Optimize Your Computer and XP for New Users.

[Kelvin Nikkel]

I see from this site that there are many issues relating to Windows XP.

In spite of it all, I have heard that Windows Vista is much more of a
nightmare. lol

If you are new to computing as well as Windows XP, there are a few
things that you could do to make your time on the computer more
PLEASANT AND SAFE[/B]!

'OPTIMIZING YOUR COMPUTER' (HTTP://WWW.EASYOPTMYPC.OPTMYPC.COM) FROM
THE START AS WELL AS LEARNING SOME
ROUTINE MAINTENANCE AND STICKING TO A SCHEDULE AS FAR AS THE
MAINTENANCE GOES, WILL DO JUST THAT! IT WILL NOT ONLY KEEP YOUR
COMPUTER *RUNNING AT PEAK EFFICIENCY*, BUT WILL ALSO *SAFEGUARD* YOUR
COMPUTER FROM COLLECTING NASTIES LIKE *ADWARE, SPYWARE, VIRUSES,
WORMS, TROJANS AND MORE!

Personally I recommend for the average user who is on the
computer a couple hours a day, to a schedule like the following:

Weekly
Virus Scan

Biweekly(every 2 weeks)
Clean your Registers
Defrag your hard drive

Monthly
Delete any programs, data, music, movies or what have you,
that you KNOW* you are not going to use.

Doing JUST THIS will help, but there are a ton of other optimization
steps you could take that will help you even more! Some of these
steps actually make the above NEEDED less often, but I would
STILL do them as frequent as mentioned.

Wishing you all happy, safe and quick computing.

Kelvin

 

[Gordon]

'OPTIMIZING YOUR COMPUTER' (HTTP://WWW.EASYOPTMYPC.OPTMYPC.COM) FROM

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

Yes. So why include the URL?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I see from this site that there are many issues relating to Windows XP.

Of, course. This is where people come for help with their problems,
not to tell us about their successes.

Hang around a transmission repair shop, and you'll think that all cars
have transmission problems.

In spite of it all, I have heard that Windows Vista is much more of a
nightmare. lol

It's not any nightmare at all. I run both Windows XP and Vista, on
different computers here, and they are both completely stable, without
any problems at all.

If you are new to computing as well as Windows XP, there are a few
things that you could do to make your time on the computer more
PLEASANT AND SAFE[/B]!

'OPTIMIZING YOUR COMPUTER' (HTTP://WWW.EASYOPTMYPC.OPTMYPC.COM) FROM

I don't know this book at all, but if it says the things you say
below, I recommend against it.

THE START AS WELL AS LEARNING SOME
ROUTINE MAINTENANCE AND STICKING TO A SCHEDULE AS FAR AS THE
MAINTENANCE GOES, WILL DO JUST THAT! IT WILL NOT ONLY KEEP YOUR
COMPUTER *RUNNING AT PEAK EFFICIENCY*, BUT WILL ALSO *SAFEGUARD* YOUR
COMPUTER FROM COLLECTING NASTIES LIKE *ADWARE, SPYWARE, VIRUSES,
WORMS, TROJANS AND MORE!

Personally I recommend for the average user who is on the
computer a couple hours a day, to a schedule like the following:

Weekly
Virus Scan

How often to run a virus scan depends on your computing habits, but
for many people, it would be much better to run it more often than
once a week. Personally, I use Avast! anti-virus, and one of the
things I like about it is that it automatically does a virus scan
whenever the screen saver comes on--in other words, whenever the
computer isn't otherwise in use.

Biweekly(every 2 weeks)
Clean your Registers

The word is "registry," not "registers."

Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Defrag your hard drive

Once every two weeks is not the right schedule for everyone to defrag
on. That's more often than most people need to do it, but there's no
schedule that's right for everyone. It depends on how you use your
computer and it depends on how much you use your computer.

You should defragment your drive when doing so results in a speed up.
Here's what I recommend. Pick some arbitrary interval--for example
once a month. Defragment on that interval a few times, and assess
whether the computer generally feels faster after doing so. If the
answer is yes, defrag more frequently. If the answer is no, defrag
less frequently.

Repeat a few times, and you'll soon settle into a frequency that works
well for you.

As a general rule, beware of all general rules telling you how often
to do something. In almost all cases, they are not right for everyone.

Monthly
Delete any programs, data, music, movies or what have you,
that you KNOW* you are not going to use.

I am certainly not against deleting files that are not going to be
used, but if you think that this will in any way improve performance,
you are mistaken. programs that are *running* can adversely affect
performance. Neither programs that are not running, nor any other kind
of file can.

Also note that one should never "delete" a program. Programs need to
be uninstalled.