Is your Computer running slow?

Is your Computer running Slow and acting weird?
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Copyright © 03/26/2008 Mike Hanson. All rights reserved worldwide.
Introduction
This is one of the main problems people have with their computers. They run great at first and
then it starts to run slow and act weird. So what do you do to correct this problem, well I will
go through the steps I take to keep my computers running fast. This takes a little time and you
need to do some of these things regularly. If you are not willing to do them then you can afford
to buy a new computer when yours goes bad or pay someone to clean it for you. Once you
have it running smooth again it does not take that much time to keep it that way. Well are you
ready, you can do these in steps when you have the time, like running your Anti-Virus
program, let it do a full Scan at night while you are sleeping, well lets get started.
Table of Contents
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Spybot Search and Destroy,
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Malwarebytes
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Anti-Virus program
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Add or Remove Programs
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Deleting folders in Windows Explorer
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Msconfig and Startup Programs
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Windows Temp folder
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Internet Explorer Options
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Scandisk
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Defragment
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Regcleaner
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Task Manager
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Services
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About the Author
Spybot Search and Destroy
First lets run a Spyware Program to get rid of any surfing nasties. I use Spybot Search and
Destroy which is free and very effective. There is also Adaware which now runs as a Service
so I stopped using it, it uses resources. There is also AVG Anti-Spyware and that is also free. I
use AVG Anti-Virus and it is great, the Anti-Spyware program used resources like Adaware. I
use Spybot because I am use to it and I have more control over what is dose and it is not
always running in the background. You can get Spybot here. When you first install it, it will
guide you through the install. Here is a link to how S&D protects you from Spyware/Malware
Link to information. If you checked for updates and get done with that this a screen shot of
what the main screen looks like:
When you open Spybot it will ask you to check for updates. If it does not just click the
Search for Updates button, pick a download site (one in the US) check all the boxes and
download them. Click the Check for Problems button to run this. Run it when you do not need
to use the computer for a while, it may take a half hour to an hour to run. Once it is done you
can check out the different problems that it found. Here is a link to the Tutorial for Spybot take
a look at the Interpreting the Results section. Check all the boxes that are highlighted in red
and then click the Fix Selected Problems button, if you remove something and a program
stops running, you can go into the Recovery section and restore it.
Some free programs run Ads to pay for you using their free software, Spybot may find the
Ad running program and it may want to delete it as Spyware, which it is, but you are allowing
it to run. I have never had it remove anything that did not need to be removed. Now if you
switch to the Advanced Mode, you can harm your computer with all those Tools. In the default
mode there are only 5 buttons, if you go to Mode and choose Advanced you will see a lot of
stuff, check it out and then set it back to the Default Mode, unless you know what it all means.
You can also click the Immunize button and Spybot will protect you from inside your
browser, in the Immunize section click the Immunize button with the big green plus sign. I do
not use this or the Tea Timer, but if you have kids surfing it may be a good idea to let Spybot
monitor Internet Explorer in the background. You can check what you want it to protect and
monitor. I have been using Spybot for over 6 years now and have had no problems with it.
Run this once a week or if you think the computer is getting slow, run it to get rid of any
Spyware, Trojans, tracking Cookies, Malware, that may have installed themselves on your
computer.
