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You want a lean mean running machine. Routine maintenance is the key to a healthy computer. These steps will take you there.

In fact, if you are having problems with your PC run through some or all of the steps below as a good start at troubleshooting.

1) Uninstall Unnecessary Programs This step is more important for people with an older computer and/or a smaller disk, say 10-40 GBs. Nowadays, most disks are between 80 GB and 200 GB. Still, unnecessary programs are unnecessary. They can slow your PC down, especially if you are low on memory or have only a small amount of memory to begin with. The fewer programs you have on your disk the less chance there is of a software conflict or some other software related problem like the unwanted download and insertion of malware into that program. Extra unused programs are just more real estate on your disk that your read/write heads have to skip over while searching for the program(s) you request. Getting rid of unused applications and drivers will clear more memory for your other applications. Some computers come loaded with largely unnecessary and potentially dangerous software programs. These include Sony, HP and Dell. If you do buy one of these companies' machines, examine your Add/Remove programs menu as well as your start up list in msconfig carefully and, using the links given in step 2, be ruthless about removing all unnecessary programs. 2) Remove Unnecessary Startup Items. You want your PC to start up and run quickly and smartly. Unnecessary startup programs slowly chip away at your available memory as you use your PC. Some startup programs are not only unnecessary but dangerous. They hog resources, slowing your PCs boot up time and deprive your system of precious memory as they run in the background doing their nefarious work,corrupting your system files and sending info about you back to their parent companies or individuals. Pare your startup list down to just the bare minimum: Your security software and essential Windows processes. From there allow only programs that you really need to load at startup. Go to these sites for a list of necessary and unnecessary startup processes: Sysinfo.org Windows Startup WinTasks Process Library To disable a program at startup you can use the built in Windows System Configuration tool (Msconfig.exe). There are three simple steps involved here: Go to Start, click Run, type Msconfig in the box as shown here and then press Enter or OK. Click on the Startup tab on the msconfig menu shown here You'll see a list of all the programs and processes that are set to run when Windows XP loads. Here's where your education begins! Unless you are an experienced user you will have to Google each of the entries on msconfig startup list. Never fear. Consult the links I gave you above and methodically check or uncheck (in the boxes outlined in red)the startup programs or processes you need or don't need. Another place I recommend you go to for a lot of help with startup programs is PC PitStop. Sign in or sign up (It's easy!), run the tests and follow the links from your test results and read them carefully. You'll find them most helpful. There is a brilliant freeware program that is designed to help you mange your startup list. It's called AutoRuns. Autoruns lists every program that loads at start and allows you to quickly delete those programs. I do recommend that you get it. After checking and unchecking your programs and processes, Click Apply, and then Restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Some antispyware apps come with startup editors. One is Spy Sweeper - download a trial of Spy Sweeper here. Another is Windows Defender. Spybot also has a startup editor. Just click on the Advanced option. Other programs that come with startup editors are System Suites. Some of the best System Suites include TuneUp Utilities 2006 - download a trial here, WinUtilities, Ashampoo, and System Mechanic. If you don't mind working in the Windows registry, you can pare down the number of programs that run at start up by going to Start >>Run >Type Regedit in the box and hit OK. Now you're in the Registry. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>>SOFTWARE>>Microsoft>>Windows>>CurrentVersion>>Run. Now right click on each item and select Delete. Select Yes when prompted by the next little window that asks you to confirm deletion of that item. If you prefer a more detailed description of this procedure, please take a look at the visual walk through I created to make this process easier for the less technically inclined. 3) Eliminate Unnecessary Processes A process is a program that is running while your PC is in use or turned on. A process can run in the background or in the foreground. An example of a program or process running in the background would be an essential Windows process like svchost.exe that you, the user, can not initiate. It loads and runs automatically. An example of a process running in the foreground would be a non-essential process like Internet Explorer or IEEXPLORE.EXEor ieexplore.exe (Internet Explorer) or RegMech.exe (Registry Mechanic) that you load and use yourself. As with startup programs there are many processes that you need and do not need for a smooth running PC. Some processes are dangerous. You can identify which processes are running through use of the Windows Task Manager. To begin using the Task Manager, right-click an empty area of the taskbar, and then click Task Manager or press Ctrl Alt Delete simultaneously and repeatedly until it appears. It will look like this: Once you have identified which processes are unnecessary, you can terminate them by pressing the End Process button in the lower right hand corner of the picture. Be very careful. Only terminate processes you know are unnecessary. Termination of an essential process can cause system failure. Here is a short list of essential Windows processes: alg.exe csrss.exe dllhost.exe svchost.exe Here are a few examples of dangerous processes: 180ax.exe rcsync.exe tibs3.exe adaware.exe and wmon32.exe. There's a good freeware program called Process Explorer that is better than the Task Mananger at helping you find and termiinating various processes. There are also a couple of outstanding payware programs that are very helpful and highly informative in dealing with processes. One is Process Guard by Diamond CS. The other is the highly rated WinTasks 5 Pro by Uniblue. Download a trial here Uniblue provides free of charge a number of useful tools to help you learn about processes. One is their Process Library. The other are these first rate process advisers: Of course, no discussion of processes and programs would be complete without mentioning HiJack This. HiJack This is a powerful little utility that detects and removes homepage hijackers and other forms of malware by scanning your system for any and all programs/processes on your PC where a browser hijack could take place. It lists them in a one page report, a plain text log file, which you can copy/paste to a HiJack This help forum or save for analysis later. Specifically, it scans for ActiveX modules BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) Toolbars, Internet Explorer plug-ins HijackThis, Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. The