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Spring Cleaning Your PC by Jason Levine |
Your computer can do some amazing things, but at its core it's a machine. And like many machines, it might not be performing properly if it's not maintained well. Every so many thousand miles you change the oil in your car. Now it's time to spring clean your PC. Don't worry about it being a daunting task, however, I'll guide you through each step and point you to the most effective (and wherever possible, most inexpensive) tools to aid you in your quest for a clean PC.
The first step is an actual cleaning. Your PC's components can heat up while they're powered up. This heat can wreck havoc with your system, so all computers come with fans to draw in cool air and drop the temperature of the system. Unfortunately, this fan can also draw in dust. You'll need some canned air, which can be purchased from most computer stores for less than $5.
With your computer powered down, open up the case, hold the canned air about six inches away from the computer's insides and blow the dust off. Get as much as possible out of your system. Note, while it might seem like a good idea to use a vacuum, it really isn't. A vacuum can damage your PC's components, doing more harm than the dust would.
While there are special "computer vacuums," I haven't had much luck with them in the past. Your best bet is to use the canned air to blow the dust out of your computer and then use the vacuum on the floor. With the insides of your computer tidied up, put the case back on and power your system back up.
Over time, dust isn't the only thing that can accumulate in your system. Programs can be installed to try out and forgotten. These forgotten programs can litter your hard drive and possibly even destabilize your system. So while the first step was a physical cleaning, this cleaning is more digital in nature. Click on your Start Menu, select Settings, and then choose Control Panel. Once you're in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs. Go through the list and uninstall and programs you don't need. You may need to reboot your system after some of the uninstall routines.
As a corollary to this second step, you should clean out your Start Menu. Some uninstallers won't remove their Start Menu shortcuts properly. Start Menu Cleaner is a good freeware tool for this task. Simply run the program and click Start to let it scan your system. As a deleted shortcut might leave behind an empty folder, I recommend multiple scans until the program identifies no more removed files or folders.
Now that you're down to the essential programs for your system, it's time to make sure that those programs aren't running at startup unless you want them to. To accomplish that, Windows 98/ME users can use the built-in tool "msconfig," but I went looking for something that could be used from Windows 95 through XP. What I found was a freeware tool called Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin.
As the name implies, Startup Control Panel installs itself as a "Startup" applet in the Control Panel. From this applet, you can then view, disable, edit and even delete startup entries. (And at 66K, it's not a burdensome download.) My recommendation would be to disable any processes you aren't sure about. Then, if no problems crop up after a few days, delete the entry. You might also want to check out another of Mike's free programs, StartupMonitor, to make sure that no program adds itself to startup without your approval.
Now that you've made sure that only the programs you want to launch are launching at startup, it's time to clean up any spyware that might be infecting your computer. Some programs come with hidden "extras;" programs that you didn't ask for. Sometimes these programs can be kept off your system by choosing a "custom" install, and sometimes the installer just puts them on your system whether you want them there or not. These spyware applications can track your movements online and report back to the spyware authors. Needless to say, this can be a big security problem and any Spring Cleaning wouldn't be complete without removing these parasites.
First you'll need to get a copy of the latest version of LavaSoft's Ad Aware. Ad Aware is a freeware application that can safely remove these nasty spyware components from your system. They have a "plus" version available for $15. If you like the free application enough, I'd encourage you to purchase the plus version. It'll help support a good application.
Once you download and install Ad Aware, you'll need the latest reference file. Like viruses, new spyware components are constantly being made and the Ad Aware developers keep a reference file that lets the Ad Aware program know just what to look for and remove. They've even made a free application that will update Ad Aware for you, RefUpdate. Whether you install the reference file manually, or via the RefUpdate program, make sure that reference file is updated before you run the program.
Now that Ad Aware is on your system, launch it. Make sure all the checkboxes under "Selections to Scan" are checked, except for any removable drives. Now hit the "Scan now" button and wait for Ad Aware to scan through your system. When it's done, hit the Continue button. If you're spyware-free you'll get a congratulations message otherwise Ad Aware will list all of the spyware components that it can delete for you. Check them all and click Continue again. Your system is now cleaned of spyware.
Even more insidious than spyware are Trojans. Spyware will report back your surfing habits, but Trojan horse programs will take over your entire PC. Trojans get installed without your approval via security holes in your PC (most commonly via IRC or shared folders being left open). They will then record keystrokes (bank account info, passwords, etc), and/or use your system as a "zombie" under a hacker's control to execute a DDOS attack on another computer. Either way, it's something you don't want on your system.
Your normal anti-virus scanner might be able to pick up some Trojans, but to really deep clean your PC of them, I'd recommend an anti-Trojan scanner. Unfortunately, there are no really good freeware Trojan scanners. However, the scanner I would recommend, Tauscan can be downloaded for a thirty day free trial. After the thirty days, if you decide to continue using Tauscan, you can register it for $29.95.
Before you use Tauscan, though, make sure you update the DAT files. These files tell Tauscan how to recognize a Trojan. To update the DAT files, follow the instructions at http://www.agnitum.com/products/tauscan/dat.html.