Malwarebytes
Another good program that I have started using more than Spybot is Malwarebytes AntiMalware Free(http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/) it is also free and I
have used this several times on very nasty viruses and malware. One would not let me install
any anti, virus or malware software, it was blocking the installs, so I dragged the
malwarebytes install file unto the Safe Mode Desktop and renamed it howdy.exe and it
worked, and malwarebytes got rid of the little devil to. I used it again this weekend on a ladies
computer and it found 499 files and registry entries, another 39 after I rebooted into XP. Here
is a screen shoot of the first page:
Anti-Virus program
Ok next we need to run a full system scan with the Anti-Virus program. If you were using a
trial version that came with your computer but did not sign up for it, it should be removed,
right? If you bought a program update it and run it, I do this at night when I am not using the
computer, it takes a while. If you do not have one or are paying for one and the subscription is
about to run out try AVG Free Version this is what I run on my computer and my wifes
computer and it works great. On my wifes computer, which has a 800mhz processor, I set it to
start and do a scan when Windows boots up, with mine I unchecked it and do manual scans
once a month. I do leave email scanning on auto and updating on auto. It does not seem to
bog the computers down at all, unlike some programs I have payed for, which noticeably
slowed my computers down. You can pay up to $30.00 dollars for a program, but I like free
and if I really like a free program and use it a lot, I make a Donation to the Author. Here is a
screen shot of AVG:
On the main screen you can click on one of those Icons to disable a feature if you do not want
to use it. It use to have a problem updating though if one was disabled, I believe this has been
fixed. If you go to Tools on the upper bar and click Advanced Settings, you can set up all the
different features to your preferences. Such as Schedules-Scheduled Scan, I disable this and
run a manual scan every week or so.
You just click the Computer scanner tab on the left and choose Scan whole computer, or you
can choose the Scan specific files or folders link and choose the drives or folders you want
scanned. If it finds any problems it will ask you if you want to quarantine it or them, just say
yes, you can also set it up to Automatically heal/remove infections. Also on that same scan
screen you can Schedule scans.
Why do we need this to keep our computer running smooth? Spy-ware and Viruses are just
like Spam in our email inboxes. All of these are little programs that install themselves on our
computers and can do bad things. Such as a Dialer program, if you are on a Dailup Internet
connection it can dial an overseas number using your computer without you knowing that it is
dialing out, because it mutes the dialing sounds. Your bill comes and you have thousands of
dollars worth of phone call charges. Will the phone company forgive them, probably not.
There are also Key Loggers, these will make a log file of every key you press on your
Keyboard and then send it to someone, they can get your user names and passwords that
way and it is done without you ever knowing it is there.
So it is very important to run Anti-Virus software, it will find them, quarantine them and if
you let it run in the background catch them before they are installed. Most of the Viruses you
get are actually installed by you opening an email attachment or clicking a pop up on a bad
Website that says you need this special viewer to see this content, if you can already play
Flash, Movies, Music and Quicktime files you have all the necessary legitimate programs
installed on your computer, you should not need any other “Special” programs. You may get a
pop up telling you there is an update for something you already have installed, that maybe
different. Here is a list of the most common add-ons used in Internet Explorer and Firefox:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Acrobat Reader
Adobe Flash Player
Sun Miro systems Java
Windows Media Player
Adobe Shockwave Player
Quicktime by Apple Computer
RealPlayer
The most common are 1-5 not sure if Realplayer is free anymore, I use Windows Media
Player. So if you get on a page that says you need some special player or program just say
no, use the little red box on the top right corner of the screen with the X in it to close the pop
up Windows, ya never know what the No-Cancel button will do. If the pop up gives no option
to close it right click on the Task Bar and choose Task Manager, the open the Applications
tab, highlight the offending program and click the End Task to close them. Now if you
registered with a site like Ancestry.com, Myspace, Facebook, etc, you will have to download
special viewers to view or use some of their features, those are the exceptions. If it is a site
you trust and go to regularly then there will be software that will be needed to use the site. I
use Firefox mostly now you can get it here the reason I like it better is for one reason I can go
here and it will automatically check to make sure all my plugins are up to date.
