Scan disk and defrag in WinXP are a little different. Open my computer and right click on your C: drive and select properties. When the property sheet opens, look to see what type of file system Dell installed for you. It will be either NTFS or FAT32. If NTFS you could probably get away with a defrag of the drive once a month. NTFS doesn't defragment nearly as bad as FAT32. I just checked one of my computers that's been running WinXP for several months and has never had a defrag run and it's only 9% defragmented. The WinXP defrag program said it didn't need it. If it's a FAT32 drive you need to do it more often. Maybe once every two weeks with the way you use your computer. If you haven't done it, go ahead and run defrag now. New installations really need to have it run.
Also on that properties page you'll see a tab called Tools. Click on it and you'll see scan disk and defrag. WinXP with NTFS will usually tell you when you boot up if you need to run scan disk. That's really the only time I ever run it. I'm not sure if it does that with FAT32. If you tell it to run scan disk on our C: drive, it will run on the next reboot of your machine. You could probably get away with disk clean up once a week. It's under accessories/system tools on the start menu. Disk clean up is important but it was much more important when people only had 100 MB hard drives. With 80 GB you are not going to run out of space. I'm not sure what cache you are talking about but Disk clean up will get just about everything you need to have cleaned out, temp files and temp internet files. The spy stuff is probably ok every couple of days. It's nice to have one that runs automatically but they aren't free. Another thing to check is in Internet Explorer. Go to Tools, Internet options and click on the Temporary Internet settings. I think the default is set way too high. It will be several hundred megabytes. Set it down about 100 MB. That should be plenty. I guess you've been exploring WinXP. Have you discovered that if you right click on the start button and select properties, you can select whether you want to use the "new" WinXP start menu or the old "classic" Win 9x type start menu? It's ok to have the system check for updates automatically, but don't let it install them automatically. You need to know what it is installing. Usually I wait a couple of days before I install any of the Microsoft updates, even the critical ones unless there is something like Blaster running around. MS has been known to release very buggy updates. Ben Moore ----- Original Message ----- From: "Helene Leavitt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 10:29 AM Subject: Re: PCWorks: Need a good pop-up blocker > Hi Guys. > I AM gettting Messenger pop-ups.. They are annoying, but this morning. I > only got ONE.. so I was so happy... > > BUT, when I went to my freebie list. and "tried" to order a freebie.. I got > the "fist"(which is the symbol from Earthlink. that shows it's a pop-up).. > > SO,, I went back to my pop-up blocker from Earthlink. and I have YDF(Your > Daily Freebies) on my "allow list".. Everything else is now blocked.. This > way, I can "decide" which pop-ups I chose to accept.. and right now. it's > only the YDF.. on my "allow list".. > > This morning. I had run a vir** scan.. and also a defrag.. While the vir** > scan from McAffee was running. I had gotten the "messenger service pop - > up".. > > I am using Outlook express.. > > Oh, I did run Ad-aware AND Spy bot. yesterday, and got rid of everything > that it said, was there, and could be 'gotten rid of'. > > Okay, a question about maintenance. > > Normally..my 'routine'.. is every nite, or every other nite, I go to files & > folders, and select "cache" and empty my cache.. I then do a disk cleanup. > > I have NO CLUE.. what to delete in cache on this machine(Windows XP > Professional).. too many files and are afraid to touch them.. > > So, what I"m doing. is going to disc cleanup and deleting whatever is > there.. in the way of temporary internet files..Is this sufficient.?? > > Also, I wanted to do a scan disk. and there is NO scan disk listed.. I did a > defrag this morning.. but where you'd normally find scan disk. it's not > there?? any clues where to find it.. with XP?? Thanks. > > As far as maintenance.. > > What I do.. is this. > > Ad-ware and now Spy-bot..every other day?? > > Vir** scan.. every other day.. > > Check for updates... daily( but I also have this on.. "get updates > automatically). > > Check the Windows site.. for any critical updates..(every ??? how often, > should I do this) > > Scan disk(when I find it.- every week) > > Defrag.. every week. > > Disc cleanup every other day.. (or should that be more often?).. > > Empy recyle bin.. > > I'm on dial-up.. and using XP Professional. > > Any suggestions.. would be greatly appreciated. > > I'm NOT going to install Norton, (as of now)..Right now. I'll use the 3 > months of McAfee. and then "talk to you guys" about what to do..<smile> > > Thanks , > Helene ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
