PC care 101

[Feircepc]

please make this a sticky

ok for maitenance for many people out there who might not know.
first you should defragment your computer once a week.

click on start
all programs
acessories
system tools
disk defragmentor
anylyze
defragment.

what this does is it recompress ur files like games so that data can run smoothly and now skip or lag trying to get to the next peice of data.

second thing u should do once a week is scan for viruses if u do not have one go to
http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10342876.html?tag=lst-0-1

and download that and it is free and also download

http://www.download.com/Avast-Virus-Cleaner-Tool/3000-2239_4-10267578.html?tag=lst-0-10

always have two virus scanners just in case the other one doesnt pick up a virus. just scan ur computer weekly.

then also scan ur computer weekly for adware spyware malware etc
you can download a spyware remover at

http://www.download.com/Spyware-Doctor/3000-8022_4-10377263.html

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1

download both of those too same reason to have the two virus scanners.

ok and also weekly check files u have and delete ones u dont absoletly need. also go to ur internet tools click internet options and clear your history and cookies.

all the stuff i put here for you to download is free. if anyone else has anything to add please do so.

 

[Dishdog]

here is a list Mr. Mixx made up and is stickied in operating systems (http://computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=9976).

maybe you could get a MOD to add your stuff to it. there is no point in having two sticky threads about the same thing.

 

[G.]

i would do my defrag last not first

 

[un4given1]

i would do my defrag last not first

Seconded.

 

[setishock]

Defrag first thing then when done with all your maintaince do it again. Reason being it makes it easier on the maintaince programs to find things. Then after you do all the cleaning and tweaking and all the rest defrag again. Then reboot to make the changes stick.

Oh yeah another thing. Do all your maintaince from safe mode. It lets the programs like a spyware remover get to a nasty while it's not running. Napping so to speak. But XP's defrag will not run in safe mode. You have to come back out to do the final defrag.

 

[Feircepc]

hey neone gonna make this a sticky? i think people should know about how to take care of the pc beacuse i didnt untill i started asking around.

 

[Feircepc]

can someone sticky this already?

 

[G.]

stick it, this will be good

 

[Dishdog]

Don't sticky stuff in General Computer Hardware And Software. we just got rid of a bunch because it made things to clutterd. just get this stuff added to the other sticky of pc care by Mr.Mixx(http://computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=9976)

 

[Computergen1]

This is a great one made a while ago by starr:

http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=13394