Computer Clean Up (Mainly for Windos XP)
By
Bruce Cottrill (bmcottrill@aol.com)
Mentor - Sun City Texas Computer Club
A common complaint of most computer club members is that my system is “taking to long to boot”, is very slow” or is ”locking up”. My theory on this is that PC manufacturers were telling us that we only needed 256 or 512 MB of RAM several years ago. As time progressed, the programs we used most, like AOL, MSN, AVG, Norton Anti Virus, McAfee Anti Virus and Zone Alarm have grown in size and capability and what was adequate memory-wise two years ago is no longer sufficient. To help combat this there are two strategies. Buy more RAM and/or remove memory-using entities. During the past several years as a Mentor and System Administrator for the Sun City Texas Computer Club I have adopted a series of procedures to “clean-up” members computers. This procedure assumes that the system is bootable and no malware is significantly affecting system performance. The procedure also assumes that the mentor is at least semi proficient computer geek. I would not suggest using these procedures if you are an amateur or faint-of-heart
I usually do this in four phases. Phase I is to shutdown all programs not needed at startup and to eliminate programs no longer being used. This, hopefully increase system performance and makes the other phases easier to complete. Phases II is to manually eliminate all extraneous files. Phase III is to run some cleanup utilities and Phase IV is to run applications to remove malware. I do Phase II in this order so the cleanup and malware programs do not have as many files to scan. It is probably best to do these phases in the Safe Mode although not necessary.
Note that in some instances, if the PC is significantly hindered by malware, Phase III must be run first to eliminate the malware. How to determine the sequence is usually depends on how long the boot time, how slow the system is responding to commands, or how fast applications are loading.
Shut down all running programs before beginning (except anti-virus).
Phase I
Eliminate programs that are being loaded into memory at boot time. This is one of the more significant reasons for PCs slow in booting and also slow in performance. The less memory you have the more significant the increase in PC boot time and slower the performance.
1. System Configuration Utility - Run msconfig. This is Windows utility that discloses the programs loading and running at boot time. It is difficult, especially for the casual user, to determine which of the programs should be shut down. My rule of thumb is to not turn off programs that have anything to do with system protection, such as anti virus, firewalls, Spybot, Adware etc. The application descriptions in msconfig are very cryptic and sometimes difficult to ascertain their function. I turn off program files like MS Office, AOL, Quicken, Turbo Tax that I execute by double clicking the desktop icon. Note that you are not removing these programs; you are merely preventing them from starting on their own at boot. If a problem with software or hardware should occur, the suspect application can be turned back on via msconfig. Many manufacturers, HP in particular, load several of the Printer and Multi function device applications via this utility. I do not know the consequences of shutting these down, so I let them run.
To use System Configuration Utility, select Start>Run and type in “msconfig” followed by “Ok”. The resulting System Configuration Utility window will have a tab labeled “Startup”. Selecting this tab will display a table of all running programs. A check mark next to the entry indicates this program is starting at boot time. By deselecting the check mark, the program will not start on the next boot. By observing the programs location and name you can sometimes ascertain if it is required. If unsure, leave it alone. The system must be rebooted after changes are made via msconfig.
NOTE: I have had applications that cannot be turned off. Every time they have been deselected and the system rebooted they appear again as selected and are being loaded. I have not come up with a solution to this situation, but it appears that something in the registry is overriding msconfig. There are utilities that will remove entries from the System Configuration Utility.
2. Remove Programs from the Startup folder.
Select Start>All Programs>Startup and ensure that the folder indicates Empty. Delete any shortcuts in the Startup folder.
3. Remove unwanted and/or unused programs.
Got to the Control Panel. Select or Add/Remove Programs. The resulting window will take a few minutes to display all of the programs currently known by the Operating System to be present. Any programs that you believe will never be used again (or are known to be giving you problems) can be removed via this utility. Be careful and only remove the ones you are sure of.
