Routine Computer Maintenance

Honestly, there are probably 1001 variables that come into play when you start talking about internet connections and your computer.  Anything from excessive noise on your phone lines to a dying modem can cause you to experience symptoms such as frequent disconnects and low connection speeds.  Some sights that you visit on the Web can even drain all your system resources to the point where your computer will freeze up, leaving you no choice, but to hit the 'reset' button on your computer.  One place to start when experiencing connection problems, is to perform some routine maintenance on your computer.  Here are some tricks to keep your computer running more smoothly. 

DISK DEFRAGMENTER:

   The programs you store on your hard drive aren't always saved or installed in an organized fashion.  After a while some programs may stop responding or stop working correctly due to fragments of the program getting stored here, there and everywhere on your computer has to work harder trying to piece it all together.  This tool helps organize your files and also helps your computer respond a little quicker .  To Access (Win 95/ Win98/ WinME)>>> Click START, point to PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then Click DISK DEFRAGMENTER.  Remember to turn off any screen saver you may have running and disable your scanner.  These will prevent disk defragmenter from running properly.  It's a good idea to run this tool on a weekly basis to keep your computer happy.

    WINDOWS XP/VISTA- To open Disk Defragmenter, click START, point to ALL PROGRAMS, point to ACCESSORIES, point to SYSTEM TOOLS, and then click DISK DEFRAGMENTER.

SCAN DISK:

   This tool can help fix errors on your hard drive.  It will automatically find and fix most common hard drive errors.  Run this tool if you are having problems accessing or running programs from your hard drive.  To Access (Win95/ Win98/ WinME)>>>Click START, point to PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then Click SCAN DISK.

    WINDOWS XP/VISTA-   Click START, point to ALL PROGRAMS, point to ACCESSORIES, point to SYSTEM TOOLS, and then click SCAN DISK.  ***NOTE***  Hard Drives formatted in the NTFS format will not have this option. 

DISK CLEANUP(Win98/WinME/Win2000):

   This is an excellent tool to use to cleanup your Temporary Internet Folder and your Temp Folder.  When these folders fill up,  you may experience several problems with your internet connection including frequent disconnects, and computer freeze ups while online.  The Temporary Internet Folder stores information about every place you've visited while online and 'Cookies', which are information that a web site may place in this folder to remember you when you return to it again.  The Temp Folder contains temporary files used when you download programs from the internet and can be safely removed without causing harm to your computer.  To Access>>>Click START, point to PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then Click DISK CLEANUP.  If you surf the web frequently, I recommend running this on a weekly basis.

   WINDOWS XP/VISTA- To open Disk Cleanup, click START, point to ALL PROGRAMS, point to ACCESSORIES, point to SYSTEM TOOLS, and then click DISK CLEANUP.

   Note(Win95 users)------ This tool is not included with Windows 95.  You will have to manually delete items contained in your Windows Temp Folder.  To Delete Temporary Internet Files>>>>Right Click on your Internet Explorer Icon or Internet Globe on your Desktop, Click PROPERTIES, which will open up your internet properties box.  On the GENERAL tab under 'Temporary Internet Files' Click on DELETE FILES.

Other Utilites:

CCleaner* is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

* Please note that the links to software on this page are provided as is and at your own risk.  Country  I Link can not be held liable for any software that you install from the above links, nor do we provide any technical support on the above mentioned software programs.  Please contact support directly from the manufacturer's website.

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