I would get rid of Zone Alarm and Avast and replace the with the
Windows Firewall (especially if you are already behind a NAT
router) and Avira Antivirus. ZoneAlarm is often more trouble than
it is worth for the home user and is utilizing resources for many
who have it installed they would likely enjoy more elsewhere
without losing any level of protection. I have nothing against
Avast (free or pay) - but have found that of the free ones, Avira
antivirus seems to work the best for most users. You could go an
purchase eSet NOD32 antivirus (antivirus only) and get really good
results - but I am not about to suggest (only) that you spend $60
U.S. - you'd likely stop reading. *grin*
I would also uninstall Spybot Search and Destroy. I just don't
favor it as much as I used to - there are definitely all-around
better products out there.
You have an 18GB drive - that is small. You have to be *very*
watchful with your space. There are a few things you can do to
ensure you have as much space as possible and then - something you
can do to see where all the space is being used.
Clean up and then see what you have left to do.
Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
After installing, do the following:
Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.
(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be
exact.)
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can
delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has
installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but
your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the
system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of
the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical
memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and
want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys
file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start,
Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check
box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting
Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab
doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power
Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and
click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I
suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or
close to that...) 5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can
utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores
to a size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:"
to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline
contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this
could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open
Internet Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being
used.
In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of
extras will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you
have more space than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most
of it seems to be used - likely you need to move *your stuff* off
and/or find a better way to manage it.
