CLEANING HOUSE
So you got your first computer or you have been online awhile and your computer is getting slower and slower or even locking up.
HELP!!! WHAT DO I DO NEXT???
The following five (5) actions should be done at least once a month.
However, heavy internet usage may require that they be done once a week. Remember if you have not done these actions before, you will see your computer performing slower and even possibly locking up. It will eventually not execute programs correctly and on most computers the mouse will disappear! All you can do then is press reset but it will disappear again shortly. So sit back,
take a deep breath and let's get into cleaning house!!!
FIVE EASY STEPS
1. TAKE OUT THE TRASH
First, let's find the trash. Click START/FIND/FILES OR FOLDERS. Type in *.tmp then ENTER. These temporary files are created by Windows and are supposed to be closed out when you shut down your computer. Sometimes Windows forgets some. Enough of those leftovers are called TRASH!
Delete them!!!
Your email should be cleaned out regularly. I know lots of friends that get their internet provider email box so jammed up with emails that they eventually go to another server such as Hotmail or Yahoo to handle their email. They don't realize just because you delete an email, it is not automatically in the recycle bin. You must empty the recycle bin too.
Delete Them!!!
Also, a great new online tool is a mailwahser. What is a mailwasher you might ask??? Check out the following site and get rid of junk emails and spam (more on spam later under cookies). I have been using this mailwasher for quite awhile now and now...no more problems with all that junk...so check it out.
MAILWASHER
Old pictures!!! Wow did I ever have a lot of them in my files.
Now you can go to places online that let you post your pictures and make albums for free. This saves lots of space on your computer. Check out the one Yahoo
provides. I use it and any time I need to send a picture to anyone, I just bring my album up to the desktop and send that particular picture through email. Then you can add lots of space to your computer. Now what do you do with those pictures you have sitting around in your documents and files???
Delete them!!!
Ok, now all this trash is sitting in your recycle bin. It's icon looks like a trash can for a reason!!!
Empty It!!!
2. CLEAN OUT THE INTERNET FOLDER
Every time you visit a site and click through it's pages, the site's web address is stored in the HISTORY folder and the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folder. You should always keep up with emptying these files often. Especially if you visit lots of sites daily.
Click START/SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL. Double click on the INTERNET icon. The folder your're looking at has 6 tabs. We will deal with the NAVIGATION and ADVANCED tabs.
Click NAVIGATION. See "HISTORY" on the bottom half? Set the days to 1 if you use the web a lot. Now click "VIEW HISTORY". You can count them or look at the total at the bottom left. Too many will clog up your machine. Click EDIT/SELECT ALL, now click FILE/DELETE. Close the NAVIGATION window now.
Click ADVANCED. See the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES in the middle? Click "View files" then click EDIT/SELECT ALL, now click FILE/DELETE. Close the TEMPORAY INTERNET window. Close the Internet Properties window then close the Control Panel window.
3. SCAN DISK FOR ERRORS
Click START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SCANDISK. Make sure there is a dot next to "THOROUGH" and a check next to "AUTOMATICALLY FIX ERRORS". Click start and go take a break. This takes a bit of time. When it's done, close the window.
4. DEFRAGMENTING
Imagine a bag of M&Ms spilled out on a platter, then go ahead and eat all the red ones. I will come over and eat all the green ones. See all those random empty spaces on the platter, that's what your hard drive looks like if you don't DEFRAG once in a while. It takes the hard drive longer to find information if it's scattered around like the M&Ms. Let's push them all together. Click START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/DISK DEFRAGMENTER. On the tiny window that appears, click "OK". On the next tiny window, click "START". Think it is silly about the M&M story??? Click "SHOW DETAILS". (told ya)
5. COOKIES
Cookies look at the web addresses in your Internet History folder and tell one web site what other web sites you have visited. It is for marketing and to find out what your interests are so you can be sent even more junk email. (spam yuk!) Click START/PROGRAMS/WINDOWS.
Under WINDOWS are all the sub folders. There really is a folder called COOKIES. Click on the word COOKIES to highlight it. The page will now show it's contents. If you have never done this before, I bet you have a whole bunch of COOKIES there. Click EDIT/SELECT ALL click FILE/DELETE.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
I have a couple of programs I use in DOS and if you use DOS to, we can't forget all those little temp files that sneak in. So we must shut down all open programs. Click to Windows...Start...Click on Shut Down...Make sure the little black dot is in front of Re-Start in MS-DOS...Click on Enter...Look down left side of your screen for Windows prompt...type in... deltree tempor~1 Click on Enter...Do you want to delete all temp files...yn Click on y...Click on enter...You should now be deleting all temp files in MS-DOS...If you have never done this before, you may find that this takes a while. When it is all done, it will show you the Windows prompt again...all that remains is to hit...CONTROL,ALT,DELETE...at the same time to reboot. By the way, you can exhale anytime...lol
I hope all these helpful hints get your computer clean clean clean!!!
{Any questions you have or something that needs a little more information provided, please send me an email with exactly what you are needing. Something that I require though, any email sent to me must have "CLEANING HOUSE" typed in under subject. With all the viruses being spread out there, all other emails will be automatically deleted. I'm sure you understand!}
Thanks, Kaylee
One extra note: I recently got a brand new computer for home use that has XP Windows installed. Believe me XP Windows is so different from Windows 95, 98 etc. It comes with a easier way of cleaning up. So if your new computer has XP Windows installed (which I think all new ones do), please open the tutorial that comes with it and learn new things to do to keep your computer clean and running smoothly.