
There's much more nastiness that can happen to your computer, such as hacking (gaining external access to your computer without your permission). Ok, so now your computer is trembling in fear... so much nastiness out there!
Q. How can I protect my computer from malware?
A. Safe Internet use can definitely protect your computer from malware. Ways to use the Internet safely include:
- Never opening e-mails from people you don't know, or e-mails that you are unsure about
- Never opening e-mails in your spam folder unless you know it is safe (you were expecting the e-mail, it's from a friend whose e-mails always get sent to your spam etc)
- Knowing that e-mails your friends send can be dangerous, because some malware attach themselves to, and send out e-mails
- Be careful what you are downloading - be very careful when using peer-to-peer sharing, if you are using torrents then always scan the files you download with anti-malware software before opening them
- Use Google to find the website you want, don't guess the URL if you don't know it
- Limit unnecessary Internet surfing (are the sites you are visiting safe?)
- Use a safe Internet browser that has a built-in pop-up blocker, and make sure it blocks pop-up ads and scripts
You also need a Firewall. Firewalls can stop malware from being downloaded onto your computer, as well as stop hackers. You should never access the Internet without your firewall running.
Another way to protect your computer is to regularly check it with your antimalware software, to get rid of anything nasty it may have contracted despite your precautions.
And finally, use a hosts file. Windows 2000, XP and Vista have built in hosts files, you can use these to block ads that may carry malware. Also, did I mention they block ads?? Apple and Linux also have them.
Q. What is a hosts file and how does it work?
A. Hosts files can be used to block websites (such as the sources of ads, you can also add porn sites and other nasty sites if you want to use it to protect your children) by looping the IP back to your own computer. Basically the Internet searches your computer for the ad, and when it doesn't find it, gives you that 'page cannot be displayed' page in the sidebar or whatever where the ad would normally be. Yay, no ads!
Q. How do I update my hosts file? What do I put in it?
A. Your hosts file should be in this folder: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\
Notice that it has no extension. You may open it in notepad and add the loop IP (127.0.0.1), a space, then the website you want to block.
There is a great hosts file filled with ad websites at Ligers Union, here: downloads.ligersunion.com/hosts
Save this over your hosts file if you haven't been using it. If notepad adds a .txt extention, delete it. Hosts files have no extension.
Q. What antimalware software can I use to protect and fix my computer?
A. If you don't have great software that you trust (McAfee and Norton are not recommended!), you should probably look at downloading the following (free versions are fine) programs:
Free Quality Anti-Viruses:
A-Squared Free: www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
Avast!: avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
AVG: www.grisoft.com/doc/31/us/crp/0?prd=ish
Free Quality Anti-Malware:
SuperAntiSpyware: www.superantispyware.com/
Ad-Aware 2007 Free: www.lavasoft.de/products/ad_aware_free.php
Recommendation: Download 1 Anti-Virus, and both Anti-Malware programs.
Q. How do I use these programs effectively?
A. First thing's first: NEVER run multiple anti-malware programs at the same time! It is very dangerous!
I suggest running them one after the other once a month, or more frequently if needbe.
Also, after you download files you may be unsure about, right click the file and select 'Scan with SuperAntiSpyware' to check that its safe before using it.
2: PC Web Browsers
Q. Why does my Internet Explorer 7 keep crashing?
A. Because you are using Internet Explorer 7. Ok, ok. Make sure you don't have google toolbar. If you have the Norton Phishing Toolbar, disable that as well. Both of these applications are known to crash IE7. This won't 100% solve it though - I have found IE7 to be an unstable web browser, I do not recommend using it. Even if it does have nifty tabs.
Q. Is Mozilla Firefox good?
A. Yes! Firefox is very good. Why? Here are some reasons:
- Unlike Internet Explorer, it is not integrated into your operating system. This means it is safer.
- It is stable, unlike IE7 - ie. is less likely to crash
- Firefox updates automatically when you connect online, making sure that your browser views web pages correctly, unlike Internet Explorer which brings out different versions, meaning some people are still left with older versions that cannot handle some of the new code on the Internet.