Using Tauscan is as easy as selecting the drives you want to scan and click Scan. If Tauscan finds a Trojan, it will prompt you with removal instructions. Once it's done scanning, you can be confident that your system is cleaned of Trojans.
Congratulations, you're halfway to a clean PC. Now we move on to the next step: Removing viruses. Like Trojans and spyware, viruses are unwelcome guests. They infect your system, impair its functionality, and can destroy your data. Your PC isn't safe unless it's protected.
The first step to being protected is to obtain an anti-virus scanner. If you don't already have one, I'd recommend AVG AntiVirus. AVG is freeware virus scanner that holds its own with the big named virus scanners Norton and McAfee. Like Ad Aware, make sure you update AVG once it's downloaded and installed. Simply double-click on the AVG system tray icon, select the Update manager tab, and click Update Now.
Once you update AVG, make sure to run a complete system scan. To do this, right-click on the AVG system tray icon and choose "Run AVG Anti-Virus." Then click on "Run Complete Test." AVG will prompt you if any actions need to be taken. Once you're done, you'll be ready to move on to the next cleaning step.
After all of that anti-spyware/Trojan/virus checking, I figured you'd be ready for an easy step, so this one is simple. During various actions (installs, uninstalls, document opening, etc), your computer creates temporary files. Sometimes these files aren't removed after the system is finished with them. They remain on the system and can needlessly hog disk space. Luckily everything you need to remove them is right in Windows.
First you'll need to go to Windows' temporary files directories. Make sure you close down all applications (to ensure that temporary files you delete won't be in use) and open up c:\temp in Explorer. (If Windows is not installed on the C drive, replace C:\ with the appropriate drive letter.) Select and delete all of the files and folders in this directory. Next, if you're using Win95/98/ME, go to C:\Windows\Temp. If you're using Win2K/XP, go to c:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USERNAME>\Local Settings\Temp. Change the view to details and sort by Modified date. Now delete all the files and folders that weren't created today. (Some of the ones that were created today might still be in use.)
Now, you'll need to open up Windows' Find utility. To do this, go to Start->Find->Files and Folders (in Windows 2000/XP it will be Start->Search->Files and Folders). Search for "*.tmp" (no quotes) and delete any files or folders that come up. Next, search for "~*.*" (again, no quotes), and delete any files or folders that get found.
Now it's time to clean your browser's cache. Open up an instance of Internet Explorer. (Netscape users can skip down to the Netscape instructions below.) Select Tools->Internet Options and then click on "Delete Files." Select the "Delete all offline content" checkbox and click "OK." If you're using Netscape, click on Edit->Preferences. Now double-click on Advanced and click on Cache. Finally, click on the "Clear Disk Cache" and "Clear Memory Cache" buttons.
If you're using Windows XP, there's one more type of temporary file to delete: Fastboot files. XP will cache DLLs and system files in order to speed up boot time. Removing these can speed up the access time for commonly used applications and DLLs. To delete these FastBoot files, open up the Windows\PreFetch folder (the exact "Windows" folder name may vary based on your install) and delete everything inside it. Reboot and you're done cleaning out temporary files.
Think your computer is clean now? Not quite, but you're getting closer. As you browse through the web, websites are constantly writing cookies to your hard drive. While they're mostly harmless, there's no real reason why you should keep 99% of the cookies on your hard drive. That other one percent of the cookies store usernames, passwords, and other sites that you visit often (and thus most likely want to keep). There are many programs available to help you manage your cookies, but I'd recommend Cookie Jar. Of course, I might be biased -- I wrote it.
When you first install and run Cookie Jar, all of the cookies on your hard drive will be listed in the "Undecided" Jar. Go through them deleting the ones you don't want and moving the ones you want to the "Allowed" Jar. Deleting a cookie is easy, just highlight the listing and press the delete key. Soon your hard drive will be cleaned of all cookies, except for the ones you decided to keep.
Just like Cookies can accumulate from browsing Web Sites, your registry can accumulate needless entries from software installs and uninstalls. Microsoft's RegClean 4.1a can help clean out those entries. When you run RegClean, it will automatically scan your registry for unneeded entries. The deleted registry keys are backed up into a file that you can merge back into your registry in case problems arise.
As files are read from and written to your hard drive, small chunks of files can become scattered across the drive. There's little chance that the hard drive will lose the chunks, but it can slow down your system. That's why it's a good idea to defragment your hard drives every month. Luckily, Windows comes with a defragmentation tool built-in. Open up My Computer, right-click one of your hard drives, and select Properties. Click on Tools and then on "Defragment Now." This process can take awhile depending on the size of your hard drive, so you might want to leave it overnight.
Once the defragmentation is complete, your system is finally clean. However, now that your PC is clean, you might want to consider making a backup of your system. This way should something happen to your computer; you can restore your data quickly and easily. For more instructions on backing up your system, I'd recommend reading Fred Langa's "Fast, Easy Backups for Win98/ME/NT/2K/XP" article.
As a final recommendation, I'd suggest not making spring-cleaning your PC a once-a-year job. Instead, I'd recommend cleaning it out once every other month. If you do so, the cleaning will proceed quicker and your system will run better.
Thanks to Serdar Yegulalp, the folks at PCQandA, and the DSLReports Security forum in their help during my research for this article.
