Habibi's Computer Tips
 

Besides having trucks in common, we all have computers to deal with also.
I want to share a few ideas with everyone for running a smooth and trouble free PC on a daily basis.

The following may not work for everyone, but ever since I started doing this on a daily basis, my pc has been running smooth & trouble free. If your PC is running good, then don't even read this post.

1) Clean up your system tray - I look at some of my buddies PC's, and they've got everything but the kitchen sink running in the system tray. "makes me cringe"
A good step towards maximizing your Pc's performance is to get rid of all the useless applications that are in your system tray. If you have programs in there that you don't use often, get rid of it.
There is no point utilizing valuable system resources and bogging down your system with useless crap. Remember, you can always open any program you need by going to the start menu.

Operating System - If your happy with your current OS, then skip to next part, if your not, then read on:
My Dell came with Windows ME. As soon as XP was released, I was first in line and did a complete fresh install. The aggravation of having to reformat and install everything from scratch was well worth the effort. No more crashes, I was able to get rid of all the slush and gunk hidden in my PC, and I installed only the software that I wanted. (No mysterious pesky software running in the background hogging up my resources) XP is the most stable OS I've ever used.

Norton Utilities 2002: Best utility for keeping the bugs out of your PC. It comes loaded with many useful utilities, a few I couldn't live without:
* System Doctor
* Speed Disc
*Disc Doctor
* Win Doctor
Every night before going to bed, I do the following maintenance:
1) Open up Internet Explorer
- Click on "Tools", then "Internet Options", then click on the "Delete Files" key,
and I delete all the off-line files as well.
- Next I click on "Clear History", and then
- "Delete Cookies"
Then I "OK" my way out of there and close it down.

Next step:
"Start", "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools" and select "Disc Clean Up"
- I make sure I check all the boxes, and delete everything.

Next Step:
If you use Norton Utilities 2002, there is a program in there called "Norton WinDoctor"
I run this program and click on the top selection "Perform All Norton Windoctor Tests"
After a couple of minutes, Windoctor scans your systems and brings all found problems to your attention. I then let Norton fix the problems automatically by clicking on the "Repair" button.
The repairs take about 30 seconds to complete. Most times it's invalid short cuts, or corrupt registry files.
Once this is completed, then I open up a program called "Norton Speed Disc" and "Optimize my hard drive. This takes several hours, so I leave this for the end and let it run all night.
As soon as my hard drive is being optimized, I open up Norton Anti-Virus 2002, and do a complete system scan. (make sure you check the live update before you begin).

When I wake up the next day, my drive is optimized, and the virus check is complete, then I do a re-boot to start the day, and I'm good to go.
If my PC is down, then I don't eat, it's important to my livelihood, and the suggestions I offered in the above post has given me the best results for problem free computing.

** Beefing up your RAM is one of the best ways to help your computer run better. (also one of the least expensive) Mine came with 128Mb (not enough) so I beefed it up to 1,024 Mb, made a huge difference.

I'm no expert or anything, but just wanted to offer some suggestions that have worked for me. if anyone has anything to add that I missed, that would be really good. Maybe get a group effort going to help our computers work better.

Thanks for reading
Habibi

[myopinion]
Norton is a terrible resource hog. My free resources went from 35% with nothing running to 71% when I disabled all the norton stuff. I have managed with out all the norton toys for over a year now. Funny all that stuff they put on their to optimise, actually sucks up so many resources that it can have the oposite effect.
[/myopinion]

Optimsing the system tray and defragging the HD are the two most noticable things you can do for performance.
I also delete all temp files daily.
Any unneccessary cookies from sites get that site entered in to my restricted zone, so I have very few cookies to bother with. I never have to delete cookies from the same site twice.

When a program performs an illegal operation
RESTART THE COMPUTER AND RUN SCANDISK!!!. The DOS/blue screen version of scandisk isn't good enough, you must run Start-> Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools-> ScanDisk

I swear that solves most of the problems people tell me about
me: "well, did you restart and run scandisk"
person: "no"
me: "do it"
weeks go by and the people never tell me about problems again.

The only time I ever have problems is after running disk-defrag (even with the "move programs to the beginnning" button UNchecked). blargh.

scan disk from a command line works much better then windows based scandisk . My opinion . kill everything not absolutly needed . including norton . i agree with atst norton sucks and is a resource hog . but hey so is windows <EG>.........lol

taht does wonders for my pc. seriously, i defrag about once every 2 or 3 months, and the speed improved 200%.

I defrag just about every day. It will defrag much quicker if you do it more often, and I get impatient if it takes a long time. If you run defrag right after system start, there are no temp files sitting on the disk somewhere.

Rule #1 for computers - have a backup! I back up to CD and tape, and I also put a lot of important client files on a ZIP drive. I keep them on the computer in a .ZIP archive as well. By doing this I have quick access, yet they are also stored off the system in the event of a failure.

Rule #1 for web site building novices - do not design your web page assuming everyone has large monitors run at high resolutions! I did this not long ago... :rolleyes:

where do i find my temp internet files on win XP? I just got this so i'm still trying to figure it out. I went into the temp int. files folder, and then there was 4 other folders inside that. But there wasn't anything in either of them.:confused:

Dan,

Open up Internet Explorer,
Click on "Tools"
then, "Internet Options" then right underneith where it says "Temporary Internet Files" click on "Settings"
then click on "View Files" and there they all are.

Regards
Habibi

Norton works great. It is only a resource hog if you install it that way. I always tell it not to. Do not install that dashboard gadget, it is a pig. The only thing I leave running is the antivirus and I sometimes disable that if I am doing something that needs maximum resources.

i dont think you need the whole nortons utiilites. about all you need is the antivirus. the other norton utilites seem very intrusive and can delete important files. i know because ive had norton utility programs in the past. crashguard (previous versions) crashes your system more than anything. if you have a decent size hard drive then there is no reason to delete all these files that nortons does for hard drive space. waste of time in my opinion. windows xp is a decent operating system. it has a good scan disk and defrag utilities (and fast). system restore has saved my hind end numerous times. my opinion is get norton antivirus 2002 and windows xp. skip the utilities. there is such a thing as over maintenance.