- You can arrange the toolbars and buttons and things the way you want, which might make you happy if you are converting from another web browser
- You can import your bookmarked favourites from Internet Explorer
- It's not too different from IE7 - you can easily convert
- It has tabs <3
- When you download, it brings up a small box that handles all your downloads, so you can keep track of it all in one box rather than having multiple boxes minimised. You can also pause downloads, and it usually downloads no more than 2 things at a time for efficient downloading. It also downloads to the desktop as default, not a temporary internet files folder that you can't find
- It saves usernames and passwords more effectively than IE, and gives you the option of saving them, not saving them now, or never saving them on the site
Q. Is Internet Explorer 6 alright?
A. The pros: It's more stable than Internet Explorer 7. The cons: It is older, meaning that it cannot handle things like XHTML and may not be able to view all websites correctly. Also it's Internet Explorer: it's integrated into the operating system, which is not always a good thing. Another con is that it doesn't have tabs, and I like tabs. But if you are very attached to it and don't have problems viewing your favourite websites, go ahead and keep using it. You might like to give Firefox a try anyway though, to see if you like the added feature of tabs. They are very handy things.
3: Computer is Running Slow/Doing Something Weird
Q. My computer is running slow. Why?
A. Have you rebooted (restarted) lately? You should let your computer sleep at night, but if you don't, rebooting regularly should help. Also, when did you last defragment? See section 4 if it's been a while or you have never done it before. Otherwise, how many programs are you running? If you have many taxing programs at the same time (you should close all programs before running most games), that could be the reason. If not, then what programs is your computer running?
Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up your Windows Task Manager (assuming you are using Windows XP or similar), and click on Processes. Click Mem Usage once or twice to sort by memory usage. What sort of programs are using the most memory? Some are easy to see. Your internet browser and explorer are probably using up a bit, as would your Service Host (svchost.exe). What else is running? If you don't know what it is, look it up here:
searchtasks.answersthatwork.com/index.html
To see if it's meant to be there or not.
Q. Why computer is doing something weird. What should I do?
A. Try rebooting. If you still have the problem, check for malware.
Q. I think my computer has malware or some sort of problem, but my anti-malware software isn't helping me. What can I do?
A. Well first, do you have an error message? If you do, google it to see what other people have done to fix the problem. If not, check your processes in your Windows Task Manager (see the first answer in this section). Start searching for the processes that are running, and use that website, as well as google to try and work out how best to fix it.
Q. I don't have malware on my computer, but it's still running a bit slower than it usually does.
A. Perhaps you haven't defragmented in a while. Check the section below.
4: System Tools
Q. What are the System Tools and how can they improve the performance of my computer?
A. You should probably know a little about your System Tools. In Windows XP (and similar), you can find them under the Start menu in All Programs, under Accessories.
The ones you should know about are Backup, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter (just called Defragment on older Windows I think).
Q. What is Defragmenting?
A. Your computer stores files in fragments. Sometimes these fragments are not stored physically next to each other, meaning that your computer will take a bit longer to open/edit the file as the read/write heads have to travel further to access all of the fragments.
Defragmenting groups fragments together - it basically shuffles your files and file fragments around to combat this, as well as to recover wasted space between files. This gives your hard drive more usable space, as well as allowing it to run a bit faster. Your should defragment at least once a year, preferably more often. Defragmenting is a safe thing to do.
Q. How do I defragment?
A. If you have Windows XP, this is how you do it. Similar versions of Windows will be similar or the same.
Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter and select it. See the free space %s of your harddrives? Disk Defragmenter works best if you have at least 15% free space, but can run with less.
Click on your main hard drive (some computers have multiple) to select it. You might like to click Analyze to see if your computer is really in need of defragmenting. The red stripes are fragmented files; if you have a lot of these, it's time to defragment. The blue stripes are contiguous files, this means the file fragments are all clustered together and it's good to have these. The green stripes are unmovable files, ignore these. And white is free space, which is always good to have.
Depending on how much space you have used on your computer and how fragmented your files are, defragmenting can take a while. If you are ready to defragment, just click the Defragment button.
Q. What is Disk Cleanup? (Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP)
A. Disk Cleanup removes unnecessary files from your computer, freeing up space. It's another thing you should use every so often. It deletes temporary Internet files, temporary files left by programs and unnecessary Windows files. It's safe to use, although you should make sure you know what you are deleting before you delete it. If you are unsure, just read below.
