Keep your computer running smoothly by maintaining it properly. Computer maintenance for the home user is easy and quick when you make it a habit. But what to do? Well lets turn the attention to the heart of your computer first. The harddrive. All your information is stored on the harddrive and if it fails you loose all your data including all your emails, contacts, documents, favorites and so on. Recovery of a “dead” harddrive is very costly and time consuming. Things you can do on the monthly bases is check your harddrive for errors and optimize its performance.
In Windows click on “Start” “Run” and type in “explorer.exe”. The Windows Explorer opens. Select the drive you want to check and optimize with a right mouse click – select Properties. (See below)



A new window opens. Click on “Tools”. Check for errors first. You might have to reboot (restart) for that, depending on your Windows version. Next defragment your harddrive. The data on your harddrive is not written as a continuous string but wherever is a free gap. This leaves file fragments scattered all over your harddrive slowing down your system significantly when it has to puzzle all the parts back together when accessed. Defragmenting puts the files back together, optimizing overall performance of your computer.



Defragmenting can take several hours.

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Make Regular backups.
Also make regular backups. Regular means once a week for home users, daily for businesses. Keep at least two separate sets of backup. External harddrives are the easiest way to do this. It is a one time expense because external harddrives should last for over 25 years if only used for backup. Data safety is several centuries. You do not need a complete backup of all your files. This takes a long time and is hard to maintain. Make incremental backups of your personal files instead. If you are not sure what files to back up just copy (in Windows 2000 & XP)
“C:\Documents and Settings\YourUsername”
This saves most of your data including your Favorites, emails, addressbook and so on. If you have saved important files somewhere else save them to.
In Windows 95 / 98 copy c:\windows\favorites
Use “Start” “Search” and look for *.dbx and *.wab. The “wab” file is your address book. The whole folder with the dbx files are your emails from Outlook Express. Substitute *.pst for *.dbx if you use MS Office.
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If you don't know how to locate or copy files, you should think about taking basic computer lessons.

Remove unused programs.
Now that your data is safe and optimized for speed we can do a few more things. Uninstall programs you don't use. These only slow down your computer (just by being installed) and if you don't use them, why keep them. Click “Start” and open the “Control Panel”. Select “Add or Remove Programs”. A new window opens with a list of the programs installed on your computer. Select the program you want to get rid of and click “remove”. (see below)


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Delete your temporary files.
Empty your temporary file folder. This folder can blow up to several Gigabytes (in other words huge).
In Windows 2000 / XP go to
“C:\Documents and Settings\YourUsername\Local Settings\Temp”
Select all files and delete them.
In Windows 95 / 98 go to
“C:\Windows/Temp”
Select all files and delete them.
The folders might be hidden. If you can't see them change the settings in your Windows Explorer. (See below)

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Windows Update.
Do weekly virus scans and monthly spyware scans. Refer to our online archive to the corresponding articles. Keep you operating system up to date. Most systems have free monthly updates to improve safety and stability of the computer.
Click here for Windows Update.
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Windows Recovery.
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In case disaster strikes, never underestimate the power of Windows recovery tools. First introduced in Windows NT and enhanced to todays Windows XP, the System Repair and System Recovery functions are two very powerful helpers to have. We have saved dozens of computers without any data loss with these tools. With the step-by-step instructions on this weeks website you will be able to do it yourself and save hundreds of dollars in computer repair bills.

First case: Your computer was fine a few day ago. It still starts into Windows XP but then something is wrong. Click on “Start” “Run” and type in
”%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe” without the quotes. The System Restore function opens. Select “Restore my computer to an earlier time”. A calendar appears with highlighted dates. Select one of the highlighted dates and your computer restores itself to that date. Don't worry, you won't loose any email and other data.
This function is exclusive to Windows XP.

Second case: Your computer doesn't start at all or crashes wile starting. Insert your Windows installation disk in your CD Rom drive and restart from CD. You will see the “Welcome To Setup" screen and the options below.

• Press ENTER to start the Windows Setup.
• Do NOT NOT NOT chose
  “To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.”
• Accept the License Agreement
• Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the
   repair. If Repair is not one of the options, ABORT and get professional help.
• Windows will now automatically repair your installation. Do nothing from this
   point on until Windows has restarted and is running properly again.
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Remember Windows recovery will not help you
when your harddrive fails.