Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (
More info?)
"Geoff A." wrote:
> Is there a checklist of maintenance that I should do periodically to my PC
> to keep it in optimum working order?
Yes. On a daily basis I run Event Viewer and fix any errors that it finds
(which sometimes requires me to do research over the Internet).
I do the following every Saturday (or even more often when needed):
1. Run chkdsk to check for disk errors. Use the fix option (which may
require a reboot). Once a month, run the "scan for bad sectors" option (or
whatever it's called) as well.
2. Back up your important data files using Microsoft Backup or similar
program.
3. Check for and install updates of all of my major software, especially XP
itself, Microsoft Office, and my antivirus and antispyware programs.
4. Run manual checks for viruses, adware, and spyware.
5. Run Microsoft Baseline Security Analysizer and fix any problems it finds.
6. Run Disk Cleanup. At least once a month, go inside your My Documents
folder and delete any old or obselete files that you no longer want to keep.
Also go into your e-mail program and delete or archive old e-mails that you
have saved, sent, etc., preferally to a separate folder inside My Documents
rather than within your e-mail program itself.
7. Defrag your hard drives.
Whenever possible, use the built-in performance and maintenance tools with
XP (which are grouped together as part of Control Panel). Avoid utilities
and utility suites like Systemworks, Registry Mechanic, SystemSuite, third
party disk cleaners and uninstallers, cookie managers, memory managers, and
registry optimers/cleaners of all kinds. Also avoid "tweaks" unless you know
exactly what you are doing (and even then the vast majority of such tweaks
are, at best, of negligible value and often actually cause harm). With XP,
less is almost always more, and it works best when it is operated the way
Microsoft intended it to operate. I don't use any third party utilities to
maintain or optimize Windows, except that I sometimes make an exception for a
third party defragger such as Diskeeper or PerfectDisk (the only two such
programs I would recommend).
Ken
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