Add or Remove Programs
When people buy a new computer from a store, the manufacture puts a lot of software on
the computer that has a trial period or just junk. If you have any software like that and the trial
period is over and you have not bought it or subscribed to it, go to Add or Remove in the
Control Panel and start removing any software you do not use or have never used. OK wait
Mike where is this add control place, lol. Go to the Start button-
Click the Control Panel Link shown in picture, now you are in the Control Panel with Add or
Remove Programs Highlighted. In Vista and Windows 7 it is called Programs and Features.
double click the Add or Remove Program Icon. Now the Add or Remove Window will open
looks like this:
At the top of the screen uncheck the box for “Show updates” if checked it will show all the
Windows Updates that have been installed, no need to see those, lol, Vista and 7 do not have
the Show updates box. OK now go through the list and look at all the software that is installed
on your computer. If you know for sure that one of them is not needed anymore click the
Remove button on the right, in Vista and 7 there is a link at the top Uninstall/Change. If I am
not sure about a program I go to Start-Programs picture below:
Find any Programs you are not sure of and open them up, if you open it and go err that one
or oops the trial period is over or what in the world, go back to the Add or Remove, or
Programs and Features and highlight that program and click the Remove button or in Vista or
7 Uninstall link, Windows will run the uninstall program and remove it from the list. Before you
Remove any software first write down the name of it on a piece of paper and save it, you will
need those names later and if it leaves some folders behind, there will be a Details button, put
a check mark on those. It will usually just remove the software and the entry will disappear
from the screen. If it asks if you want to keep these .dll files or whatever files say Yes to All or
sometimes it will leave the Folder with some leftover files in it, put the check mark on that
name. If there is a program in the list but it is not listed in the Programs List, do a Search on
Google for the Name listed, if it is some kind of Search Assistant or Toolbar or Search Buddy (
ya buddy alright ) these are generally not needed and just cause problems or it is a Virus or
Hijacker. So go through the list carefully and like I said if you do not recognize it, do a Search
on Google and see what is said about it. Once you have this cleaned out you will be familiar
with what is left and be able to recognize unfamiliar programs later on.
Deleting folders in Windows Explorer
When you remove a program and it sometimes leaves a folder behind, you will have to
manually delete it, just a poorly written uninstall program. If there were some we can now use
your list to remove them. Go to Start-Accessories-Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer,
Windows Explorer, lol. Windows Explorer is where all the folders and files of the computer are
stored, the File Cabinet. In Vista or Windows 7 go to Documents, then go to Computer on the
left side bar, open Local Disk ( C ), then open Program Files. In XP it will look like this:
Now in XP we want to go to My Computer-Local Disk (C:)-Program Files like the picture
below:
You may notice that I am opening (D:) and not (C:) long story, but I do not use the normal C:
drive as my main drive so we will pretend it is the C: drive, lol, OK I dual boot this machine
and Windows 98 is on my C: drive, which I never use and XP is on my D: drive which is
where I do all my work, whew. OK where were we, oh ya, OK I have Program Files
Highlighted and opened. Look in there for the name of that folder that Add or Remove said
was left over, when you find it, open it, there should just be a couple files left over, make
SURE it is the right folder, next right click on it and choose Delete. OK you deleted the Folder,
oh wait no it wasn't the right folder I highlight the wrong one OH MY, settle down, we can still
get it back, cool huh! I created a folder named “Bad Program” on mine, I am going to Delete it
right now, right clicking- choosing Delete. Now when you Delete something it goes to the
Recycle Bin that little waste basket on your Desktop. If you double click the Recycle Bin it will
open up like this picture, also notice I have already clicked that file so it is Highlighted:
Now if you go to File-and Click “Restore” it will be put back exactly where it was before you
Deleted it, cool huh, so now if you mistakenly delete something, you know what to do. You
should right click on the Recycle Bin every so often and choose Empty Recycle Bin otherwise
it will get filed up, open it and check what is in it before you empty it, because once that is
Emptied the stuff in it IS GONE for GOOD!
