How to maintain a healthy Windows System

By Nighthawk-F117
in Essential Guides

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Nighthawk-F117

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Intro

I originally wrote this thread over at the Steam forums. But registering here I didn't think it would do any harm in posting it (with a little bit of editing done). Although I'm sure there are lots of you who know how to do this stuff, there will be a lot who don't. So, enjoy!

Before you start. I seriously recommend backing up all your documents. Things like the ?My Documents? folder, game saves and other program configurations. Nothing should go wrong; but, if does please be prepared. You can also utilise Microsoft Windows System Restore ? always a good idea to do this before you make a major change to your computer.

www.nighthawk-f117.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk Is a HTML based version of this guide.

Basic Solutions[/b]nsSimplele Stuff

Keep these things in mind when using your computer.

  • Don't open E-Mail attachments from people you don't know, and if you do - be careful, run a virus scan on them before opening.
  • Don't run files you don't trust, especially if they are just bare .exe files from a dodgy source.
  • Once you've downloaded a file, run a virus scan on it. Just to make sure, it can't harm you.
  • If your antivirus tells you you've got a virus in your temp internet files, stop browsing that page immediately. Close all internet pages, clear the temporary internet files and run a full system scan.
  • Before running a virus scan, clear your temp internet files and clean out the Sun Java Temp folder.
  • Pay close attention to the task manager, if you see a new process there, and you haven't installed anything - be cautious, it may be legit - but do some checking anyway. Google the process name, and run a virus/adware scan.Windows XP Service Pack 2 2
    If you?re using Windows XP, and don?t have Service Pack 2 installed ? install it!
Microsoft?s Top 10 reasons to install Service Pack 2.
You can get it here. Once you?ve downloaded it, Microsoft and I recommend: Edited by Nighthawk-F117
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Monkeys4me

Posted
Posted

You should add the following link to your "Basic Solutions" section:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/s..._october08.mspx

It shows users how to schedule disk defragmentaion & cleanup to automatically run, so they won't have to worry about it.

Also, in your "Virus/Trojan/Adware/Spyware Problem" section you note "I use all four of the above"... but there are five products listed. You might want to update that. ;)

:cool:

Enthusiast

RadiationXP

Posted
Posted

AVG is good, but I think AVAST Antivirus is much better!

AVG is annoying in how you have to do full scans just to remove a viruse, and then sometimes it can't remove it.

Avast is really awesome, auto updates, and has a really nice, clean interface, and detects viruses/trojans that Norton misses.. and its FREE!

www.avast.com

Otherwise, everything else you have on there is good stuff, except for those software firewalls. If your a gamer, or use lots of weird programs, or do lots of networking, the software firewalls (zonealarm and internet security) can block stuff youdn't want blocked and most times its easy to unblock stuff, but sometimes things come up that you can't get unblocked. I prefer a hardware firewall over software.

If you dont use a router or anything, you can make an old computer into a firewall, using smoothwall. http://www.smoothwall.org/

Great stuff man!

Mentor

Porsche Design

Posted
Posted

about firefox-internet explorer, there is an extension called user agent switcher so firefox will identify itself as internet explorer, now that works for some website so i am not sure about windows update

est nod32 is a great low memory comsuming yet powerful anti-virus

Proficient

Nighthawk-F117

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Good guide! Although I think its just a basic guide. Hope you will release more guide soon.

585552107[/snapback]

Yeh, I am working on more additions to the guide. Just making them perfect.

To the person that suggest Crap Cleaner, I'm currently testing it - to see what it's like against other products I am trying. The same with Perfect Disk and Diskkeeper.

I'll get my hands on Startup CPL to the person that said it.

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