PC maintenance tools and tricks

Overview

These tools and tricks are being written for Windows XP based PC's. Most of this information will help with older Windows systems, such as Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98.

Before you get in trouble

• Run a firewall.
  • Firewalls tell the operating system not to allow anyone who is not authorized to send data to your computer. In other words, anyone that you didn't start communicating with may not start messing around inside of your computer. A firewall also partially protects against virus's and worms that bypass your anti-virus program.
  • If you want to run without a firewall, assume that you will be infected within a few seconds.
  • From my experience, the firewall that comes in WinXP is fine. If you are running an operating system such as Win98 or WinME, then get ZoneAlarm, which is a free download from http://www.download.com/. To turn on the firewall in XP, go to "Start", "Help", then search on Firewall. Follow directions to turn the firewall ON.
  • (Update September 2005)  Norton 2005 firewall installed itself, even though I told it NOT to.  Norton blocks normally useful stuff such as ftp (one of the main ways that we see the internet).  AFTER making sure that your windows firewall is working, turn the Norton firewall off.  Open the main control panel.  Options.  Internet worm protection (i.e., a firewall).  Unselect "Enable Internet Worm Protection".  When it asks how long to keep it off, say "Permanently".  Damn computers.
    

• Get and run an anti-virus program.
  • Anti-virus programs look for and delete viruses that are already on your computer. They also check for viruses in your incoming and outgoing e-mail, and block these e-mails from moving onto or off of your computer..
  • If you want to run without an anti virus program, you open yourself up to receive destructive programs in e-mail that you will then pass on to your friends.
  • Get an antivirus program running on every computer that you own. Make sure that you have an up to date subscription. Two good ones are Norton Anti-virus by Symantec, or McAfee Anti-virus. You can pick these up at CompUSA, or through the Internet at http://www.symantec.com/, or http://us.mcafee.com/.  After the issue that I had with firewalls above, I will probably use McAfee in the future.

• Turn on automatic updates.
  • Automatic updates will download FREE updates from Microsoft that will patch or correct system errors in your operating system.
  • If you don't run with Microsoft automatic updates, you will allow holes in your defenses that will allow virus writers to exploit.
  • Turn on automatic updates. To turn on automatic updates in XP, right click on "My Computer", choose "Properties", and select "Automatic Updates". Select "Automatic" or if that isn't an option, choose "Download updates and ..." Always accept all updates.
  • To manually update your operating system, go to http://www.microsoft.com/, and click on "Windows Updates". Follow directions.

• Get and run one or two anti-spyware programs
  • Spyware are little pieces of programs that are downloaded to your computer as you surf to various web pages. They are usually used to track your movements around the web, and report that information back to someone for marketing. This is often where automatic popup adds come from that seem to occur out of nowhere. More dangerous spyware can record everything that you type - including passwords and bank account numbers.
  • If you don't run anti spyware, your computer will probably become unacceptably slow over time.
  • Go to http://www.download.com/, then "Spyware center". Scroll down, download Spybot and also Ad-Aware. Install both. Both are Free.
  • Spybot
    • Run Spybot Start/Programs/Spybot/Spybot
    • "Search for Updates", Select all updates shown, "Download Updates"
    • "Immunize", "Immunize" with the green + next to it.
    • "Search and Destroy", "Check for Problems", if there are problems, "Fix Selected Problems", Yes.
    • Run this program every few weeks or every month.
  • Ad-Aware
    • Run Ad-Aware Start/Programs/LavaSoft/
    • When prompted, get new definition files. Finish.
    • Next, Next will run the antispyware program. Next.
    • Right click on one of the issues, select "Select All Objects"
    • Next, OK
    • Run this program every few weeks or every month.

• Practice safe e-mail.
  • Never allow your e-mail name to be mass mailed anywhere. Get off all joke lists, recipe lists, etc.  As these are forwarded around, they may eventually be posted onto news groups.  Then, spammers will read your e-mail address and start spamming you.  Trust me - you don't need more spam!
    
  • Use a free junk e-mail account to register for stuff, for chat accounts, etc. (Go to www.hotmail.com for a free e-mail account).  alanne1956 AT hotmail DOT com , that I use all over on this web site, is one example of a free junk e-mail account.  I could close it at any time without any trouble.
    
  • Never, never, never open any e-mail attachment unless you know that it is OK. A file such as "familyPicturesWithMom.jpg.exe" is a virus. Notice the exe at the end. Bad types are .xls, .doc, .exe, .com, .prl and a host of others. You can generally assume that .jpg's are safe, although I have heard that (rarely) viruses hide in jpg or jpeg files.
  • NEVER, NEVER, NEVER send information to ANYONE that has initiated contact with you.  Banks will NEVER  ask for your social security number, your password or your account number by e-mail.  If you do get an e-mail to this effect, CALL the bank on the phone.  If YOU make the call and it is to a phone number that is listed in the phone book, you can be pretty sure it is safe.  If you get an e-mail asking for this kind of information, you can be pretty sure that it is a scam, and they are trying to steal your money.
  • Any offer to "get rich" over the Internet or e-mail is guranteed to be a scam.  They want to take your money.  I would recommend that you don't give it to them.  Just delete these e-mails.
    

