Here are some more hints to keep it running right:
http://mywebpages.comcast.
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Computer Maintenance for Reliable Operation
I recently had to reinstall windows due to something I stuffed up whilst trying to work out why my computer was running so slowly. So far I haven't come across anything important that I lost when I reinstalled windows XP pro and my computer is now running a lot faster so I would like to keep it that way.
I was therefore wondering if anyone could provide me with a guide to routine housekeeping, tweaking and maintenance I should perform, how often different things should be done and the best software to use for maintaining a lean and fast system.
Thank you
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Answers
scheduling the maintenance wizard to do a defrag and sysclean once a month is a start
making sure you don't have too many icons on the desktop helps with speed due to the littleknown fact that icons eat up available memory since these are maintained by the memory and not the hard drive it is best to keep all files off the desktop as well windows washer is a great program for maintaining a fast computer as well as boostxp they both look at the whole system and help you to make educated decisions on what to delete and what to save the boost xp also helps to controll the processes that are running in the background.
Animal
System Mechanic is a good maintanence tool.
See its features at:
http://www.iolo.com/sm/ind
And download a free trial at:
http://www.iolo.com/sm/fam
I have very recently been introduced to another awesome program for this purpose and wish to pass it on
http://www.belarc.com
I hope this helps
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by: rsivanandanPosted on 2006-09-16 at 09:43:25ID: 17535640
Some thoughts;
1. First; when you wipe down a computer, there might be still a lot of stuff that you'll lose.
>>Your favorites from Browsers
>>Your email messages stored
>>Your preferences etc.....
2. Maintaining a computer is a lot easier, the way I do it, I'll explain it.
1. First cleanup everything after taking the data backup.
2. Then make sure that I separate the OS in one partition and all my data onto other partition (This will give me an advantage that even if I screw up everything, I can do a fresh install and still access my data on the other partition).
3. Install all the programs and stuff, AV, Spyware, Mail Clients (Configured) and all (almost everything you need including the OS patches).
4. Then take a backup of your system to an external media (I use a USB harddrive for it). But if you are ready to put in some effort, you can burn a DVD with it and make it bootable as well.
5. Make sure that 'My Document' folder on my desktop point to the other partition where I have all my data.
That's it.
Now say if something goes wrong and you want to reinstall as fresh.
1. I make sure that I save all my links into a html file (possible with almost all) or zip up the favorities folder and move it to my data partition.
2. Move up all my mail information to the data partition
Then do the reinstall.
Cheers,
Rajesh