scan is quick and the readout complete. I ran a HiJack This scan just recently. Here is what a HiJack This report looks like. The real power of HiJack This, however, is its ability to end, immediately, any process you want. And this is where the danger of HiJack This comes in. If you are not careful, or are a novice, you might shut down the wrong process, an essential process, and disable your operating system. That's why a tradition has developed on the internet of taking HiJack This logs to forums that offer HiJack This log analysis. Please do not attempt to use the end process function unless you are certain you know what you are doing. Take your HiJack This log to an appropriate forum. You might have to register into that forum but it's usually no big deal. Post your log and be patient. Sometimes the HiJack This forums are too busy with other peoples'logs to get to yours right away. Here are a few HiJack This forums: Major Geeks Tom Coyote Bleeping Computer Spyware Warrior LavaSoft Support Forums PC PitsStop It's best to create a special folder for HiJack This before you download it. Download it to the folder and double-click on it to use the program. 4) Clean Up Your Disk Free up extra space on your hard drive by deleting old, unused and unnecessary files. There are lots of tools out there that will do it for you. One is Crap Cleaner, another is CLeanup. Both are free, easy to use and quick. You can also use the disk cleanup utility that is built in to Windows. Go Start >All Programs > Accessories > System Tools and click on Disk Cleanup. You can get to it through the Run command as well. Click Start | Run and in the Open box type cleanmgr and click OK. You'll hear it firing up and analyzing your drive. You'll see this little window: It might take a minute or two. Then this window will appear giving you a list of file categories to select for deletion: Click OK to remove the files you have selected. If you're on a dial-up connection or a laptop you may not want to select Offline Files. Otherwise delete them. Setup Log files are probably worth deleting unnless you want to save a record of what happened during installation of Windows.Temporary Remote Desktop Files should be kept if you use Remote Desktop with the same computer or group of computers.Temporary Internet Files are worth deleting. Deleting them will not delete cookies or alter or erase any of your settings. Downloaded Program Files are Active X controls and java applets. You use them to access online virus scans and services like PCPitStop.I usually keep most of these unless I see something I did not intend to be there. Compress Old Files is not that important a feature unless you're really short on disk space. You should review these files, however, to determine whether you might need them. Files selected for compression will take up less disk space but will be slower to load if you ever need them as they must first be decompressed to access them. If you're unsure about removing certain files use the View Files button to take a closer look and Google them. 5) Defrag Your Disk When a drive is nearly empty, it is at its fastest. The drive's read/write heads hardly have to move at all to reach any file, and even the empty space is close at hand when Windows needs to create a new file. As the drive fills, though, the disk read/write heads have to move longer and longer distances; that takes more time and makes the system slower. Similarly, as the drive begins to fill up, it becomes harder for Windows to find a place to put new files. Quite often, Windows will end up splitting a file into pieces and putting those pieces in the holes left by files that were deleted. This is called fragmentation, and it's a real performance buzzkill, as well. Dave Methvin PC Today Your disk is like a library. It stores information. It stores it in sections. However, disks do not have advanced algorithms for allocating specific space for a specific file. In other words, you can download or install a file to your disk but your disk will do nothing to keep the file together in one place. Over time elements or parts of that file will start to move away from each other and eventually wind up in other sections of the disk. In other words, the file begins to fragment. A fragmented file is a burden of your system. It takes longer and therefore more resources for your read/write heads to find the various components of the file scattered around on your disk and send the information to the CPU. Fragmented files also make it more difficult for your PC to download new files to disk because your read/write heads have to scan for a place on your disk to store the new file(s) that does not contain fragments of other files. At the beginning of this section I compared the disk to a library. Well, imagine if you walked into a library and headed over to your favorite subject's section and found only a few books related to your subject in that section. Worse, you discover that you will have to search the library's sections for the books you want because they have been misplaced repeatedly over the last couple of weeks and are now scattered about in seven or eight unrelated sections in the library. In short, the library staff haven't done their job. A disk defragmenter is like a librarian. It rewrites, places and keeps all your files in order each in their place on your drive. Whenever you need a certain file, the well defragmented disk finds that file and serves you that file quickly. The next question of course is which defragmenting tool to use. The two best stand-alone defragmenters are Diskeeper Pro and Home and Raxco's PerfectDisk There are some really good defraggers in a number of system suites. What is a system suite? A system suite is a one-stop, all in one PC maintenance and optimization program designed to be make daily and weekly PC chores a breeze. Once you've got a system suite you don't have to think anymore about maintaining your system and improving its performance - at least that's the idea. Some do a better job than others. Make no mistake, however, there are some excellent system suites out there with first rate defraggers, for example: Ashampoo WinOptimizer Platinum 3 Ace Utilities System Mechanic SystemSuite You've also got the built in Windows defragmeter (Start>> All Programs>> Accessories>> System Tools>> Disk Defragmenter) which is actually Diskeeper Lite. It's pretty good as long as you use it consistently. Use it once a week. If you don't then you will suffer Pagefile (PF) and Master File Table (MFT)defragmentation neither of which, PF or MFT, can be accessed and defragmented using the Windows defragmenter. Defragging the Paging File (also called the swap file) and the MFT requires an offline or boot-time defrag since you can not access either of these files while Windows is running. The only time you can get to the PF or the MFT is while Windows is loading at startup. You must have a defragger like Diskeeper or PerfectDisk or one of the others I mentioned above to perform an offline or boot-time defrag since they are designed specifically to insert themselves into the startup process before Windows loads and thereby gain access to the PF and MFT. I's really important not to let either the PF or the MFT become fragmented.

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