9 Tips To Keep Windows XP Running Smooth
There are many things that cause a computer to be sluggish from software to hardware. It can be too small a hard drive or not enough RAM. It can be anything from BIOS and/or Operating System Settings to programs that are eating up your CPU and RAM (no matter how much you have). Or it can be your network.
Personally, I work my computer like a young mother with a house full of kids 12 to 18 hours a day.
That mother needs to unwind at the end of the day and so does my computer and probably yours too.
Here are 9 tips in the order they should be completed that can help keep your computer happy and working without complaining:
- This is so basic I shouldn’t need to say it, Keep Which Ever E-Mail Program You Use Cleaned Out. I have clients who are always complaining, but who refuse to dump years and years of accumulated e-mail.
- Make sure you have a good anti-virus program (Only one per computer please), have it up to date, and auto monitoring.
- Make sure you have a good anti-spyware program (Only one per computer), have it up to date, and auto monitoring.
- Run Disk Clean Up Daily (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Clean Up – a box opens – make sure each box is checked, click ‘OK’ – a box pops up – Click Yes).
- Delete Cookies and Cached Files Daily (Start, Control Panel -if you have not done it yet, click ‘Switch To Classic View’, Internet Options – a pop-up box will appear – Delete Cookies, Click OK, Click Delete Files – check ‘Delete All Offline Content’ – Click OK, Now Set Your Clear History to no more than 7 days – if you haven’t used it for a week you probably won’t miss it – Click OK)
- A very important step almost everyone misses: Empty The Prefetch Folder (Start, My Computer, ‘C’, Windows, Prefetch Folder, Edit, Select All, File, Delete – pop-up box appears – Click Yes, Close Windows Window)
- Empty Recycle Bin. For the sake of brevity, I am assuming everyone knows where it is and how to empty it.
- Scan Hard Drive ‘C’ (Start, My Computer, Right Click ‘C’ – box opens – Click Properties at the bottom – another box opens – Click Tools, Click Check Now, Make sure both ‘Automatically fix file system errors and ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors’ are checked, Click Start. Get a cup of java (oh, black, thank you) and Wait!
- Defrag Computer (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter – a window opens – Select ‘C’ Drive, Click Defragment). Pop a top and Wait!
The last two steps (8 and 9) can take a while if they have not been done recently. I complete this entire routine on my computer just before I stop work for the day every day and the entire sequence takes no longer than 20 minutes and often much less.
