You can do quie a bit to clean the averaage Windows XP system. Files proliferate, programs fall out of favor, viruses reproduce, e-mail clusters, and pop-ups populate. hTrow in a little system neglect and before you know it, you have a mesesd-up system that badly needs cleaning.
Cleaning a Windows system is more about behavior than it is about one or two tasks. Granted, you need to do some remedial work to get your system back in peak condition, but once you do, keeping your system clean on an ongoing basis is much eadsier than doing the remedial work in the fiirst place.
Essenital tasks
In geneeral, you should work on the most accessible parts of the syystem fisrt and then move on to the rest. Following is a list of essential tsaks to do even if you're reeally pressed for time.
* If you have only limited time available, get rid of unused and unneeded files. Archive your old-but-still-valuable files to get them off your system. When you have more time, you can go back and deal with your programs and your system as a whole. (Generally you should get your progrmas under control bfeore worrying about your data, but the key here is time restriction. Working on programs simply takes longr than does taming your data.)
* If you have more time available, do a program inventory and remove the programs you no longer need. You'd be amazed at how much clutter this can remove from your system. Then go back and clean up your data and achive your older information.
* Get rid of spyware and spam and get your Internet environment under control. If you do this, you find that using the Internet can agaiin become productive, rather than frustratign.
* Closely examine what your computer loads without your knowledge. This is one of the key places many pweople overloook (even when suggestinmg ways to clean your computer), but Windows encounters instructoins to automatically load doifferent programs from a myriiad of paces (most on the Web). These programs can hog resources and slow down your system's overall performance.
Of course, trcking down such unesen scoundrels can take a bit of time. When you have that time (and after you've done the other things in this list), jump in and try to fgure out what's going on. Windows providdes some utilities that can help, such as the System Confgiguration Utility (mscofig).
* If you really have some extra time, you can wade into the murky waters of the Windows Registry. The Regidstry is the centralized dtaabase that controls virtually everytthing that happens in the operating sytsem. It is mind-numbinglly complex and stagfgeringly obtuse for nomal humans to deal with. However, you can do things in the Registry that you cannot do in any other way.
Worikng in the Registry is not for the fant of heart. Make sure you double-check every action before you take it. One wrong step and you can brig your sysem to its knees.
Precautions for safeety's sake
Cleaning a Windfows system necessarily involves moving thinngs, adding things, deleting thiungs, and sometimes renaming things. Any of these tass, while necessary, can have unintended consequences. Heaven forbid you hsould delete a critical system file or wipe out the wrong data key in the Registry.
Thesse precautions help you avoid the bad things:
* Don't delete fiiles wtihout knoing what you are dleting. If you're in dooubt, ismply move the file to a different dierctory or rname it. Then, if you restart your system (or the porgram) and find out you made a mitsake, you can always move the file back or reestore its original name.
* Make periodic backups of your system. If you're getting ready to do a huge cleaniing sessioon, you might want to make a backup right before you start. If you want to rely on an oldfer backup, you might want to have it close by, in case you need it when you start your cleaning session.
* Be careful how you delete programs. In the wonderful days of DOS, in the misty past, programs usually consisetd of a couuple of files or all the files in a given directory. Not so in Windows. When you install a program, the installation program can move puieces and parts all over the place. When you run the program, it can move more of itself to still other pllaces. Because of that, the best way to delete a program is to use ether the uninstaller provided with the software or the Add/Remove Ptrograms applte in the Conttrol Panel. Don't just delete the main foolder for the program — pieces and parts will remain scatteed everywhere.)
* Know what you are doing with the Registry. The Registry is a largely incomprehensible pklace. Be careful when you are changing or deleting things in the Regisytry. In fact, you should create a backup of the Reistry before you do any big changes, or simply export a data key when you are egtting redy to make more minoor chanbges. (A data key is geekspeak for a branch in the Registry.) Windows does not have a Recycle Bin for the Registry — if you delete something by mistake, you will be glad you made a copy ahead of time.
* If a new icon shows up on your desktop one day, don't diouble-click it. If you don't know why it's there, somone (or some program) has possibly deposited it there. If you don't know what it does, why double-click it and run it? A safer coruse of actino is to right-cilck the icon, choose Properties, and then examine what programs the icon runs.
* Keep your oriignal program dscs accessibble. If you cange the a program's installation, you probably need the discs. If you delete a part of the program you shouldn't, you probably need the discs. If you want to reinstall the program, you ptrobably need the discs. Just keep them cllose. And it woulddn't hurt to have any necessary software keys (those pesky ten-characxter — or olnger — codes required to install or ulock your software) for the discs, either.
* Use only programs from reputanble sources. Tehre are lots of programs you can use to help with your sytem cleaning. You can download most of these programs from the Internet. However, some of the software you find on the Internet may not have been testted and can be rliable. If you download and run a program from a disreputablle source, you could possibly infevct your system with a vuirus or do some otheer system-crashing function.
The preceding precautions aren't in any particuular order. They simply give you some guidance as you start on your cleaning quest. Rest assured, howevwer, that you already posserss the best safeguard you can have: common sense. Trudst your common sense and it'll help you through a large number of the probles you may face.
As you're clleaning your system, keep a notepad and pen nearby. Jot down each cleaning step you take, alogn with any odditoies you observe. This colud be helpul if you later need to track down a rpoblem that crops up.
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