Back to the Add or Remove, if you have the install CD for a program and remove it then
later decide you do want it back, just reinstall it using the CD. Now while you are doing this
make sure you only have ONE Anti virus program, ONE Firewall program, Window XP, Vista
and Windows 7 all come with a Firewall not the best but they work, if you install another one
stop using Windows Firewall, it is in the Control Panel and looks like this:
Just check the radio box Off to turn it off or On to turn it on. You do not want two Firewalls
or Anti Virus programs running at the same time, it can slow the computer down and confuse
Windows. Most store bought computers come with a trial version of these, if you did not
subscribe to them, remove them, we can get a really good free one. OK we are all done with
cleaning out the unnecessary software.
Msconfig and Startup Programs
Now we are going to get rid of all those little Icons in the bottom right hand corner of your
Desktop, I have “One” my AVG Anti-Virus program Icon that is all. It is there because it is free
and it does automatic updates and scans my incoming and outgoing emails. We want to open
the System Configuration Utility or msconfig go to Start-Run picture below and type in
msconfig and then hit Enter or the OK button. Vista and Windows 7 has this to but you go to
the Control Panel, then open the Administrative Tools, then open the System Configuration,
msconfig will pop up, go to the Startup tab.
You should see this after you type in msconfig, looks like there is a l after g it is the mouse
cursor:
Click the OK button and this will pop up and it will already be on the Startup Tab:
OK this is what it looks like, these are running in the background of your computer and
taking up resources which will slow your computer down. Now I have already turned off a
whole bunch of these programs, but I use a free little software program called Startup Control
Panel 2.8 by Mike Lin. When you use msconfig and you uncheck one of those boxes it will
have to Reboot the computer to turn the program off, then when it boots back into Windows
you will need to check a box down in the left hand corner then click OK, if you do not check
the box it will pop up every time you boot up telling you that you unchecked something, pain,
so I use Mike Lins little program here is a link to his download and next is a picture of the
program:
Now with Mikes Startup Utility, which is the same as Windows only MUCH Better, you can
uncheck boxes, delete duplicate lines and even restore the ones you deleted, they are in the
Deleted Tab. As you notice above, the ones I have unchecked do not show up in Windows
msconfig and with Mikes you do not have to reboot the computer and mess with that pop up.
The screen shot of mine is on the HKLM/Run tab, you can check in all the tabs, if you
uncheck one in one tab and then uncheck it in another tab it will tell you, hey you already got
it unchecked. Once you are done unchecking programs just close it.
Well that's nice Mike but , duh? OK here is what you use this program for, to turn off all
those unnecessary little Icons (Programs) running in down in the right hand bottom corner of
your computer. If you take a look at mine the only things I have running is AVG7_CC.exe and
these are all .exe (executable) files, now copy and paste this [ AVG7_CC.exe ] without the
brackets into Google's Search Box, a search page will come up with links to sites discussing
what it is. This happens to be my AVG Anti-Virus program. The other one is UpdReg.exe
which is for my Sound card registration and I am now unchecking it after searching on
Google, have already registered. The other two in Windows msconfig box are for my
Photoshop and Dreamweaver software and a whole lot of other Adobe software I use
regularly, but they do not put Icons in the Task bar, so they don't bother me so much and only
run once. So search on Google for an explanation of what it is and if you do not need it
running, uncheck it.
You might also be able to remove them by right clicking on the Icon in the Task Bar and
opening them then look for a line that says, “Startup When Windows Starts up”, uncheck it or
open its Options or Preferences, I usually get irritated looking because first of all they did not
ask me if I wanted it there, some do during the install, the ones that don't ask, want it there
(Advertisement) and make it hard to turn it off. That is why there is a msconfig, to force them
to shut off and go away. Sometimes things in that list can be Spy-ware or Viruses so it is
important to check it once in a while, especially if you notice the computer acting funny. All
they are is quick launch shortcuts, you can start any of them by going to Start-Programs find
the program folder and open it, you can also just drag it from the Program folder onto the
desktop and you have a shortcut that does not run in the background, or you can right click on
the program name and choose “pin to Start Menu” and in Vista and 7 you can also pin them
to the Task Bar. Any of these work and nothing is running in the background, if you have A
LOT of RAM (Memory) installed no big deal, some of us do not.
