27. Best Anti-Viruses and Spyware Protection

By: Me
Last Update: 12/19/07


Ok, here is the very anticipated post about the anti-virus and spyware protection programs. Here are just a few, and these work very well (and are free also!).

Best Anti-Spyware/Anti-Virus Program To Use: Ad-Aware 2007 by Lavasoft.
It finds lots of spyware and any viruses that Norton or McCaffee does not.

Highly recommended to use every 2 weeks, or at the very least, once a month.


Link to latest download:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html


Best System Optimization Tool (aka Getting Rid of Unnecessary and Unused Files): CC Cleaner
"CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less than a second to run)."

Highly recommended to use at least once a month.


Link to latest download:
http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/


Second Best Anti-Spyware Program To Use: Spybot - Search & Destroy
"Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system. For advanced users, it allows you to fix Registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents."

Highly recommended to use in conjunction with Ad-Aware 2007; use at least once a month.


Link to latest download:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10122137.html


Best Disk Defragmenter: Disk Defragmenter that comes with Windows.
It will clear up some free space for you, as well as make it easier and faster for you to access, save, and open files.

Highly recommended to use at least once a month.


To access, go to Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Defragmenter.


That's all for now, check for new updates either through the program's site, or on this page; I will update any updates for the programs regularly.

26. Disable Hybrid Sleep Mode in Windows Vista (a.k.a. Fix Sleep Mode in Windows Vista)

From the How-To Geek

If you do not want to read all this or cannot understand all the terms here, and want to fix the sleep mode that you were used to before you got Windows Vista, then scroll all the way to the bottom (read under the ______ break)

Windows Vista has a neat new feature for laptops called "hybrid sleep". Actually, Windows Vista has a neat new feature for laptops called sleep too, so I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.

Windows used to have a fairly simple hardware suspend command called "standby". However, this operation took a while to execute (both entering and exiting standby) and it was somewhat unreliable when performed repeatedly, on certain hardware or with certain applications running. Sleep is meant to alleviate these problems by just serializing the current state into memory and then shutting down all devices other than the RAM. With the OS state simmering in memory like that, entering and exiting sleep is nearly instantaneous. However, the dark side to all this is if there is a power outage while the computer is in sleep, all of the unsaved data is lost (since it just existed in memory). That's where hybrid sleep comes in.

Hybrid sleep saves the OS state into RAM, but it also writes it all to the hard drive as well (sort of like hibernate does). This ensures that even if power is lost, the data will remain. This all sounds like a good idea, but in practice it's just as slow as standby was.

Now, laptops have batteries and most of them are configured to enter hibernate when the battery dips below a certain level. This means that unless the battery is physically removed, power to the RAM is never unexpectedly cut. Thus, we don't really need the hybrid sleep feature. Unfortunately, giving hybrid sleep the pink slip is a little harder than it could be.

_____________________________________________________________

Step one, open up the power options setting from the control panel and select the "Change plan settings" link below the selected power plan.

Once in the resulting dialog, choose "Change advanced power settings". Now you need to scroll through the miles and miles of options to find the "Sleep" node. Expand this, and then the "Allow hybrid sleep" node below it. You should see two options, "On battery" and "Plugged in". Set both of these to "Off".

Once this is done, click "OK" and you should be all set! From now on, whenever your laptop would normally go into "Sleep" - usually when the lid is closed or when inactive for a certain time - it will enter full sleep mode, rather than hybrid sleep. And when you go to awaken it from its slumbers, it should be fully responsive within a second or two of reactivation - as opposed to the 10-15 seconds after hybrid sleep.

21. Windows XP Installation Guide

From E.B.E.'s site

By: E.B.E.

1. Introduction

The idea of writing this guide came to me as a result of novices asking the same questions over and over again on this forum about various steps of the WinXP installation. I gathered quite an amount of experience by using and installing WinXP many times over the last four years, both on desktops and on notebooks. My record is keeping WinXP running on a desktop for almost three years, until it finally collapsed. And it ran quickly and smoothly until the last moment. I see no reason to keep that experience to myself.

I do not claim that the procedure given here is the best possible. It works for me; it incorporates many elements that I find useful. It incorporates elements that I learned as I needed them, elements which were tried by the test of time, passed it, and therefore can be trusted to really do their job. On the other hand, this might mean that very useful, neat and efficient things are not present -- simply because the need for them didn't arise and therefore I don't know about them. Some suggestions might even be outdated or plain wrong, although I don't think so. In brief, please, take everything with a grain of salt, and adapt the suggestions to suit your particular situation.

