Before carrying out any of the steps below, backup anything you are worried about losing on compact disc, memory sticks, compact flash cards or on floppy disks.

I. Checking Available Disc Space:
  1. Press windows key (start button) plus the letter m.
  2. Press the letter m to reach my computer followed by enter.
  3. Arrow to your local disc c. Do not open this drive. Just leave it highlighted.
  4. Press the application key found three keys from the spacebar’s right side.
  5. Press the letter r.
  6. Use your mouse routing keys to move the screen reader cursor to this location on the screen. In Window-eyes this is insert plus the numpad plus. In JFW this is done by holding down insert plus the numpad minus.
  7. Press the numpad two and move through this information, one line at a time.
You will find:
"used space" with size given in megs.
Just below this is the same figure in gigs.
"free space" with size in megs. Just below this is the same figure in gigs.
"Capacity" with size in megs. Just below this is the same figure in gigs.
  8. Write these numbers down and recheck this information when finished cleaning up everything.
  9. Press escape to leave this window.

II. Disc Clean Up:
  1. Press the windows key (start button.)
  2. Press the letter "p" for programs.
  3. Press the letter a until locating Accessories menu and press enter..
  4. Press the letter s until reaching System Tools menu followed by enter.
  5. Press the letter d too locate Disk Cleanup utility and press enter.
  6. You are given a selection of drives on your computer to clean up. Arrow to the one you wish to clean up and press enter.
  7. Disc clean up will calculate how much room you will free up by completing this task.
  8. Up pops a property sheet with 2 tab pages labeled Disk Cleanup and More Options.
  9. Press shift plus tab to activate the Disk Cleanup tab page. A list box shows the most common 6 types of files you can throw away and the amount of disk space consumed by each type. In some cases you may have eight file types. These include: downloaded program files, temporary internet files, recycled bin, setup log files, temporary files, web client publisher temporary files, compressed old files and finally catalog files for the content indexer.
  10. Arrow down through this list and make sure files you wish to delete are checked on by pressing the spacebar on unchecked ones.
  11. Tab too okay and press enter. The specified files are magically swept away.

III. Disc Defragmenter:
Windows XP puts bits and pieces of a file wherever they can fit on a disk and then keeps track of these file fragments. This storage scheme for a file is efficient as long as there isn't too many file fragments. But, more and more file fragments are created as you repeatedly open and save a file. Eventually, Windows XP must scan lots of places on the disk to locate the multitude of file fragments. Then, you notice a dramatic time delay when the file is opened (retrieved and pieced together) or closed (saved and scattered all over the disk).

Disk Defragmenter places file pieces together to speed up and tidy up the hard disk. Moreover, Disk Defragmenter rearranges disk files so the most frequently accessed files are also together.
Here are the steps to defragment your hard disk:
  1. Close all programs, documents and folders. Turn off any screen saver and any anti-virus program. Turn off the Standby mode for power management. You can leave your adaptive software on.
  2. Press the windows key (start button.)
  3. Press the letter p for programs.
  4. Press the letter a until reaching Accessories and press enter. In most cases this is the first program folder in programs.
  5. Press the letter s until reaching system tools and then enter.
  6. Press the letter d twice to reach disc defragmenter followed by enter.
  7. Tag to the defragment button and press the spacebar.
  8. Disk Degragmenter analyzes the disk. This process can take quite a while. You can activate the Stop button to terminate the defragmentation or activate the Pause button to temporarily halt the defragmentation.
  9. You can tab across to "session status" and you will hear/see the progress on screen.
  10. You are informed when the defragmentation is completed, and you are prompted to exit the Disk Defragmenter program.
  11. Turn back on any features you turned off before you started the disk defragmentation.

IV. Manual Internet Explorer Adjustments Without Using Disc Cleanup:
If Internet Explorer is not working properly, clearing out the "cache" of Internet files will help boost its' performance. To Clear the Cache in Internet Explorer open IE and complete the steps below.
  1. Press alt plus t to reach the Tools Menu. From this menu, select Internet Options by pressing the letter o.
  2. Press shift plus tab once to reach the General Tab. of the Internet Options dialog box.
  3. Tab six times too "delete files" and press the spacebar.
  4. Tab to the checkbox and press the spacebar if it is unchecked.
  5. Tab to okay and press enter. You are put back into the general property sheet options.
  6. Tab to okay again and press enter.

V. Manually Cleaning Out Windows Temp Without using Disc Cleanup:
A housekeeping tip to do on occasion is to remove any files older than a couple of days in the computer's Temp directory.
To Remove Files from the Temp Directory:
  1. Press the windows key (also called the start button) followed by the letter r.
  2. Type in c: and press enter.
  3. Type in the word windows and press enter. Make sure you only press enter on the directory that says windows. In computers using Windows 98 you will also find a directory called Windows 98. So do not open that one. Just the Windows Directory.
  4. Delete all files older than two days. You can select all of these and delete them at once by doing the steps below.
     A. Arrow to the first file to delete and hold down the left control key.
     B. Press the spacebar twice.
     C. Keep the left control key down and arrow to the next one to delete. Press the spacebar once.
     D. Continue too keep the control key down and arrow to the next file to delete.
     E. Press the spacebar once.
     F. Continue this procedure until all files older than two days are selected.
     G. Let go of the control key.
     H. Press shift plus delete to complete remove these files without going into the recycle bin.
       I. You will be asked if you really want to delete the selected files.
      J. Press the letter y for yes.