Q. How do I run Disk Cleanup?
A. In Windows XP, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. It will ask you what hard drive to clean up, go ahead and select your main hard drive. Next it will let you select what to clean up, and it tells you how many KBs of data it will delete if you let it.
I recommend you check the following:
- Downloaded Program Files
- Temporary Internet Files
- Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files
- Recycle Bin (if you are too lazy to empty it yourself)
- Temporary Files (if they are large and you need more space)
Here is an explanation of what they are, you should read this if you are unsure.
Downloaded Program Files: You know when you visit some websites with Java and ActiveX applets, and you have to download something to make it work? Well, these are those. Definitely check this if you have been web surfing. This is perfectly safe - you can always redownload the them next time you visit the sites.
Temporary Internet Files: Your computer stores these to make websites run faster. That's why websites you have visited before load faster than websites that you haven't. You should clean this out every once and a while, and if you go web surfing or are researching something and visit a lot of websites, you should definitely clean it out. This is also perfectly safe.
Offline Webpages: If you save webpages for offline viewing, you might have a few KBs here. Often your web browser allows you to view some webpages (but not whole sites) offline if you visit them frequently, and have done so recently. Unless you have saved heaps of stuff you don't want and haven't manually deleted it, you can leave this unchecked.
Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files: Those annoying 'this program had to close unexpectedly, go cry to Microsoft about it?' messages that you always click No to (because clicking Yes is just useless)? This is where the data about the errors you have is stored. Unless you are having problems with your computer (ie. you encounter these messages frequently and are trying to fix the problem), go ahead and leave this box checked.
Old Chkdsk Files: Chkdsk is a DOS/Windows command that checks disks (including your hard disk) for errors. Chkdsk sometimes saves lost file fragments as files on your disk. Microsoft says these are safe to delete, but I'm not going to bother as they don't take up much space and I don't know much about them.
Recycle Bin: How often do you clear yours out? Don't wait for Disk Cleanup to do it for you, do it yourself! Once you send a file to the bin, why not just delete it? Unless you are unsure that you might need it again. Did you know that you can recover files from the Recycle Bin if you deleted it fairly recently and haven't defragmented since? Just google it!
Setup Log Files: I'd leave these alone, they don't take up much space.
Temporary Files: Programs sometimes store information and when they close, are supposed to delete it, but don't always. These are those files. You can accumulate quite a lot of them, so it's reasonably safe to check this box, especially as it doesn't delete any that were created recently.
Leave the last 2 options alone too, again they take up little space.
5: Symantec Software - Norton
Q. Norton comes with my PC. Is it good?
A. It isn't that great. It does pick up the odd virus here and there, but it misses some real nastiness that it shouldn't.
Q. Is Norton safe?
A. No. Symantec Software is not very safe. Norton can cause you real problems, when you first get your computer you should format it to get rid of Norton, or attempt to remove it yourself. You shouldn't have too many major problems - the worst problem I've found so far apart from the odd things it does to my laptop now and then that messes up the reboot, is that it decided to block my parent's web browser on their computer. That was Norton 2004, I went through the pain of uninstalling it only to have my brother install Norton 2007 on it. Great. Apparently older versions have been known to categorise random things as dangerous, including Windows Updater and it's own Updater. It can seriously damage your computer, so be careful if you have it. I definitely wouldn't pay for it.
Q. So I should get rid of Norton?
A. You don't have to if you don't want to. Uninstalling it isn't the safest either as you have to go into your registry (where deleting things can really mess up your computer, so be careful). If you don't have major problems, and it's a relatively new version of Norton, you can probably leave it on there safely (but I wouldn't pay money to keep it current, free software is much better). If it is giving you problems and you feel it is dangerous, then go ahead and kill... I mean, uninstall it.
Q. Norton Phishing Toolbar?
A. Get rid of it, it will crash your Internet Explorer 7.
Q. Norton has expired and is giving me pop-ups. I want to keep Norton on my PC, but don't like the pop-ups.
A. If they are the every-15-second pop-ups, you can get rid of those by moving files, but those are only on the old version I think. Just google for it. The every-15-days one, I don't think you can kill that. Not sure. Try google. Mine doesn't expire for about 15 days, so I am not going to worry about it for a few months. If it drives me crazy, I'll attempt killing it and if successful, will let you know how.
