Every now and then I return to basics. The body and the spirit need to be cleansed and one’s energy focused on those things that matter in life. A few moments of attention to one’self can go a long way, and Im convinced that it wil help extend one’s life.
Since I spend so much time on my computer(s), I try to make a point of keeping them well protected with a firewall and proper internet security management as well as virus and spyware free. I have also been concerned with keyloggers and remote monitoring software installed on several public access computers that I use, on a daily basis, so I lurked around the net looking for some new freeware (of course) virus scanners and adware programs. While on the prawl, I came across this ultimate resource: SpywareWarrior.com: a site that belongs to Eric Howes – an academic in Windows security and MS MVP in the field.
The malintent of certain indivlz or rogue meme viruses aside, I find that negligent and imputent use of a computer is what marks it’s downfall. Like a good paint job however, a couple of quick steps can turn time around and recover lost speed and ability to older or even new computers that have lost their spark. This is what I do every couple of weeks/month to make sure that my aging, but reliable computer is still working at the peak of its available performance:
- Stop Unwanted Programs and Processes: CTRL-ALT-DEL to the Task Manager and have a look at the processes that are running, and click on View>Select Columns and turn on the Peak Memory Usage column, and in Options turn on Hide When Minimized.This will show you what process is hogging the most memory, or what has been hogging a lot of memory, and when you minimize the Task Manager, it will just go to the Taskbar and show you the current processing load. Now have a look through the processes that are running and turn off whatever you dont recognize. This may time some time on a new computer, until you get accustomed to what the machine has installed on it, but its time well wasted imo. If there is something you dont recognize, then just google the name of the process.exe and you will find several sites that list process information, and will advise you if they are safe to stop. Make a list of stuff that you dont want hogging your computer’s resources.Next go to Start>Run>msconfig, go to Startup and turn off any unwanted programs. The next time the computer boots, it will tell you are using MSCONFIG – tell it that its ok – and move to the next step, which is stopping unwanted processes. This is a little trickier, because you might end up disabling some core functionality that the computer needs. If you are willing however, go to Start> Run> services.msc.You will be looking at a list of the services that are running on the computers. Services are Windows programs that are an essential of the core functionality of the computer and programs that require a higher level of security so they run as services on your computer. Note here that some clever keyloggers and viruses load themselves up as services, so that they dont show up in the Task Manager and are harder to identify.
If you come across a service without a description – or a patchy one at that – then look for more information on it online. You can find a list of services that are safe to disable, at Tweakguides.com, a site maintained by Koroush Ghazi who offers an extremely detailed Windows Optimization guide, his Tweaking Companion as a free download that is donationware. This man has put a lot of effort into this very professional guide and has an excellent section on services, that you may look through.
In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that the best thing you can do as an intelligent computer user is to read through his guide – you will emerge a computer optimization expert!
- Antivirus Software: Avast! Home Edition is an excellent free antivirus program that offers automatic updates and modular security service control. After downloading and installing the program, you can register your sofware for a free license that lasts for a year. The process is very painless and every year a new license can be obtained from an automated emailer. To conserve system resources, you can turn off unneeded services through avast’s Protection Center. I only have Network, Standard and Web Shield running and I have never had a virus kreap through.
- Spyware Scanner: Ad-Aware 2008 available through the excellent freeware download site FileHippo.com, is your friend here. Unlike virus scanners, a spy scanner only needs to be run once or twice a month and only a deep comprehensive scan will do. Make sure to always clear your browsing history and temporary cookies frequently to avoid the accumulation of leachware. Installing CCleaner, is a really good idea here also, as it can free up some temporary files you will probably miss manually and it adds a nifty right-click functionality to the recycle bin from where you can run it CCleaner in the background and completely silent! — I like!Optimize your registry while you’re at it (remember to make a backup, altough I’ve never had a problem) and move on to installing a firewall.
- Firewall Protection: I have presonally not had a problem with WindowsXP’s firewall, but if you would like an extra layer of control, I can recommend Sunbelt’s Personal Firewall, which used to be Kerio Personal Firewall, which used to be Tiny Personal Firewall, which were all very very good. And as I just found out, the gentleman behind SpywareWarrior.com has left the academic life and now works for Sunbelt, which is very encouraging news, as he seems very knowledgable and proficient at his work.
- Defragment: My lurking skills continuously fail me here. I have strict requirements from Disk Defragmentors and the only program that does it for me is PerfectDisk 7. Why not Perfectdisk 8 or Perfectdisk 2008? Well, because they dont seem to do anything better than v7.0 and also, thats the one I bought back in the day with some discount that came across my desk for $20. It still works wonders and I love the smartplacement featureIf you are looking for a way to sort though available free defraggers then have a good read over the Great Defrag Shootout! I really like the review and have taken heed of his suggestions, which puts JkDefrag at the top of the freeware defragmentors and I have tested it extensively, with agreeable results. I can certainly say that I dont really like any of the other free ones.The best way I have found to defragment my hard drive, albeit time consuming, is to first delete the pagefile completely by typing Start> Run> sysdm.cpl | Advanced Tab> Performance Settings | Advanced Tab> Virtual Memory> Change to No Paging File. Then schedule a boot time defragmentation if you have it and move the boot files, Master Boot Sector, etc to the beginning of the drive, again if your defrag progame allows it. Once you finish degraging go back into the Virtual Memory and set the Initial and Maximum size of your page file to 1.5 times your total system memory, unless you have more than 2 GB RAM (at which point you can just set the paging file to 2 GB also). What this will do is create a contiguous paging file that will not vary in size during operation, which in turn saves resources as the paging file does not need to vary in size and will never become defragmented.
- Boot time Optimization: Microsoft has an excellent program called bootvis that can be used to optimize boot time of your computer. The changes are truely dramatic, so this is something you really should do. There are many many guides online on how to do this, but the basic steps are: [a] Delete everything in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch. [b] Start bootvis> Trance> Next Boot+Driver Delays and let the system be rebooted and examined. [c] Start bootvis> Trace> Optimize System … let it do its thing and then restart the computer to see what improvement has been made. Bootvis has boot time charts that help you understand what the computer is doing during boot time.
Thats all for now folks. This should become a routine for anyone that wants to keep their system at peak efficiency.
I hope this helps you guys.