Whew and we are just getting started but like I said you can do these in steps and once you
get it all done it is just a matter of checking weekly or monthly. OK we went over:
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Spybot
Malwarebytes
Anti-Virus
Add/Remove Programs
Deleting folders in Windows Explorer.
Recycle Bin
msconfig
Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin
How to find out what the exe files are, search on the Internet.
Windows Temp folder
Now we want to go to Windows Explorer-My Computer-(C:)-WINDOWS-TEMP Folder for
Vista and Windows 7 open Documents-Computer-Local Disk C-Windows-Temp, double click
it to open it up in the right hand pane. Here is a screen shot of mine:
WOW I have not checked mine in a while, OK, click on one of those files, then go to Edit
top left corner of the screen, click it to open the drop down box and choose Select All for Vista
and 7 go to Organize-Select All, all the files in the left pane will turn blue like the picture
below, I have also right clicked on ones of those highlighted files:
Now move your mouse down to Delete and click it, a box will pop and ask if you want to
delete them, yes Windows I do. Here is mine after I Deleted all the files: Empty
When you do this make sure you close out of any and all programs, except Windows
Explore. This is where programs you install unpack all the files needed to be installed, once
the software has been install it should remove all these files, hmm, if written properly. As you
can see some leave files behind. Also some programs will put files in here while you are using
a program, that is why I told you to make sure they were all closed. If it says it cannot delete
files, that means something is accesses a file, then you have to right click on each file and
delete the ones that can be deleted. Also some Viruses will install a program here and run it
from this folder, if I get one that will not delete, usually a folder, I open the folder and start
deleting the individual files in the folder. Normally once I delete most of the files in the folder,
the ones that would not delete can now be deleted. These are Temporary files and are not
needed. OK that is empty, now we want to empty the cache files and cookies in Internet
Explorer.
Internet Explorer Options
We need to go to the Control Panel and double click the Internet Options Icon, this will open:
As you notice one of the buttons edges is highlighted that is the button you want to click,
Delete... this will open:
If you use the Auto Type Feature and remember Passwords feature click the Delete Files
Button. I do not use any of them so I use the Delete all... button, if you use the Auto Fill
feature where it remembers your password and User name to auto log you into a site just
delete the Temporary Internet files, I am on a cable connection so IE can store new pages
really fast, if you are on a Dailup at the most just Delete the Temporary Internet Files and
History, it does not delete all of them just some. Now close this and click the Settings Button
you will see this:
See the Disk Space 80 that is highlighted, set yours to 80 and set the top one like mine is
set. Now we Deleted those Internet Files and Cookies right, click the View Files button you
will see the picture below, surprised, lol, like I said not all the files are deleted. I go to EditSelect All and right click and Delete them All, mine before:
and after Deleting them all:
Like I said if you use auto fill for passwords and User Names to Automatically log into a site
like Facebook, do not do this, the Password and User Name are stored in a Cookie. If you
want to delete them all you will just have to relog in to the sites and then IE will set a new
Cookie for that site. I use Password Safe and copy and paste them from my Safe, so I do not
need to have a Cookie remember it for me. OK close out of IE Options, we are done there.
After you are done in about a week Empty the Recycle Bin, make sure you have not deleted
something you need or really did not mean to delete first, if you did delete something you
need, open the Recycle Bin, Highlight the folder or file and the go to File and choose Restore,
in Vista or 7 right click on the file or folder and choose Restore. I will be put back from where it
was deleted.
Scandisk
Next we are going to run Scandisk, this will fix any errors on your Hard Drive the C: drive.