Phase II Removing Extraneous Files
(Note: In the Windows Explore, under the Tools Menu, select the View Tab. The following settings must be made to complete the next step as of Phase II
Show Hidden Files and folders – Must be selected.
Hide Extensions for Known File Types – Must be deselected.
Hide Protected Operating System Files – Must be deselected.
I believe these files are created by the S/W engineers as a scratch pad when program is first loaded onto the system, However, sometimes, for whatever reason, they do not get deleted when the loading is complete.
Go to My Computer and then to C:\Documents and Settings\”User Name”\Local Settings\Temp. Select all the files (left click one file and then the Ctl + A key simultaneously to select all files followed by delete. I have never had an instance where deleting these files had an negative effect on the system. Note that some system files cannot be deleted such as desktop.ini and index.dat.
Empty the Recycle Bin
2. Delete all cookies:
Cookies are bits of data that are stored in the Cookies folder as part of visiting websites. They allow the website to be displayed faster upon the next visit but over time the number of cookies can be overwhelming and slow down the system.
Go to My Computer and then to C:\Documents and Settings\”User Name”\Cookies. Select any Cookie and the Ctl + A key simultaneously to select all cookies and then delete. Note that a message “Cannot delete Index.dat” may appear. Just select the remaining cookies by holding down the Shift key while left clicking the top and bottom cookie and then select delete.
Empty the Recycle Bin
3. Delete all Temporary Internet files. These are similar to cookies.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\”User name”\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and select all files except Desktop.ini and Index.dat and delete.
A. In some instances, the Temporary Internet Files folder reveals another folder “Content.ie5”. Opening this folder sometimes displays numerous other folders with randomly generated names like AS5DB2SSDV. It has been my experience, that even though these are system files, they can be deleted. I have seen where each of these randomly generated folders contains thousands of files.
B. It has been my experience, that although the Content.ie5 and subsequent randomly generated folders are not displayed they are still there. Go to All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. When the Disk Cleanup window appears, select “OK”. After several minutes a window will appear with several selections evident. Highlight “Temporary Internet Files” and then select “View Files”. Do not select “OK” at this point. Although selecting “OK” should delete the files, I have found that it does not function as intended. Instead, after highlighting the “Temporary Internet Files” and selecting “View Files” the Conten.ie5 folder is displayed revealing the randomly generated folders. Select all the folders and then delete them. Close the Content.ie5 window and select Cancel to exit the Disk Cleanup.
The system should now be clean of most extraneous files.
Phase III
At this point, I run some cleanup tools. The two most popular for the Computer Club are CCLeaner and Easy Cleaner.
1. Easy Cleaner created by Tony Arts. I am not sure if this utility is still supported and if updates are available but still useful.
The user interface has several selections. The following are the ones I use and the order I use them.
1. Registry: Cleans registry of extraneous entries that Easy Cleaner has deemed no longer necessary
2. Clear Temporary Internet Files
3. Clear Cookies Files
4. Clear History
5. Clear MRU
6. Unnecessary Files
This is the biggest bang for your buck. There are a multitude of files created as back-up .bck,.old, tmp, etc. that get generated for whatever reason and are just taking up disk space.
DO NOT USE THE “Duplicate Files” Option unless you really know what you are doing. many system files have duplicateand deleting them will be disastrous.
Note that the first two items should have been taken care of in Phase II.
I have encountered problems with Easy Cleaner where it will freeze if there is extraordinarily large number of files to deal with.
By selecting Ctrl-Alt-Del you can determine if the program is “Not Responding”. If it does not respond within a few minutes, Highlight the program and select “End Task”. Sometimes you may have to do this several times for the program to delete all files.
2. CCLeaner (Select “Check for updates now” before running the application.
1. On the left, select “Cleaner. When the Window opens, select “Analyze”. I always look at what is being deleted although most of the time it is unclear if there are any consequences of deleting the entries.
2. Select “Run Cleaner”. This deletes what CCLeaner deems as unnecessary.
3. Select “Issues” followed by “Scan for Issues” then “Fix Issues”. The program will ask if you want to backup the registry, which I do to my desktop. After a couple of days I delete the registry backup if everything is working OK.
