PC Housekeeping

[Scottish Business Owner]

We obviously all use Antivirus and various spyware programmes etc for keeping our computers virus free. What other things can we be doing to make sure our machines are always running well?

I know of things like defragging etc but is there software out there that basically tunes up your pc every so often and makes sure it's running ok? I've always been nervous of things that talk about changing the registry etc so i've always kind of stayed away.

 

[Murdoch Websites]

Are you running Windows? If so, then this little program should help to take care of your troubles, Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

Arf.

I'm sorry, bad joke, don't install Ubuntu unless you are certain that it will fulfil your needs (it works PERFECTLY for me but we're all different). I stopped using Microsoft products because of all the carry on you get as a result of having them on your machine. But there are a few things I can recommend having spent 2 years working in technical support dealing mainly with Microsoft products.

1 - reinstall the operating system regularly. XP and Vista get very dirty quite quickly and they are FULL of holes and back doors - how many have been found? loads. how many remain to be found? do microsoft care? do they fuck. 'We write the software, you test it for us.' That's their motto.
For re-installation tips go here: Windowsreinstall.com - Windows, XP, Vista reinstall, uninstall, repair, install, and upgrade - there are images for each step of the process. HINT: if you are reinstalling, then you need to specify that you want the instructions for installing windows on a 'used hard drive' as they differ slightly than the instructions for instaling on a new hard drive.

2 - if you don't want to reinstall, then why not try windows Chkdsk (short for check disk) which is the process of comparing the windows files on your hard drive with those on your windows CD. if the machine spots any thing out of place then it tries to clean up the problem - here's a link for XP Windows XP - Running Checkdisk from a Boot CD
and this one it for Vista - How to Use Check Disk in Windows Vista — MAXIMUMpcguides Windows Vista - (also, if you're on Vista, slap yourself for me )

3 - check your start-up files - for XP and Vista instructions, go here: Startup programs - Intro, Identifying, Disabling, Comprehensive List - you'll probably find that Quicktime, iTunes, RealPlayer etc are all loading themselves at start-up - this is likely to slow things down a wee bit.

4 - if you find that your machine is running slow, create a new User account and see if that fixes the problem. if it does, then you might need to reinstall. if it doesn't then you might have a hardware problem. More RAM often helps. It's easy to fit and cheap if you buy from Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com

5 - did I mention Ubuntu? What about UbuntuStudio (Home | Ubuntu Studio) - I'd be very carefull with the studio version though, you do need to know a wee bit about Linux in order to get online with it. The straight version of Ubuntu is beautiful though, I highly recommend it. Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

I've used several Linux distributions over the years and Ubuntu is the easiest one. It will actually locate your current windows partition and offer to keep it on your hard drive for you, in the event that you want to try ubuntu out until you know is it's for you. You then simply decide at start-up whether you want to load windows or ubuntu. that;s how I started. needless to say, I long since ditched windows.


OK, hope this helps, good luck
steve

 

[Former Member 1]

We obviously all use Antivirus and various spyware programmes etc for keeping our computers virus free. What other things can we be doing to make sure our machines are always running well?

I know of things like defragging etc but is there software out there that basically tunes up your pc every so often and makes sure it's running ok? I've always been nervous of things that talk about changing the registry etc so i've always kind of stayed away.

Personally, I ensure that EVERY machine we have gets its data stripped off and a complete re-install of the O/S at least once a year. To the extent where I'll use an OLD copy of F-disk to delete the partition and do a complete re-partion/re-format of the drive. On some machines I even routinely replace the boot drive and re-cycle the old one for archiving; though that, admittedly, is going a bit far and only really useful to me because of the volume of data I generate....

Doing this also gives you an opportunity NOT to install all the crap that you never use! Old drivers, fragments of old programs etc... There are various cleanup programs on the market; but I've never found a better way of tuning up a machine than this...