VI. Deleting Eudora Attachment Files:
Another housekeeping tip is to remove the files in Eudora's attachments folder that is on your computer's hard drive.
To Remove Files from the Eudora Attach Directory:
  1. Press the windows key (start button) followed by the letter r.
  2. Type in c: followed by enter.
  3. Press the letter p until reaching Program Files followed by enter.
  4. Press the letter q until reaching Qualcomm followed by enter.
  5. Press e until locating the Eudora Folder and then press enter.
  6. Arrow too the attachments folder. This is usually at the top and press enter.
  7. Select the files you wish to delete as shown below.
     A. Arrow to the first file to delete and hold down the left control key.
     B. Press the spacebar twice.
     C. Keep the left control key down and arrow to the next one to delete. Press the spacebar once.
     D. Continue too keep the control key down and arrow to the next file to delete.
     E. Press the spacebar once.
     F. Continue this procedure until all files you wish to delete are selected.
     G. Let go of the control key.
     H. Press shift plus delete to complete remove these files without going into the recycle bin.
       I. You will be asked if you really want to delete the selected files.
      J. Press the letter y for yes.

VII. Deleting Sent, Deleted or In-box Messages In Outlook Express:
  1. Open Outlook Express.
  2. Arrow down through your in-box and press the delete key on messages you don’t need anymore.
  3. Press control plus the letter y to enter Outlook Express’s folders tree view.
  4. Press the letter s for sent items followed by enter.
  5. Arrow through these messages and press the delete key on unwanted ones.
  6. Press control plus the letter y again.
  7. Press the letter d for deleted items followed by enter.
  8. Press control plus the letter a.
  9. Press the delete key. You will be asked if you wish to delete all these messages. Press the letter y and all messages vanish into the great cyber beyond.

VIII. MSCONFIG:
Some programs will place themselves into your startup or MSCONFIG and run in the background. This demands more resources of the computer for managing background tasks and reduces the computer’s response time to user request. Below is how you can use MSCONFIG to deactivate programs running in the background. This does not delete them from your computer but instead will only become active when you open one.
  1. Press the windows key (also called start button.)
  2. Press the letter r for run.
  3. Type in msconfig and then press enter.
  4. Press shift plus tab once to reach the general property sheet (tab control sheet.)
  5. Press the right arrow until reaching startup. You will encounter the following property sheets along the way: system-.ini, win.ini, boot.ini, services and finally startup.
  6. Tab once and you reach a list of items to check for load at startup.
  7. Arrow down through these and uncheck any not necessary to run the computer at startup. There may be some you don’t recognize. In such a case leave them alone. However, some programs that usually don’t need checked include: Real Player, any Roxio related features, any Nero features, AOL, MSN Messenger, AIM, Microsoft Office, WordPerfect and Adobe Acrobat. Additionally many games installed on the computer by the user will frequently be checked on in the background and appear here.
  8. Once making your selections, tab to apply and press enter.
  9. You will be told there has been system changes and your computer needs to reboot. Press enter on yes.
  10. Once your system is booted up again, a prompt reminding you that system changes have been made will appear on screen. Tab until locating the checkbox and press the spacebar. This will prevent the same prompt from appearing every time you boot up.

IX. Prefetch In Windows:
Prefetch is a directory of program lines Windows thinks needs to be loaded before startup.  This is a unique technique for WinXP. Most computer users know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.

Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.
  1. Press the Windows Key (start button.)
  2. Type in c: followed by pressing enter.
  3. Type in the word windows followed by pressing enter.
  4. Type in prefetch followed by pressing enter.
  5. Press control plus a to select all these files.
  6. Press the delete key. You will be prompted if you are sure about deleting these files.
  7. Press the letter y.
  8. Press alt plus f4 to leave this directory.

X. Cleaning Out Your Computer with a Vacuum Cleaner From Outside the PC:
  1. Use your vacuum cleaner and place the hose on the back fans of your computer. You will have a fan cover for the processor and power supply.
  2. Move the hose around on the cover for a few minutes.

XI. Cleaning Dust From Inside the Computer:
  1. Unplug all cables and power from your PC.
  2. Open the PC case using a screw driver or thumb screws depending on your PC case configurations.
  3. Slide off the cover.
  4. Use your vacuum cleaner hose to gently remove any dust from all slots and the processor.
  5. Replace the case cover.
  6. Reattach all cables and things should run quieter and maybe more responsive.

XII. Helpful Sites for Computer Maintenance:
www.phoebemoon.com/improve.htm - 17k -

www.liutilities.com/news/articles/article16/ - 25k -

http://www.tunexp.com/tips/maintain_your_computer/clean_your_prefetch_to_improve_performance/

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