With Easy Cleaner or CCLeaner I have never had an issue with running the programs.
Phase IV*
This is the running of malware tools to remove viruses, Trojan Horses, Adware and hopefully any other unwanted Malware.
The following applications can be accessed by going to the Computer Club website (http://www.sctxcompclub.org/index.html) and in the left pane of the Home Page is a selection Mentor Tools (Mentor Tools) or go directly to http://www.sctxcompclub.org/Mentor/mentortools/index.html. Selecting this will display a list of the websites for the tools. Note it is sometimes difficult to find the free versions. You have to look carefully or do a search on the applications home page.
1. AVG Anti Virus (Free- latest version is 7.5)
This is a free anti-virus program that many Computer Club members have found very effective.
2. Spybot Search and Destroy – Run weekly
Another free program
1 Double click the icon for Spybot on the desktop.
2 Choose search for updates. Listing will show possible updates. Click on Detection rules and Immunization Database and choose download updates. (If you do not get the updates, choose another download site from the dropdown menu – tab next to ‘download updates’)
3 After update, choose Search and Destroy on the left side and then check for problems’. Will take some time. to complete.
4 When scan is complete, be sure problem items are checked and click on Fix Selected Problems.
5 Always ‘Immunize’ after each scan. Click Immunize on the left side and a screen will come up indicating if there are any additional protections available. If so, click OK and then Immunize with the green cross at the top of the window.
3. AdAware 2007 Personal – Free. Run weekly
1 Double click the AdAware icon to open the program.
2 Click on check for updates now click Connect then OK if new definitions are available. When downloads are complete, click finish. If there are no updates, click OK and Finish.
3 Ready to scan – click start. Select the scan mode Perform Smart System Scan and then click Next.
4 When scan is complete the number of critical objects is shown in red in the summary and to the right of that is where the objects are located.
5 Click Next and in the screen click on the scan summary tab and put a check mark in the box by all items listed. (Right click and select ALL ITEMS)
6 Click the Next button then OK to remove the objects.
7 Click on Open quarantine list, highlight the quarantined objects, and click Delete and OK to remove the archive.
8 Close AdAware with red X in upper right hand corner.
4. Zone Alarm Firewall – Free Runs in background, update when notified
If the Zone Alarm firewall has been installed on your computer, this is what you should watch for and expect.
1 Look at the Zone Labs tutorial - click Start, Programs, Zone Alarm and Tutorial.
2 This will tell you the features and alarms of Zone Alarm.
3 A firewall serves to protect your computer from intrusion from the outside and sending of personal information out of the computer.
4 For example, first time you request Spybot or AdAware to search for updates, a Zone Alarm warning will appear in the lower right hand corner of your screen indicating the program wants to go to the Internet. Since you have requested the program to go to the internet and will do so again, put a check mark in the Remember this answer box and then click Allow.
5 If you have not requested a program to go to the Internet, click Deny. If the same program repeatedly asked to go to the Internet, then you can allow it.
6 If you don’t recognize the name of the file/program that is trying to access the Internet, type the name in the Google search bar to see if it is a trusted program.
Note that there is some disagreement on the extent that a firewall is needed. The Windows Firewall may be adequate (Windows XP SP2) especially if you are using a router in your Internet configuration. I have found that Zone Alarm slows down my system but this may be due to my limited memory (256 MB).
As people use this procedure and we become more sophisticated, I will update it as needed.
Note: I have not used Windows Defender. In fact, I am not sure it is still supported by Microsoft.
After the system has been “cleaned”, I usually go to the System Restore Utility and turn it off to remove all restore points since I believe that malware can reside in the Restore Points. Upon reboot and remvoval of old Restore Points, I believe the system will crate a new restore point. If in the near future a proble arises, you can use this restore point to get the system back to a stable point.
* Some descriptions on the use of the malware applications was stolen from Gael and Jan Miller