maintenance Cleaning and maintaining your OS

[Tarun]

A lot of people will occasionally run a few small applications as part of a general maintenance to keep their computers clean. Since I know my systems are always clean I just run CCleaner and defrag. I was considering writing an article on the Lunarsoft Wiki about general practices to help keep your system performing well. Before getting into this I felt it would be best to hear what else people do when they fine tune/tidy up their computers.

• How often do you defrag and perform disk cleanups?
  
• What other tasks do you do when you're getting ready for this maintenance?
  
• How often do you perform said tasks?
  
• Do you do them manually or automatically (scheduled)?
  
• If you could schedule them, would you like to read on how you could make it automatic?
  

Let's hear what you do and your thoughts. :)

[Synapse]

CCleaner and Defrag(with MyDefrag).. as well... about once a month.

I run Avast + Firefox (with Adblock Plus).. And rarely have any problems at all with my comp... Antivirus is only really on there for peace of mind..

[James_A]

Top of the list, by far, has to be clearing out the Temporary Internet Files folder (strictly speaking, the Content.IE5 folder) on all client machines I see, whenever I see them. Releases up to a gigabyte per user with lazy users.

I rarely clean the user Temp folders, since packages often put install logs there.

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[Eldmannen]

I don't waste time maintaining my operating system as it does that for me.

I run Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" which uses the ext4 file system which does not not need defragmenting.

All installed software on the system gets updated by the central package manager that handles all that, so I don't have to bother to manually check for updates, update applications individually, etc.

Oh and when the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" gets released, I can update to that too for free without having to perform any reinstall of the system.

[greenknight]

I run CCleaner daily, then (because there are other users of this machine) I run an EasyCleaner "Unnecessary Files" scan which does file extension-based cleaning across all user profiles. It also has buttons for one-click cleaning of IE temp Internet files and MRUs; very handy.

I follow this with a quick defrag by Defraggler (Analyze>View Files>Check All>Defrag Checked), which is very fast in this mode. Then I shut the computer down; not really interested in automating these processes since the machine is not left running all the time.

For thorough defragmentation including file placement optimization I run MyDefrag every one to two weeks.

I defragment the registry every few months with Wise Registry Cleaner Free. I don't generally use it to clean the registry any more, since registry cleaning is pretty useless - but it is one of the safest registry cleaners.

[James_A]

... then ... I run an EasyCleaner "Unnecessary Files" scan which does file extension-based cleaning across all user profiles. It also has buttons for one-click cleaning of IE temp Internet files and MRUs; very handy.

Is that the program by Toni Helenius (ToniArts) which has been around for a few years? If it is, where does it put the cleaned files? In the Recycle Bin?

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[greenknight]

Is that the program by Toni Helenius (ToniArts) which has been around for a few years? If it is, where does it put the cleaned files? In the Recycle Bin?

Yep, that's the one; been around forever, it seems like.

The files from the "Unnecessary Files" scan go to the Recycle bin - they're also previewed before they're deleted, so you get 2 chances to change your mind about deleting them.

The buttons for cleaning of IE Temp Internet files and MRUs instantly delete them, though.

[James_A]

It's certainly been around for a long time, the last update was several years ago as well. Maybe I'll dig out a copy and try it again.

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[greenknight]

It hasn't been updated for Vista or Win7, might not work with them - I'm still on XP, it still works fine for that.

[greenknight]

If you use EasyCleaner, I suggest putting ".dmp" in the "Skip" field - otherwise it deletes memory dumps, which you might need for debugging.

Another app I tried for this was Wise Disk Cleaner; it also previews the files tagged for deletion, and can delete to the recycle bin or remove outright. It lets you open a file or the containing folder as well, and makes it easier to remove just some of the files it finds (with EasyCleaner it's either delete all or delete one at a time). WDC is more readily configurable, too, with a list of file types which you can check or uncheck individually. Unfortunately, I found it too slow for daily use - might not be on a faster system, though.

[James_A]

Looking at Aero's latest SAS log (see here: Aero - Log 01 Post #9) I see that most of the "threats" detected are just Flash Cookies.

Which raises the question -- what do people use to delete Flash Cookies?

I know that CCleaner will remove these, but it works for only the current logged-in user.

Is there anything out there that will programmatically/automatically remove Flash cookies for all users?

[0_0]

Is there anything out there that will programmatically/automatically remove Flash cookies for all users?

Wasn't there a tool floating around Lunarsoft called 'Flash Cookies Cleaner'? Don't recall the details but the link I had takes me here - Click&Clean.

The program I remember using was a small portable app, if this is related it looks like it integrates into a browser or CCleaner. I would expect the plug-in adds new features to CCleaner. If CCleaner already cleans flash cookies what's the point of this tool integrating, maybe an 'all users' cleaning feature?

One of you more courageous users can experiment :dribble:

[drbooth]

It's certainly been around for a long time, the last update was several years ago as well. Maybe I'll dig out a copy and try it again.

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It certainly has been around for a while but it will still find items that ccleaner will not. I have been using it all along although it is not run much - once every couple of weeks (dependent on how much I have used the system).

[puzzlefixer]

I also use CCleaner and probably average running it every other day on my XP desktop. Also have it on my Win 7 laptop. Always run both the file and registry cleaners. Took the time to register cookies to keep so it removes only the ones not on that list. Also use it to enable/disable Startup items. I find this program extremely useful and well designed. The registry cleaner (which many techies say never to use) has never caused a problem -- because it doesn't do what registry cleaners that cause problems do: It does not reassign a key to a file in a different place when it can't find the file where the registry says it is. It simply removes any registry entry for which there is no corresponding file.

I do find that CCleaner does not catch all the temp files it should, so I also run %temp% and zap what it finds.

For a couple of years, I was using IOBit's SmartDefrag as my defragger. Then I found out that IOBit was a Chinese company and had stolen Malwarebytes' code for their anti-spyware suite. The Chinese are notorious software pirates and are stealing our military secrets by hacking into Dept. of Defense computers. I will not use any Chinese software, even when free. So I dumped SmartDefrag and found Auslogics defragger. I'm so glad I did because it is MUCH faster than anything I've ever used and agrees with Windows defragger. That may sound strange, but after you run your defragger and it says all the files are contiguous, run Windows defragger. When I did that with SmartDefrag, Windows always found lots of fragmented files. When I do that with Auslogics, Windows finds no fragmented files.

I also have Secunia PSI running in the background. It automatically scans the computer weekly and finds files that need SECURITY updates. Version 2 is terrific, in that after finding the files needing updating, it schedules the downloads/installs and carries them out in the background; I don't have to do anything. I also use FileHippo Update Checker, which checks for PROGRAM updates (not security updates), and run that also about every other day.

With these free programs, my computers are kept updated (almost on a real-time basis) and are kept free of garbage. Over the several years I've used these utilities, my computers have never slowed down or acted strangely.

BTW, I also use Avast! (AV/AS), Malwarebytes (AS), SuperAntiSpyware (AS), and SpywareBlaster (AS). Avast! updates automatically every day. I have to check for updates for the others. I scheduled Avast! to run a full scan once a week. I run quick scans with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware once a week also (after updating each)... but since switching to Avast! about 8 months ago, Malwarebytes never finds anything and SuperAntiSpyware might find one or two items every 2-3 months. SpywareBlaster does not scan; it "immunizes" HOST files in the registry against spyware blaster.

Hardware on which these are used: XP-SP3 JNCS custom-built desktop w/Intel mobo, E8400 Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 500GB Seagate HD. Win 7 (Home Premium) Toshiba laptop w/ Toshiba mobo, Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 500GB Toshiba HD.