Contents and structure of this guide

I'm not going to give low-level "click here, click there, open that tab" instructions - that is beyond the scope of this guide. If you're uncertain about how to do perform some steps of the instructions -- google for more information, it is certainly out there. However, for tools or options which are hidden deep under tough-to-find keybord shortcuts, rightlick menus, tab hierarchies or executables, I do offer access routes. I do not cover dual-boot systems.

In several places information specific to ASUS notebooks is given. It might be useful to other notebook owners as well, but that's not guaranteed.

The document presents the installation steps (and more) chronologically, starting with pre-installation, going through the steps to install the OS, the drivers and essential software, addressing post-installation procedures, and ending with good maintenance habits.

2. Pre-installation: partitioning

This is for the users who have a fresh HDD (presumably from a new computer), or want to wipe their HDD as they install the OS. I presume it's superfluous to warn that this procedure destroys all data on the HDD.

The software I typically use for partitioning is PowerQuest Partition Magic; good alternatives exist, like qtParted in Linux, FDISK for DOS, or the incorporated partition utility from the Windows XP installation disk. In case the computer has no OS installed, PQMagic has a DOS version which can be started using by first booting from DOS-bootable media. qtParted can be started from a Linux live distribution, e.g., Knoppix. FDISK can be started using DOS-bootable media. Note that you cannot format partitions NTFS upon creation using qtParted or FDISK; that's no problem however, it can always be done afterwards. If the computer has a Windows OS installed, you can just install & run PQMagic.

How to partition the drive:

• 15 to 25 GB System partition, depending on the size of the HDD and on what you want to install. If e.g., you plan to install several games on the system partition, you'll need quite a lot of space (perhaps even more than 25 GB depending on how many games you will keep installed at once).
  
• 150% of RAM size Swap partition, for the Windows swapfile, pagefile.sys. For systems of 1GB or more, I run without a swap file; that's not too safe however, so use a swap file, and therefore create a swap partition.
  
• Out of the rest of the HDD: 30 to 40% a Data partition, where data files like documents, kits, work files, downloads in progress etc. go, and the rest of 60 to 70% a Media partition, where image, music, and movie files go. Typically the Data partition will be more heavily used.

The System partition should be a primary partition, the other partitions can be created as logical partitions part of an extended partition. Format everything NTFS, or leave unformatted if you're using a utility which can't format NTFS.

3. OS Instalation

3.1. Using a clean bootable XP kit

Well, this part is simple: insert the CD and install WinXP. :) Make sure you have the CD as the first boot device in the BIOS, or on newer machines, bring up the boot device menu during POST and select the CD. If you didn't partition the HDD and want to do that, do it now, using the during-install partitioning software from the XP CD. Choose to install on the first partition, and format it to NTFS unless you already did that. Do a quick format, the full format rarely makes sense. Let the setup do its thing.

I usually customize the regional settings (timezone, date and time format etc) during installation, but it can be done afterwards as well, from Control Panel > Regional Settings.

Make sure you remember the password you choose for the Administrator account!

3.2. Using ASUS recovery disks

Boot from the first recovery CD, choose to recover on the first partition only, and let it do its thing. Insert the second CD (if applicable) when you're asked to do so. One important piece of information: if you wish a clean XP installation, do not insert the drivers CD when the install scripts require it. In that way, you will get a clean install, equivalent to what you would have obtained if you had been using a clean bootable XP kit.

4. Initial configuration of the OS

Configure the OS by taking the following steps: driver installation, user configuration,
UI customization, services setup, pagefile setup, and several other minor configuration steps. Possibly, the partitions might still need a bit of work at this stage.

Warning: Do not connect to a network until you make sure you are running a firewall! See below under Essential Software for suggestions about a firewall.

4.1. Partition work

If you wiped the HDD, and used a partition software which doesn't format NTFS such as qtParted or FDISK, now is the time to format all non-OS partitions to NTFS. You can do that from Computer Management > Disk Management. Right click the partition, and Format. Make sure you select NTFS and leave the cluster size to the default 4 KB.

Warning: Do not reformat the OS partition at this point, you'll lose the WinXP installation!

On ASUS notebooks: converting the OS partition to NTFS

Note: This step also applies to other installation procedures which create a FAT32 filesystem on the system partition.