Q. Why is Norton hard to uninstall?
A. Because it embeds itself deep in your computer.
Q. How do I uninstall Norton?
A. pc1stop.com/PCHealth.html#norton
6: Freeing Up Hard Disk Space
Low on hard disk space? Here are some things you should do:
1. Go to Start>Control Panel, and select Add or Remove Programs. Uninstall programs you don't really need.
2. If you have some large files you don't use often but want to keep, burn them them to a DVD
3. Go through and delete files you don't need
4. Run Disk Cleanup (see Section 4)
5. Defragment (see Section 4)
If you are desperate for space, uninstall heavy games that you don't use often. You can find how much space each game is taking through Add or Remove Programs, which shows you how many MBs of space each program uses. 1000MBs = 1GB.
If you have a newish computer (2007+), check to see if you have a Duo Processor - you might have 2 hard drives, just store some stuff on the second to free up your main hard drive.
Credits
Thanks to everyone who contributed, notably Artemis and Novz, and thanks to Zekumi and Ratqueen for stickying this.
And that's it! Keep your PCs safe! Reboot them regularly if you don't let them sleep at night (you should give them some time off though). Google error messages that worry you.
Updates
5 Jan 2008: Added System Tools & Disk Space Sections, and added more Anti-Malware links
1: Malware
Q. What is malware?
A. Malware stands for Malicious software. This includes viruses, adware and spyware.
Q. What is a computer virus?
A. A computer virus is a program that is secretly installed onto your computer without permission for the purpose of corrupting it or destroying data.
Q. What can viruses do to my computer?
A. There are many, many viruses, and they can all do different things. Some viruses download other malware onto your computer without your knowledge or permission, or tax your computer system by using heaps of RAM, or corrupt or delete your files, or edit your Winsock Catalog Provider to limit your internet access, or cause your computer to freeze... you get the picture.
Q. How do I know if my computer has a virus?
A. Unless you have an egotistical virus that announces itself to you, you probably aren't going to know until you get some software that can identify, quarantine and destroy it. Some viruses are subtle and you may not realise that you have them... for example, your computer is running a little slower than usual. Or your computer may be having more serious problems such as freezing, throwing strange error messages frequently, or randomly restarting.
Q. What is adware?
A. Adware is malware designed to download ads onto your computer, or cause pop-up ads to appear. Not only is adware annoying, but it uses up some of your computer's precious CPU - it's wasting your RAM!
Q. What is spyware?
A. Whilst adware is annoying, spyware is dangerous. Spyware can be used to steal information (such as credit card details) to steal your identity or track your activities.
Q. How can my computer have malware installed?
A. Via the Internet or through storage devices such as disks.
There's much more nastiness that can happen to your computer, such as hacking (gaining external access to your computer without your permission). Ok, so now your computer is trembling in fear... so much nastiness out there!
Q. How can I protect my computer from malware?
A. Safe Internet use can definitely protect your computer from malware. Ways to use the Internet safely include:
- Never opening e-mails from people you don't know, or e-mails that you are unsure about
- Never opening e-mails in your spam folder unless you know it is safe (you were expecting the e-mail, it's from a friend whose e-mails always get sent to your spam etc)
- Knowing that e-mails your friends send can be dangerous, because some malware attach themselves to, and send out e-mails
- Be careful what you are downloading - be very careful when using peer-to-peer sharing, if you are using torrents then always scan the files you download with anti-malware software before opening them
- Use Google to find the website you want, don't guess the URL if you don't know it
- Limit unnecessary Internet surfing (are the sites you are visiting safe?)
- Use a safe Internet browser that has a built-in pop-up blocker, and make sure it blocks pop-up ads and scripts
You also need a Firewall. Firewalls can stop malware from being downloaded onto your computer, as well as stop hackers. You should never access the Internet without your firewall running.
Another way to protect your computer is to regularly check it with your antimalware software, to get rid of anything nasty it may have contracted despite your precautions.