• Do backups of critical data fairly often.
  • An easy way to do backups is to buy a very large external hard drive for a few hundred dollars.  Pick up an external one that has a USB 2.0 interface.
    

• Do not run any form of a distributed file sharing program.
  • This is also known as free file, music or movie download software. They allow one computer to see another computer's files in a directory, and download them. This means that others can download software from you - slowing down your computer. Even if you are NOT actively running one of these programs, it is running in the background sharing files with others. One example of these programs is KaZaA. Another is Morphius. Yet another is something like NuTela.
  • They are also LOADED with spy ware.  If you run any of these, you are on your own.. You may want to move to "after you get in trouble" below."

• Use a different Internet browser than Internet Explorer.
  • One good option is FireFox. You can find it at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/. Among it's features, it allows you to look at multiple web pages at a time, and seems quite a bit faster. Since it also is written differently than Internet Explorer, it is not effected by the same spyware.

• Secure your wireless network
  • Be sure to set up a WEP key. This is the equivalent of a password between computers. If you don't set the WEP key, other people who come into range of your PC can look at and download files from your computer. Also, if you enable WEP security, be sure to change the WEP key (number). The default key of the WEP for different manufacturers of 802.11 cards is well known.
    

After you get in trouble

• Viruses
  • Symptoms. Sometimes, viruses are detected by having your anti-virus tell you that you have a problem. Other times, someone else will tell you that they received a virus from you. Another symptom is that your computer will act funny - running slowly, crashing, etc. The hardest situation is that all will look fine, and you won't even know that you have a virus.
  • Effects. Viruses come in many flavors. Some do nothing bad, but others do damage - from minor to devastating. I once had to re-build the operating system on my computer, due to the NIMDA virus.
  • Solution. Run an anti-virus program. If you think that you may have a virus, go to the Symantec and/or McAfee web site, and look up what to do to find your virus. They may tell you of the two or three most common viruses right now. Check to see if any of these are the problem. If you know what you have, look up the specific virus on these web site. Both web sites have manual written directions on how to remove specific viruses.

• Spyware/Adware
  • Symptoms. This can vary. Most spyware is fairly non-destructive, but some is very bad. They may slow down your computer. They may change your home page on Internet Explorer. They may also create popup adds, randomly at any time.
  • Effects. These generally are used to return information on your web browsing habits to a marketer, who will then sell this information. They can also sometimes record every key that you hit, and then record such things as your passwords, to be returned to people who will try to steal your identity. Other spyware will try to take over your computer, and start downloading your files, such as your tax returns, etc.
  • Solution. Run the two anti-spyware programs listed above. If that doesn't help, try McAfee anti-spyware, and try it from a CD.
  • Drastic solution. Reformat your hard drive, and then re-load all of your software. FIRST, be sure to figure out what you have on your machine, and write down all serial numbers that you will require. Backup anything that you want to keep. CD's are the best, using a CD burner. If you have trouble or want direction on how to re-load a Windows system, pick up a good book at the book store. I really don't do this often enough to know how to do it.

Performance problems

• Performance problems on a PC are generally caused either by slowing down the hard drive, something stealing bandwidth from a modem, having unauthorized programs running on your computer or slow booting.
• Disk performance solutions.
  • Delete any old, unwanted e-mails in your e-mail inbox.
  • In your e-mail program, go to "Deleted Items" and delete everything in there.
  • Empty trash. On desktop, right click on "Recycle Bin". "Empty recycle bin". "Yes".
  • Clean out Internet files. "Start", "Control Panel", "Internet Options", "Delete files", OK.
  • Open up an explorer window. (Right click START, explore).
  • Disk cleanup. Right click on "Local Disk". (There may be more than one Local Disk. Open each one.) "Properties". "Disk Cleanup". Take the defaults, and say yes.
  • Disk defragment. From the explorer window, Right click on "C: Local Disk". "Properties". Select the "Tools" tab. "Defragment now". Select the C: drive, and then click "Defragment". If you have any other hard disks, do this for these other hard drives also.
• Bandwidth performance.
  • See Viruses and Spyware above.
  • This is a common problem if you have EVER installed KaZaA or other "free" download programs.
  • Get a faster Internet connection.
• Slow processor.
  • See Viruses and Spyware above.
  • This is a common problem if you have EVER installed KaZaA or other "free" download programs.
  • Right click on any empty space on the task bar, and then open Task Manager. Click the "Performance" button. "CPU Usage" should be under 20%, assuming that you are not running any programs.
  • Having a "truly slow" cpu is seldom the problem. Buying a new computer generally works because you get rid of your old problem, not because you get a faster CPU.
• Slow booting
  • See Disk performance solutions above.
  • If the directory exists, delete all files from the directory "C:\WINNT\Prefetch". Be VERY careful with this one ... if you delete from the wrong directory, you can and probably will kill your operating system.
  • See Viruses and Spyware above.
• Diagnostics
  • Right click on any empty space on the task bar, and then open Task Manager.
  • To see how much of your CPU is used, use the "Performance" tab. "CPU Usage" should be under 20%, assuming that you are not running any significant programs.
  • To see how much of the network you are using, choose Networking. If you don't have an Internet browser open, and are not sending/receiving e-mail, this should be near 0%.
  • To see how efficient your disk accesses are is quite complicated, and I don't know of an easy way to do it.

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