You should be familiar with the Start Menu now, so go to Start-My Computer in Vista or 7 it is
called Computer, you will see this when it opens up:
I have my mouse hovering over the (C:) drive, now Right click on that Icon and go to
Properties click it and this should open:
OK this is my (D:) drive remember I am using that instead of my 98 drive, it is the same. This
screen shows you how much free space and used space is on your hard drive. I am using
26.8 gigs of a 74.5 gig hard drive, I have 47.7 gigs of space left to install software on. What
we want is the Tools Tab pictured below:
If you notice one of the buttons is highlighted we want to click that button named Check
Now... this will open:
We want to check the “Automatically fix file system errors” and then click start. It will say it
cannot run now and will run at Startup, click OK and close everything out and restart your
computer. When the computer boots up it will go to a Blue Screen and run some tests, when it
is done it will restart the computer and boot back into Windows. See ya after Scandisk gets
it's work done. OK Scandisk must be done, we are going to go back to Start-My Computerright click on the C: drive and go to Properties and in Vista and 7 it is Computer. We go to the
Tools tab and this time we choose the Defragment Now.. button, this is what you will see. In
Vista an 7 you do not get this it just runs and gives you a completion notice.
Defragment
As you will notice the Analyze button is highlighted, I have already clicked it so go ahead
and click yours. It will take a little while to analyze the C: drive. I have just recently removed a
bunch of software from mine and ran Defragment so as you look at mine you will notice that I
have a lot of Solid Blue Lines, if your Blue Lines are all across that little screen and most are
thin Blue Lines you need to Defragment your drive, now Defragment will probably tell you the
drive dose not need to be Defragmented or maybe it will say it needs it, either way click the
Defragment button and let it run. Now do this at night when you do not need to use the
computer for a few hours it depends on the size of your hard drive as to how long it will take.
Remember mine is 76 gigs and it runs almost 2 hours.
What does this do, lets say you have a file cabinet with a whole bunch of folders and inside
those folders are all the papers you saved for Tax time. OK, so it is time to do the taxes and
you take all those folders and put them on the floor and start pulling sheets of paper and
receipts out of the folders and spread them all over a table. That is what the files on your hard
drive look like right now. What defragmentor does is picks up all those pieces of paper and
receipts and puts them in the right folders, it then takes those folders and puts them back in
the file cabinet where they were before they were removed. Now when the read/write head on
the hard drive looks for a file in a folder it knows right where it is. Before it would have to look
on the floor, nope not there, OK must be on the table, ah there it is, speeds up the hard drive
by organizing the file cabinet. Remember your hard drive is just a file cabinet, a digital one. : )
Well Defragment must be done and we have to move to the next step. Just a little info on
what I am doing as I am writing this, as I write and spell check hopefully catches all my
spelling mistakes, I am opening up these different programs and taking Screen shots, I then
open Photoshop and create a new file, then I paste the image from the clipboard onto the new
file, I then use a crop tool to crop the image from my desktop image. Then I select crop and
the image is plucked from the desktop screen shot. I then Save the image to a folder, next I
insert the image into OpenOffice.org Writer this document. You then get to see an image, here
are these words in OpenOffice:
Lets go over what we have covered so far:
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Spybot Search and Destroy.
Malwarebytes
AVG Anti Virus.
Add/Remove Programs
Deleting folders in Windows Explorer.
Recycle Bin
msconfig
Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin
How to find out what the exe files are.
Windows Temp folder.
IE Options.
Scandisk.
Defragment.
PowerTools Lite
The computer should be running better now but we have more to do. Now after I delete a
bunch of software I run a program called PowerTools Lite. What this does is look for registry
Errors, Registry Junk, MRU and History Data and Temp Files picture below:
I ran this tool and then had it fix all the problems, I then had it save a log file so that I can
Undo it if there are problems. Quick easy and free.