And finally, use a hosts file. Windows 2000, XP and Vista have built in hosts files, you can use these to block ads that may carry malware. Also, did I mention they block ads?? Apple and Linux also have them.
Q. What is a hosts file and how does it work?
A. Hosts files can be used to block websites (such as the sources of ads, you can also add porn sites and other nasty sites if you want to use it to protect your children) by looping the IP back to your own computer. Basically the Internet searches your computer for the ad, and when it doesn't find it, gives you that 'page cannot be displayed' page in the sidebar or whatever where the ad would normally be. Yay, no ads!
Q. How do I update my hosts file? What do I put in it?
A. Your hosts file should be in this folder: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\
Notice that it has no extension. You may open it in notepad and add the loop IP (127.0.0.1), a space, then the website you want to block.
There is a great hosts file filled with ad websites at Ligers Union, here: downloads.ligersunion.com/hosts
Save this over your hosts file if you haven't been using it. If notepad adds a .txt extention, delete it. Hosts files have no extension.
Q. What antimalware software can I use to protect and fix my computer?
A. If you don't have great software that you trust (McAfee and Norton are not recommended!), you should probably look at downloading the following (free versions are fine) programs:
Free Quality Anti-Viruses:
A-Squared Free: www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
Avast!: avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
AVG: www.grisoft.com/doc/31/us/crp/0?prd=ish
Free Quality Anti-Malware:
SuperAntiSpyware: www.superantispyware.com/
Ad-Aware 2007 Free: www.lavasoft.de/products/ad_aware_free.php
Recommendation: Download 1 Anti-Virus, and both Anti-Malware programs.
Q. How do I use these programs effectively?
A. First thing's first: NEVER run multiple anti-malware programs at the same time! It is very dangerous!
I suggest running them one after the other once a month, or more frequently if needbe.
Also, after you download files you may be unsure about, right click the file and select 'Scan with SuperAntiSpyware' to check that its safe before using it.
2: PC Web Browsers
Q. Why does my Internet Explorer 7 keep crashing?
A. Because you are using Internet Explorer 7. Ok, ok. Make sure you don't have google toolbar. If you have the Norton Phishing Toolbar, disable that as well. Both of these applications are known to crash IE7. This won't 100% solve it though - I have found IE7 to be an unstable web browser, I do not recommend using it. Even if it does have nifty tabs.
Q. Is Mozilla Firefox good?
A. Yes! Firefox is very good. Why? Here are some reasons:
- Unlike Internet Explorer, it is not integrated into your operating system. This means it is safer.
- It is stable, unlike IE7 - ie. is less likely to crash
- Firefox updates automatically when you connect online, making sure that your browser views web pages correctly, unlike Internet Explorer which brings out different versions, meaning some people are still left with older versions that cannot handle some of the new code on the Internet.
- You can arrange the toolbars and buttons and things the way you want, which might make you happy if you are converting from another web browser
- You can import your bookmarked favourites from Internet Explorer
- It's not too different from IE7 - you can easily convert
- It has tabs <3
- When you download, it brings up a small box that handles all your downloads, so you can keep track of it all in one box rather than having multiple boxes minimised. You can also pause downloads, and it usually downloads no more than 2 things at a time for efficient downloading. It also downloads to the desktop as default, not a temporary internet files folder that you can't find
- It saves usernames and passwords more effectively than IE, and gives you the option of saving them, not saving them now, or never saving them on the site
Q. Is Internet Explorer 6 alright?
A. The pros: It's more stable than Internet Explorer 7. The cons: It is older, meaning that it cannot handle things like XHTML and may not be able to view all websites correctly. Also it's Internet Explorer: it's integrated into the operating system, which is not always a good thing. Another con is that it doesn't have tabs, and I like tabs. But if you are very attached to it and don't have problems viewing your favourite websites, go ahead and keep using it. You might like to give Firefox a try anyway though, to see if you like the added feature of tabs. They are very handy things.
3: Computer is Running Slow/Doing Something Weird
Q. My computer is running slow. Why?
A. Have you rebooted (restarted) lately? You should let your computer sleep at night, but if you don't, rebooting regularly should help. Also, when did you last defragment? See section 4 if it's been a while or you have never done it before. Otherwise, how many programs are you running? If you have many taxing programs at the same time (you should close all programs before running most games), that could be the reason. If not, then what programs is your computer running?
Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up your Windows Task Manager (assuming you are using Windows XP or similar), and click on Processes. Click Mem Usage once or twice to sort by memory usage. What sort of programs are using the most memory? Some are easy to see. Your internet browser and explorer are probably using up a bit, as would your Service Host (svchost.exe). What else is running? If you don't know what it is, look it up here:
searchtasks.answersthatwork.com/index.html
To see if it's meant to be there or not.
Q. Why computer is doing something weird. What should I do?
A. Try rebooting. If you still have the problem, check for malware.
Q. I think my computer has malware or some sort of problem, but my anti-malware software isn't helping me. What can I do?
A. Well first, do you have an error message? If you do, google it to see what other people have done to fix the problem. If not, check your processes in your Windows Task Manager (see the first answer in this section). Start searching for the processes that are running, and use that website, as well as google to try and work out how best to fix it.
Q. I don't have malware on my computer, but it's still running a bit slower than it usually does.
A. Perhaps you haven't defragmented in a while. Check the section below.
4: System Tools
Q. What are the System Tools and how can they improve the performance of my computer?
A. You should probably know a little about your System Tools. In Windows XP (and similar), you can find them under the Start menu in All Programs, under Accessories.
The ones you should know about are Backup, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter (just called Defragment on older Windows I think).
Q. What is Defragmenting?
A. Your computer stores files in fragments. Sometimes these fragments are not stored physically next to each other, meaning that your computer will take a bit longer to open/edit the file as the read/write heads have to travel further to access all of the fragments.
Defragmenting groups fragments together - it basically shuffles your files and file fragments around to combat this, as well as to recover wasted space between files. This gives your hard drive more usable space, as well as allowing it to run a bit faster. Your should defragment at least once a year, preferably more often. Defragmenting is a safe thing to do.
Q. How do I defragment?
A. If you have Windows XP, this is how you do it. Similar versions of Windows will be similar or the same.
Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter and select it. See the free space %s of your harddrives? Disk Defragmenter works best if you have at least 15% free space, but can run with less.
Click on your main hard drive (some computers have multiple) to select it. You might like to click Analyze to see if your computer is really in need of defragmenting. The red stripes are fragmented files; if you have a lot of these, it's time to defragment. The blue stripes are contiguous files, this means the file fragments are all clustered together and it's good to have these. The green stripes are unmovable files, ignore these. And white is free space, which is always good to have.
Depending on how much space you have used on your computer and how fragmented your files are, defragmenting can take a while. If you are ready to defragment, just click the Defragment button.
Q. What is Disk Cleanup? (Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP)
A. Disk Cleanup removes unnecessary files from your computer, freeing up space. It's another thing you should use every so often. It deletes temporary Internet files, temporary files left by programs and unnecessary Windows files. It's safe to use, although you should make sure you know what you are deleting before you delete it. If you are unsure, just read below.
Q. How do I run Disk Cleanup?
A. In Windows XP, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. It will ask you what hard drive to clean up, go ahead and select your main hard drive. Next it will let you select what to clean up, and it tells you how many KBs of data it will delete if you let it.
I recommend you check the following:
- Downloaded Program Files
- Temporary Internet Files
- Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files
- Recycle Bin (if you are too lazy to empty it yourself)
- Temporary Files (if they are large and you need more space)
Here is an explanation of what they are, you should read this if you are unsure.
Downloaded Program Files: You know when you visit some websites with Java and ActiveX applets, and you have to download something to make it work? Well, these are those. Definitely check this if you have been web surfing. This is perfectly safe - you can always redownload the them next time you visit the sites.
Temporary Internet Files: Your computer stores these to make websites run faster. That's why websites you have visited before load faster than websites that you haven't. You should clean this out every once and a while, and if you go web surfing or are researching something and visit a lot of websites, you should definitely clean it out. This is also perfectly safe.
Offline Webpages: If you save webpages for offline viewing, you might have a few KBs here. Often your web browser allows you to view some webpages (but not whole sites) offline if you visit them frequently, and have done so recently. Unless you have saved heaps of stuff you don't want and haven't manually deleted it, you can leave this unchecked.
Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files: Those annoying 'this program had to close unexpectedly, go cry to Microsoft about it?' messages that you always click No to (because clicking Yes is just useless)? This is where the data about the errors you have is stored. Unless you are having problems with your computer (ie. you encounter these messages frequently and are trying to fix the problem), go ahead and leave this box checked.
Old Chkdsk Files: Chkdsk is a DOS/Windows command that checks disks (including your hard disk) for errors. Chkdsk sometimes saves lost file fragments as files on your disk. Microsoft says these are safe to delete, but I'm not going to bother as they don't take up much space and I don't know much about them.
Recycle Bin: How often do you clear yours out? Don't wait for Disk Cleanup to do it for you, do it yourself! Once you send a file to the bin, why not just delete it? Unless you are unsure that you might need it again. Did you know that you can recover files from the Recycle Bin if you deleted it fairly recently and haven't defragmented since? Just google it!
Setup Log Files: I'd leave these alone, they don't take up much space.
Temporary Files: Programs sometimes store information and when they close, are supposed to delete it, but don't always. These are those files. You can accumulate quite a lot of them, so it's reasonably safe to check this box, especially as it doesn't delete any that were created recently.
Leave the last 2 options alone too, again they take up little space.
5: Symantec Software - Norton
Q. Norton comes with my PC. Is it good?
A. It isn't that great. It does pick up the odd virus here and there, but it misses some real nastiness that it shouldn't.
Q. Is Norton safe?
A. No. Symantec Software is not very safe. Norton can cause you real problems, when you first get your computer you should format it to get rid of Norton, or attempt to remove it yourself. You shouldn't have too many major problems - the worst problem I've found so far apart from the odd things it does to my laptop now and then that messes up the reboot, is that it decided to block my parent's web browser on their computer. That was Norton 2004, I went through the pain of uninstalling it only to have my brother install Norton 2007 on it. Great. Apparently older versions have been known to categorise random things as dangerous, including Windows Updater and it's own Updater. It can seriously damage your computer, so be careful if you have it. I definitely wouldn't pay for it.
Q. So I should get rid of Norton?
A. You don't have to if you don't want to. Uninstalling it isn't the safest either as you have to go into your registry (where deleting things can really mess up your computer, so be careful). If you don't have major problems, and it's a relatively new version of Norton, you can probably leave it on there safely (but I wouldn't pay money to keep it current, free software is much better). If it is giving you problems and you feel it is dangerous, then go ahead and kill... I mean, uninstall it.
Q. Norton Phishing Toolbar?
A. Get rid of it, it will crash your Internet Explorer 7.
Q. Norton has expired and is giving me pop-ups. I want to keep Norton on my PC, but don't like the pop-ups.
A. If they are the every-15-second pop-ups, you can get rid of those by moving files, but those are only on the old version I think. Just google for it. The every-15-days one, I don't think you can kill that. Not sure. Try google. Mine doesn't expire for about 15 days, so I am not going to worry about it for a few months. If it drives me crazy, I'll attempt killing it and if successful, will let you know how.
Q. Why is Norton hard to uninstall?
A. Because it embeds itself deep in your computer.
Q. How do I uninstall Norton?
A. pc1stop.com/PCHealth.html#norton
6: Freeing Up Hard Disk Space
Low on hard disk space? Here are some things you should do:
1. Go to Start>Control Panel, and select Add or Remove Programs. Uninstall programs you don't really need.
2. If you have some large files you don't use often but want to keep, burn them them to a DVD
3. Go through and delete files you don't need
4. Run Disk Cleanup (see Section 4)
5. Defragment (see Section 4)
If you are desperate for space, uninstall heavy games that you don't use often. You can find how much space each game is taking through Add or Remove Programs, which shows you how many MBs of space each program uses. 1000MBs = 1GB.
If you have a newish computer (2007+), check to see if you have a Duo Processor - you might have 2 hard drives, just store some stuff on the second to free up your main hard drive.
Credits
Thanks to everyone who contributed, notably Artemis and Novz, and thanks to Zekumi and Ratqueen for stickying this.
And that's it! Keep your PCs safe! Reboot them regularly if you don't let them sleep at night (you should give them some time off though). Google error messages that worry you.