Maintenance Items and Performance

[RVJII]

Hopefully this is the right area for this one. Just built my first machine (E6600) and want to make sure that I keep peak performance. In the past it seems that my machines have gradually slowed down and I am guessing that it is related to insufficient maintenance by me.

So, what do you guys do on a monthly basis to make sure that your machines stay running as fast as possible. A list / explanation would be great.

 

[edklite]

you should not notice slow down that much at all unless you are eating up your ram or leaking it, which is not normal.

assuming everything is ok, all you need to do is defrag every 3 to 6 month and use CCleaner to get rid of all the unwanted crap.

other then that make sure you got a good

1. anti virus (nod32)
2. firewall (sygate pro)
3. anti spyware (spysweeper)

and make sure you keep 1 and 3 upto date at all times on daily basis.

 

[Torpedo91]

For antivirus i use AVG
For sypware i use spybot S&D and adaware.

has my machine running as smooth as a train. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[edklite]

both adaware and spybot combined are not as good as spysweeper

 

[TheLaughingMan]

I used AVG and Spybots S&D for awhile, and both programs missed. I say go with Bitdefender or that Kasp app, but change to spysweeper for sure (but I don't think it has a free version like S&D)

 

[edklite]

no TLM there is no free version for spysweeper however if you get the update licence you can save a few bucks

you can save a few bucks have a look

https://www.webroot.com/shoppingcart/weborderwb.php

 

[pscowboy]

I'll chime in with the stuff that wasn't talked about.

There are three temp folders, and all the tif's that most people pay no attention to.

I had one client who hadn't done a lick of maintenance on his comp in two years. A VERY busy man on the web. He had 65g (not mb), that's right, gig, of temporary crap total in those four locations. His Registry had 2127 deletable pieces of baggage.

Once a month, besides implementing your choice of AV (I use ZA), Firewall (ZA), anti-spyware (most definitely SpySweeper) - do this:

1. Start - Run - (type in) %temp% - empty it out.
2. Go to C:\Windows\Prefetch - empty it out.
3. Go to C:\Windows\Temp - empty it out.
4. Go to IE's Tools - Internet Options - General tab - find the section for Temporary Internet Files and delete them.

Run a Registry cleaner (I love RegSupremePro) twice - boot in between. First in Normal mode; the second in Aggressive.

Run a third party defrag (I love Perfect Disk - has won awards).
First do an offline defrag of the "C" drive - when you get the desktop back - run defrags on all your partitions.

 

[RVJII]

Thanks! This is exactly the information that I was looking for as I suspected that Windows tends to be a "pack rat" and slowly bog itself down over time. I already run AV and anti-spyware sweeps (F-Secure) twice a week. I am going to add the rest to a monthly routine.

Thanks again!

 

[DustinG]

1. Start - Run - (type in) %temp% - empty it out.
2. Go to C:\Windows\Prefetch - empty it out.
3. Go to C:\Windows\Temp - empty it out.

This can be done automatically by running a batch file...
[code:1:a5e8763657]@del /Q /S %temp%\*.*
@del /Q /S %windir%\temp\*.*
@del /Q /S %windir%\prefetch\*.*[/code:1:a5e8763657]
Pop this in a batch file and have it run on startup or whenever. Though the only thing this does is clear up a small amount of used space on your drives.

I don't run any anti-spyware or anti-virus software; in my experiance they cause more problems then help. The best way to keep your system running well is too know what's going on. There are performance monitoring apps and such included that help you keep an eye on things. If your system is acting odd then check the process viewer in the task manager. You'll be able to spot what's choking your system. If you find a questionable application running, kill the process, then rename the file to prevent it from auto-launching again.

The more stuff you install, the more problematic things will become. Windows just sucks in this respect. [/quote]

 

[pscowboy]

Ah! Batch files. Brings back memories of the old DOS days. But there is a glitch in that batch theory. There are some temp files that XP will refuse the deletion process - effectively stopping completion of the batch at the first instance.

If no maintenance is done, that used space adds up to become significant and will cause major fragmentation (coupled with numerous installs & removals), which I feel degrades XP to a noticeable extent.

As to AV and AS - I run them both passively. AV runs at startup, but with no scheduled scans. It monitors registry and port activity - two things I care about a great deal.

My antispyware does not run at startup - it's dormant. I run a scan once-a-month, then put it to sleep again. Creates no problems that way.

You are most certainly right in proceeding around the "net" - knowing what you are doing.

Helps considerably being behind a hardware router too.

 

[edklite]

CCleaner will clean all of those for you