What does this do? The registry is the file cabinet that is on the hard drive, the registry has
the list of every single thing in the file cabinet, when you delete something on your computer,
you do not actually delete it, what you do is have the registry take it off the list so the hard
drive or Software cannot find it anymore. Eventually as you install more software those files
are written over by the hard drive, because it doesn't know it is there. That is why when you
Empty the Recycle Bin it is all removed from the Registry, all the links to the file. If you
permanently deleted something very important by mistake you should immediately shut your
computer down and take it to a hard drive recovery shop, they can recover those files, very
expensive though so be careful about what you delete. The Government has software that
can peel back layer after layer and recover files from a hard drive, you could even do a
military wipe on the drive and they can recover the files. So once it is on the drive it is there
forever, but once we permanently delete it, it is gone. PowerTools Lite just gets rid of all those
registry entries that the uninstall did not remove.
Task Manager
Another tool that Windows has that comes in handy for checking on what is running on your
computer, is the Task Manager, screen shot above, to get to this right click on the bar (Task
bar) on the bottom of your Desktop Screen and choose Task Manager:
This is the Task Manager, if you look at the bottom of picture above, you will see that there
are 33 Processes running, I'm using 1% of my CPU and I'm using 472 megabytes of my
installed Memory or RAM. I have 2.25 gigs of memory so I'm using less the ¼ of it. If you had
only 512 megs or one half of a gig of Ram or Memory, your computer would be running very
slow right now. When you run out of RAM, which is VERY FAST the computer starts using
your Hard Drive to store temporary information on, the Hard Drive compared to RAM well lets
see RAM=Race Car, Hard Drive=A four cylinder economy car. So in a nut shell the more RAM
the faster your computer is. RAM or Memory is used just like the hard drive only temporary
files are stored in RAM and it is instantly removed once you close a program or stop looking
at a picture. Nothing stays on the RAM like it dose on the hard drive, except for those little
Icons that start up when Windows boots up, they keep running and are stored in your RAM
taking up valuable space. OK the next tab we want to go to is the Processes Tab shown here:
As you can see I have 33 processes running, when I first installed XP I had 57 Processes
running. XP is designed as a Work Station OS for Businesses so in that environment a lot of
those Processes are needed, we do not need them all and the more Processes running in the
background the slower the computer runs. What are Processes, they are little programs that
run in the background that Windows and other Programs use to give us this nice graphical
interface and to make some things run faster. We will be getting into what is called Services
next which some of these Processes are. Most of these are related to Windows if you look at
the list above, things like svchost.exe is a Windows process, PhotoShop.exe is PhotoShop
running, taskmgr.exe is the Task Manager I opened to get these screen shots. If your
computer is acting weird you can open this and do a search on Google to see what software
the Process is associated with, I check it every now and then to see if something installed
without me knowing, like a Virus or Trojan. If it is a bad program you can highlight it and click
the End Process button to turn it off, then run Malwarebytes and your Anti Virus program to
get rid of it.
Services
OK now lets talk about those Services, these are Processes or programs that are always
running in the background to keep your computer running. Not all of these Services are
needed by a normal Home user. To see what Services are running on your computer go to the
Control Panel, you should know where this is by now, lol, and open the Administrative Tools
Icon, scary sounding isn't it, in that screen we want to open the Services Icon, double click it,
for Vista and Windows 7 it is the same. This is what you should see once it opens:
Now this has a lot of entries in it and this is a big screen shot just to show you what it looks
like, I am going to focus on those entries shown better in the next three screen shots, yep, 3.
There are a lot of Services on an XP, Vista and Windows 7 machine. I am showing you all of
mine to give you an idea of what I have each Service set at. You have a choice of Automatic,
Manual and Disable, we will use Manual for most, that way it will not start when Windows
Boots up, but if that program is started the Service will start if needed. Automatic means it is
started when Windows boots up and Disabled means it can never start. One of the Biggest
resource hogs is the Indexing Service, what this does is it keeps a BIG list of software on the
computer and then when we use Windows Search it can find things faster, good idea but it
dose not take that much longer Searching with it off and I rarely use Windows Search
anyways, so that one gets Disabled. Windows Vista and 7 have an Icon called Indexing in the
Control Panel you click on one of the folders and then click the Modify button, Uncheck what
you do not want indexed.
