CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Hello everyone,

I just want to know what is the general advice on computer maintenance/housekeeping. I love my computers and I whimsically wish to keep my babies running as optimized and bug-free as possible. There are so many bugs, viruses, spyware, whatever-nastyware bla bla bla .....all too much information for me to filter through. But pls keep in mind, I'm a poor student so I can't go around purchasing expensive softwares and stuff. So pls help, computing experts! ^__^;;;;

Please advise me on the following:

Error check: Erm.....what exactly does this do? How often should I do this?

Defragmenting: I've been told that this reorganize your files to make it more efficient(?) How often should I do this?

Cookies/Temporary Internet Files: Is it OK to clean up everything in these files? I know these files help your browsing to go faster since it stores files from pages you frequent much but isn't it better to constant springclean them?

Spyware/Adware: I use Spybot - Search and Destroy (forgot what version but it ought to be the latest) at the moment. But sometimes it doesn't seem to remove everything (which it's fine, I don't expect it to). Is there anything else I can do to clear up the rest?

Viruses: I just discovered I don't have any anti-virus program in my desktop *gasps* Erm, what is an economical quick solution? Suggestions?

Firewall: I've been told that some firewalls are actually useless and some firewalls mess up your own activity. I doubt I have a firewall installed in my computer. Do I really need one?

Registry: May I know what this is all about and whether I need to do anything with this? I was told to backup my registry when I was deleted some spyware/adware files. ^^;;;;

\\MSConfig: I first learnt about this when I discovered there were too many processes running in the background and I reduced the number of things that processes at Startup. I still encounter pretty weird programs and deleted those that I googled out as "pests". But I couldn't find anything on files like dkp0, svchost.exe, ctfmon.exe, mmjb.exe....There are too many of them and they're running under processes when I check Windows Task Manager. Should I be worried?


Anything else that I can do to help my babies function well? Oh yeah I use Mozilla too...was advised to do so.



I'm so sorry!! I know there are a lot of things I'm asking and i don't expect everything to get answered. I've tried to figure them all out myself but it's driving me crazy. I've started to read up (ex Security Complete - Sybex) and digged info around from my computer science friends. Any help from my computer buddies here is greatly appreciated ^_^.

I will probably ask about hosting and php in another thread. Thanks so much to everyone in advance.

ok, I'll just itemize by number.

1. Error Check: I'm not really sure what you mean by that, so I can't really answer.

2. Defragment: If I understand this correctly, what this does is move files around on your disk drive itself, not the way you see them in 'my computer' or whatever. It makes it simpler for your computer to access files. It also gets rid of fragments of files, and makes them more complete. You can do this using the program included with windows. it should be in Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > Disk Defragmenter. You should just let this run overnight, it needs as much memory as possible.

3. Cookies/Temporary Internet Files: For these, yeah, just empty it every so often. It's mostly a disk space affecting option.

4. Spyware/Adware: You're doing fine on that, just make sure it's updated and run it at least once a week or so. Also check that your computer is immunized, the program has an option to do that. There is another program called Adaware I believe that you could run as well.

5. Virus: Get virus scanning software.. now! It doesn't need to be the new 2005 edition because you get updates even if you buy an old version. There are websites online where you can buy Norton Antivirus for like $15 and they ship it fedex.

6. Firewall: I would highly suggest getting a firewall. An easy to use one can be downloaded for free from http://www.zonelabs.com . It will be annoying for the first week or so as it get's used to your internet usage, but it works.

7. Registry: I don't know much about that. spyware sometimes messes with it though. Wait for someone else to address this issue I guess.

8. \\MsConfig: Same with that. no clue.

Error check: No idea either. If it's scanning the disk thing on Windows it doesn't do much so don't count on it to fix things. Maybe find bad sectors on hard drives but that's rare these days anyway.

Defragmenting: Depends on how much you write and delete files. If you reinstall games every ten days then you should defrag your hard drive at least once a month. If you're just a regular person who browses the net and such then defrag every 6 months. Often the better, it just takes so long to defrag a hard drive.

Cookies/Temporary Internet Files: If you stopped using IE then you don't need the temporary files anymore. Delete them. The most amount of hassle you may have to go through is retyping in your username and password for forums, if you saved your password.

Spyware/Adware: Also use Ad-Aware. It goes with Spybot to find evil things.

Viruses: AVG is an answer. As long as you don't do anything stupid like opening emails with attatchments you shouldn't need virus scanners.

Firewall: Software firewalls suck, but at least they protect you somewhat. If it has to be software then I'd go with Tiny Personal Firewall. I personally feel more secure with another seperate box as a dedicated firewall, dropping all illegal packets and such but such amount of security is for paranoid people like me so you shouldn't worry too much.

