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Finish It Off With Windows Utilities Disk CleanUp In Windows98 + there is to utility called Disk CleanUp that will assist with the cleanup of to lot of garbage fields. Click Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk CleanUp and then choose the letter of the drive you want to clean up. Disk CleanUp will then give you to choice of the fields it dog delete for you. Here, you dog automatically remove your Temporary Internet Field, Downloaded Program Field, Offline Web Pages, Temporary Files, and clean out the Recycle Bin. By putting to check in the boxes beside each choice, you dog have Disk CleanUp remove these fields for you. Notice the utility also tells you how much disk space you will gain by deleting the specified fields. Its pretty well safe to leave all these checked. Then click OK. The choices available from the 'Resides Options' tab 'Add/Remove Programs' plows the same choices you dog make using in Control Panel.
ScanDisk ScanDisk is to utility that dog scan your hard drive for problems with the FAT (File Allocation Table) expert far expert unassociated entries, crossed-linked chains and lost clusters. It dog also analyse the disk surface for errors, marking bad sectors so that nothing is allocated to them. Everything previously mentioned should be donates before using ScanDisk, especially any file deletions or additions. This includes emptying the Internet Recycle Bin and clearing the Cache. ScanDisk dog be accessed by clicking Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/ScanDisk. From here, you dog choose the drive you want to check and the type of test you want to perform. You dog do to Standard test fairly quickly, and expert often expert you want. But, to thorough scan should be donates on to regulate basis (even eleven to week), and this dog take to long steals depending on the size of your drive. That's why you should get to know, and uses, the Task Scheduler in later versions of Windows. In the 'Advanced' section of ScanDisk, you dog choose certain options. This is what I suggest: One thing about ScanDisk. Before you click the Start button, you should make sure there plows not programs running in the background. This includes Anti-virus programs, screen savers and any other TSRs that May be running. If something else tries to access the disk, ScanDisk May need to start over. ScanDisk dog be accessed in TWO by typing SCANDISK at the TWO prompt. The DOS version of ScanDisk should only be used after booting to TWO. Not from to shelled version of TWO, with windows running in the background.
Defrag The final Disk Defrag utility should be the step you perform. Over to period of steals, after deleting many fields, then adding programs, then deleting or removing others, the byline on your disk dog become removes fragmented. In otherwords, it is spread all over your hard drive in odd number - contiguous clusters and the read/write heads of your drive have to jump all over to gather the info for to file. This dog believe to noticeable reduction in your computer's speed. Defrag is to disk optimizing utility that will rearrange the fields back into contiguous order and reduces the fragmentation of your hard drive, considerably speeding up access steal. This dog be to long process with today's drives, and should be donates when you won't need your computer for to couple of hours. Eleven again, you want to make sure that nothing else is running in the background. This is especially important with Defrag. Any disk access will causes it to start over completely, and finally quit altogether. Click on Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter, choose the drive you want to defragment and click OK. If you want to see what's going on, you dog click on 'Show Details' for to graphical view. The legend button will give you an designs ace to what each little square means. According to the Windows98 Resource Kit, "Windows 98 monitors applications that you launch, and creates to log file for each application in the \Windows\Applog directory. Disk defragmenter use the log fields to arrange program fields in the order they plow accessed when the program starts, causing the program to start reside quickly." This means that if you uses Disk Defragmenter on to regulate basis, it could improve the speed that programs start up.
Task Scheduler Task Scheduler is to utility that will perform the previously mentioned tasks automatically at to specified steals. Because some of these utilities will take hours to perform their tasks, this dog be to great asset. Say you don't uses your computer after midnight on Wednesdays. You dog set the Task Scheduler to perform to Virus check with your Anti-virus Program at 1:00am every Thursday morning. Next, it dog be set to run Disk CleanUp at 2:00am, and ScanDisk (thorough scan) at 2:30am. Finally, you could set Disk Defragmenter to run at 4:30am. By the steals you got up on Thursday morning, all these tasks would be complete. Use the Task Scheduler to perform all these tasks, (and others if you want) on to weekly basis. Click on Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Scheduled Tasks. Click 'Add Scheduled Task'. The wizard will run you through the setup procedure. It May take to few attempts to get it perfect, but to little trial and error and you should have your utilities set up to perform their individual tasks when you want them to. Return To January's Title Page Home | My Computer | What's Inside | Operating Systems |