Look down my list in XP, I have the Indexing Service highlighted. Go to Blackvipers
Services page he gives detailed info on what services to use and not use, I used his site to
set mine up. When everything is closed I have 29 Services running, on my Gaming computer
I only have 19 Services running. So if you have a lot of Services running they are using a lot
of your precious Memory.
Now you know why Techs get so much $$ to clean up your computer. But like I said earlier
once you get it fine tuned it dose not take a lot of time to keep it running that way. Well Mike
are we done, not yet, lol. Your computer should have a lot more get up and go now. Lets
make sure you have everything up to date at Windows Update, if you have it set to Automatic
you should be good to go. If not go to Start-Programs-Windows Update and run the Express
search, install all the critical updates, you will probably have to Restart your computer, after it
boots back up, go back and do another search until it says you are good to go. Then turn
Automatic Updates on, go to the Control Panel and click the Automatic Updates Icon and
check the Automatic (recommended) box, then click OK. In Vista and Windows 7 Windows
Update is done right in Windows, go to the Action Center in the Control Panel, the click
Windows Update, bottom left corner. While you are in the Control Panel, open the Date and
Time Icon and make sure the time and date are right then go to the Internet Time tab and
make sure the Automatically synchronize with..... is checked, click OK.
Well that is all you should have to do to get your computer running smooth and fast. Lets
recap what we went over:
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Spybot
Anti Virus program
Add/Remove Programs
Deleting folders in Windows Explorer
Recycle Bin
msconfig
Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin
How to find out what the exe files are
Windows Temp folder
IE Options
Scandisk
Defragment
PowerTools Lite
Task Manager
Services
Windows Update and Time
Now that you have your computer running fast it is just a matter of checking what is on your
computer and running some programs when your are not using the computer. I run my Virus
program once a month after updating it or if I think I have been infected. I run Malwarebytes
once a week and PowerTools Lite to remove Registry Entries after I Remove software. I clean
Internet Explorers cache once a week or when it seems to be opening slow or loading pages
slow. I check Windows TEMP folder once every month or whenever I think about it or if I had
a bad program on the computer. I empty the Recycle Bin once a month and run Scandisk and
Defragment once a month, Defragment only if the blue lines are thin and spread out a lot. You
should only have to use Add or Remove if you no longer want a program, but I would check if
you have kids using the computer for those Search Buddies, lol, little buggers. Happy
Computing 8-)))
About the Author
I have been working on Computers since the days of DOS, that was before Windows. I
have upgraded, rebuilt and built my own Computer's many, many, times. I also have my own
Websites Mikescomputerinfo.com and MikescomputerinfoArcade.com, I started the Websites
after I took and passed a Total Webmaster Certification Program at my local Community
College in the year 2000, that is also when I started Mikescomputerinfo.com. I have worked
with many different Operating Systems, DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, XP Home, XP Pro, Vista
Ultimate Beta, Mandrake Linux, Ubuntu Linux 7.10 and Unix that runs on the website server.
Also far as writing skills, I have been writing content for my website for the last eight years.
The tools that I use for developing my website have improved over the years. I finally was
able to buy Adobe PhotoShop CS3, Flash CS4 and Dreamweaver CS3 which are the web
standards and are very expensive. I use Swish 2.0 for my banners and Script Forest Menu for
my Java menus. I do most of my coding by hand even though Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG
editor, the design view does come in handy when you need to identify a complicated table
layout. I hope you enjoyed the Guide and it was helpful.
This another E-Book Guide for Cleaning your computer, scrub a dub dub clean, lol:
A guide to cleaning your Computer
If you have any questions or comments use the Contact Mike under Message in the
Java Menu: Mikescomputerinfo.com
Copyright © 03/26/2008 Mike Hanson. All rights reserved worldwide