Registry: Unless you know what you're doing, which I presume you don't because you're asking, don't touch the registry.

MSConfig: If it's an evil program then kill it. I remember there was a way to manage all such things in a neat program, but I don't use it and thus is buried in my memory, probably never to be found out again. If your spyware scanners and virus scanners don't find anything then leave them be.

BTW, all programs mentioned above are all free. Some requires registration (still free), but it's worth registering.

My turn to help! ^_^


Mave, I'd say that TroutNinja and LorentzForce pretty much covered everything else for you; but if you use Windows 95, 98 or ME, error-checking is really nothing more than running ScanDisk. You'll find it in the Start menu under Programs\Accessories\System Tools. If you use Windows XP, though, running Disk Defragmenter should automatically fix the errors for you. But if you use 95, always run ScanDisk before running Disk Defragmenter because the latter will detect errors without actually fixing them. (I'm not sure how it works in 98 and ME; I got into the habit before getting that far so I don't know. But it won't hurt.)


Another thing that will likely help your computer perform a little better that I haven't seen mentioned yet is by not stopping with the temporary Internet files. Clean out all the temporary files, and it may save you a ton of disk space. (I once did this on my aunt's computer and it freed up about 60 MB!) Here's how you do it, and it should work like this on most (if not all) versions of Windows from 98 up:

1. Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop to open it.

2. Right-click the icon for the drive that your operating system is on, and choose Properties....

3. In the dialog under the General Tab (should be already selected by default), there should be a button labelled Disk Cleanup... which you'll want to click.

4. In the new dialog that shows up, you'll see a list of places on the drive where temporary files are stored, and give you the option to check only certain ones if you want. (I usually just check all of them. I never did figure out why anyone would want to save their temporary files... ) Once you've marked the locations you want to clear out, click OK.


Hope all this helps you out! ^_^

Error check: Scandisk?

Defragmenting: Once a month is efficient enough. Use programs like PowerDefrag, because the windows defrag program is a joke.

Cookies/Temporary Internet Files: It's ok to kill them, but you'll have to type in passwords/username evertime you clear out the cookie cache.

Spyware/Adware: I use Spyybot, Adaware, Hijackthis, and NoAdware

Viruses: AVG Free edition is what I use

Firewall: Get one. And yes, you need one. Get the free version @ Zonealarm

Registry: Use Regcleaner, Regclean, and dont mess anything in it unless you know what your doing

\\MSConfig: you can use this is stop startup programs. But don't go disabling everything, windows needs some system files to be running at all times.

oh my oh my....I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about this thread. But Thanks soooooo much for everyone's feedback! *glomps* XD XD Your advice is very helpful! ^_~

try regcleaner, but be careful, you could really mess up your computer if ya delete wrong registry keys. But it's good

check download.com i forget where i got it ^_^;;

svchost (microsoft.com) is part of windows, as is ctfmon (microsoft.com).

mmjb.exe is the name of the executable for musicmatch jukebox, and I'm not familiar with 'dkp0'.

For Internet security, I'd suggest doing the majority of your browsing in something other than Internet Explorer, to minimize your vulnerability to to browser-based threats. This will reduce the likelihood of picking up spyware or viruses from web browsing. I personally use Opera (opera.com), which you can download for free. Many people also like Mozilla (mozilla.org), or Firefox (a variant of Mozilla; available from the Mozilla site).

You don't need to worry about cookies, but I would suggest a good HOSTS file - if you'd like, I can post mine. It blocks many sites that are known virus sources, as well as ad sources, and can make browsing more enjoyable.

As for firewalls, I believe that a software firewall is simply good practices (i.e. a good thing to have), and I recommend the free download of Zone Labs' excellent Zone Alarm (zonelabs.com) firewall.

Spybot Search and Destroy is a very good product (I use it myself), but I like to augment it with a program called Adaware (lavasoftuse.com). For personal use, just click the 'download' box on the right and download it - they don't charge for non-commercial use.

As for your registry, there's a lot you can do there, but do not play with it. in fact, don't change anything you don't completely understand. It's possible to break windows by changing the wrong thing, so have pity on us poor technicians.

Also, and this is important enough to say in bold, never disable a service through msconfig. If you want to examine the services you have running, I'd suggest having a read through BlackViper's (blackviper.com) web site - he's got information on the services in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, including recommendations as to how they should be set (automatic, manual, or disabled). I pretty much agree with his recommendations - you won't go wrong by what he suggests.