System Maintenance and Management

 System Maintenance and Management

Just like any car, Windows needs to be maintained and cleaned frequently. Whenever I work on someone’s computer, I have a check list of things I like to do to ensure I won’t be working on the same computer anytime soon.

Anyone can maintain their computer; they just have to learn how. In this chapter you’ll learn some basic tips and about some tools to use—to ensure your computer becomes/remains clutter free and does not get sluggish.

 Automatically Delete Temporary Files

The Windows Disk Cleanup Wizard will delete your temporary files, but only if they are over a week old.

create a simple batch script that will clean up your temporary directories:

 Create the Batch File

Open Notepad and type (ensure you have two lines as shown below):

cd C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local rmdir /S /Q Temp

Save the file as cleantemp.bat

Now double click on the file, you created, to remove your temporary files and free up space on your computer.

If this doesn’t work and gives an access error, try replacing %username% with you windows login username.

 Automate the Process

To automate this process:

1.  Right click on the batch file you created and click create shortcut.

2.  Place the shortcut in your startup folder in the start menu (Customize Your Start Menu.)

3.  Now when you log in to Windows 7, your temporary files will be deleted.

Clean up Windows

Cleaning up Windows can be a tedious task as there are so many temporary and unused files stored everywhere. Manual cleaning may be more thorough, but would take hours. Luckily there are two programs suited to this job.

The first of these two programs is the well known CCleaner. CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system—allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Another program I use frequently is Advanced SystemCare Free (ASC.) ASC is a comprehensive PC-care utility that has a one-click approach to helping protect, repair and optimize your PC.

I prefer ASC but CCleaner is great too. You do not need both of these programs; one of these programs is adequate.

 Remove Entries from Add/Remove Programs

There may be several reasons for removing certain programs from the add/remove programs list. One reason may be that you have no intention of removing some programs and they are cluttering the list—or you may want to remove that net monitoring program so your kids can’t remove it. In this section you will learn how to remove these programs.

I recommend you back up the Windows Registry before doing this.

1.  Open the Registry Editor (Appendix D: Launch Windows Registry Editor.)

2.  Scroll to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall

3.  In the left pane are the programs (some represented by numbers and letters, and some by their name) and in the right pane you can see the display name.

4.  Find the key that corresponds to the program you want to hide. Click the key in the left pane and click File > Export.

5.  Choose a name for the file and save it. (This will allow you to restore the key when you want to uninstall the program.)

6.  Now the key is backed up, you can delete the key by right clicking on it and choosing Delete.

7.  Restore the key by double clicking on the reg file you saved in step 5.

 Remove Unwanted Software

I advise you to browse your add/remove programs list and weed out any software you do not use. This will free up hard drive space and cut down clutter on your PC.

If you have a newer PC, there may be a lot of trial software, coined “bloatware”. The PC Decrapifier is designed to remove a specific list unwanted software in an unattended fashion. The PC does not need to be new; however, the older the PC is, the less likely it will have any of the software it can detect.

Simply download PC Decrapifier, and run the EXE. There is no installation necessary. If you have anti-virus software installed, it may complain about this program; these warnings can be safely ignored.

When it runs, you will be presented with a wizard-style dialog box that steps you through the entire process.

You will be able to pick and choose what programs you want to remove. The program will not remove anything, without prompting you first.

Click the Next button and it will begin cleaning your PC. If it does not find anything, a pop-up box will notify you of this and the program will exit and not modify your PC.

Disable Memory Dump Files and Save HDD Space

If your computer crashes, it will create a dump file. From this dump file you can diagnose the source of the problem. It is unlikely you will need this file; if you do, you can always turn the option back on. This section will show you how to save space by disabling memory dump files in Windows 7.

1.  Click Start and click Control Panel. 2. Type Advanced in the search box. 3.  Click on View advanced system settings in the

search results.

4.  Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

5.  In the Write debugging information drop down, click (none) and click OK.

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6.  You will now save space and not store (possibly) useless information.

 Shrink/Extend a Partition on Your Hard Drive

If you use multiple partitions on your hard drive, you may want to shrink or extend one of them—after realizing you want more space on another one of the partitions. (Create a New Partition.)

1.  Click the Start button, right click on Computer, and click Manage (the Computer Management Console will load.)   In the left pane, click Storage > Disk Management.

3.  All disks and partitions will display. To shrink a partition, right click on the partition and choose Shrink Volume.      Enter the amount of space, to shrink by, in MB.

If you would like to extend a partition, you will need to make sure there is empty space available behind the partition. Then go back to step 4 and instead click Extend Volume.

 Schedule Defragmentation

Defragmentation helps speed up access to data on your drive. In this section, you’ll learn how to schedule defragmentation so you don’t have to worry about ensuring your drive is defragmented.

 What does “Defragment” mean?

When you constantly add and delete files on your hard drive, they become fragmented.

Think of this as follows: You have a library full of collections of books. Each of these collections represents a file on your hard drive. You take one book from the collection and put some sticky notes in the book and make it too big to fit back on the shelf–so you put it on the end. Every now and then you get a new book for a collection; these too need to go on the end of the shelf. You sell a collection and buy a bigger one to replace it. Unfortunately, the whole collection doesn’t fit in the recently made space so you put half in the space and half at the end of the shelf. You do this for years and you have

a mess on your hands. Defragmenting “re-orders your book collections” in terms of your data, and makes access to them a lot easier.

 Setting up Scheduled Defragmentation

Setting up scheduled defrags is easy:

1.  Click the Start button, type defrag, and click Disk Defragmenter.

2.  Click Configure schedule.

3.  Choose a time when your computer is turned on, but you are not using it.

4.  Click OK and Close to save your settings Your disk will now be defragmented regularly.

Take Charge of Automatic Updates

If you leave your computer on overnight, you may find you come back in the morning to find all your programs closed and that download, you were waiting for, canceled. Likely,

automatic updates restarted your computer or you had a short power outage. In this section, we’ll blame automatic updates and learn how to disable automatic installation of the updates.

Automatic updates will let you choose different options:

•    Install updates automatically. • Download updates but let me choose whether to

install them. • Check for updates but let me choose whether to

download and install them. •     Never check for updates.

To configure automatic updates:

1.  Click the Start button and click Control Panel. 2. Click System and Security.

 3. Click Turn automatic updating on or off.

4.  Choose your preferred method of updating your computer.

5.  Click OK.

Now, when updates are available, you will not necessarily have to install them instantly.

    by selvakumaran