ASUS recovery disks reformat the system partition to FAT32 while recovering the OS. Prior to converting to NTFS, the FAT32 partition must be aligned to 4KB boundaries, otherwise the conversion will create 512 bytes NTFS clusters, which leads to reduced performance.

As a first step, defragment the system partition using the Computer Management Console. To align the partition, use the BootIt Next Generation software. A trial version is freely downloadable. The trial version can be used to create an bootable ISO image which can then be burnt onto a CD. Boot from that CD and follow the instructions at http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php to align the FAT32 partition. On our fresh XP installation this shouldn't take more than half an hour. Then issue convert c: /fs:ntfs at a command prompt. The OS won't be able to convert while the OS is running since the system partition is locked, so hit Yes when it asks you to schedule the conversion upon the next restart, and then restart. The conversion will be performed when Windows boots the next time.

4.2. Driver installation

The drivers are the first thing to install on a fresh OS. You can use the driver CDs that came with the computer / hardware components, or you can go online and get the latest versions of the drivers. Although usually newer drivers are better, bug-fixed and sometimes give a significant performance boost, that is not always true. Sometimes newer drivers are a bit issuey and earlier ones more stable. If you decide on newer drivers, install them directly, don't install earlier versions first only to change them afterwards (unless the driver update works that way, as a patch). As to modded drivers, I recommend against them unless you know what you're doing.

I recommend the following sequence:

1. Mainboard drivers (if any).
   
2. Video card drivers.
   
3. ACPI drivers and hotfixes (if applicable).
   
4. Sound card drivers.
   
5. LAN, WLAN, Bluetooth, etc., all the rest.

The order is somewhat arbitrary, however it's important to install mainboard drivers first, and ACPI (if applicable) sometime early on.

It's not really necessary that you restart after each driver installation, even though the setup programs will whine about it. To be on the safe side, restart twice: once after the essential drivers, up to and including sound card, and again after you've installed the rest of the batch.

4.3. User configuration

By default, WinXP creates during setup a user member of the Administrators group which logs on automatically. You enter the username yourself during the "Let's spend a few minutes setting up your computer" procedure which runs on the first Windows boot.
Security-wise, it's not a good idea to keep an Admin account with automatic logon. So, do the following:

1. Logoff from that user account (it's probably what you're logged on as).
   
2. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the welcome screen and login as Administrator.
   
3. Delete the automatic logon account from Local Users and Groups > Users in the Computer Management Console.

You might also want to enable the Guest account, to allow users to logon to the computer without a password. The problem is, guest privileges are poorly setup in all Windows versions, so from a default-setup guest account one can do pretty much everything one wants with the files on the computer (which is undesirable), but cannot install any software (which might sometimes be needed). I therefore deem the guest account of little use. There are other categories of users, like Power Users, normal Users etc., I have never used those -- try them out if you think they might help.

4.4. UI customization

These schematic instructions here are pretty much optional, as customizing the UI is a matter of each person's taste. I describe here the main elements of my setup.

Logon

I disable the welcome screen, it's too fancy for me. You can do that also, from Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way users log on or off. Uncheck Use the Welcome screen.

Desktop

I hate the fanciful, cumbersome and bloated Windows XP UI look, so I always switch to Windows Classic. I remove all icons from the desktop except My Computer and My Network Places.

Taskbar and system tray

I like to know what's running on my computer, so under Taskbar Properties I disallow hiding of inactive icons and grouping of similar taskbar buttons.
To maximize taskbar space, I move the Quick Launch toolbar somewhere else (like along the top or left edge of the desktop), disable the language bar, and lock the taskbar.
If you have enough vertical space, it's a good idea to resize the taskbar (prior to locking) such that it accomodates two rows of task buttons instead of one. This also increases the space available to system tray icons.

Start menu

I use the classic start menu, with the advanced options set as follows:

State	Option	Observations
ON	Display Administrative Tool	Useful.
OFF	Display Favorites	Not needed unless you use IE.
ON	Display Run	Useful.
ON	Enable Dragging and Dropping
ON	Expand: Control Panel, My Pictures, Network Connections, Printers	Provides easy access to the respective elements.
OFF	Scroll Programs	Confusing if ON.
ON	Show Small Icons in Start Menu	Saves screen space.
OFF	Use Personalized Menus	Confusing if ON.

Using the Group Policy Editor, I remove from the start menu the My Documents and Documents options. I also force the Logoff button to be displayed.
Using Delete from the options' right-click menu, I strip the start menu to the basic items displayed in screenshot 1.

Error behavior

Error reporting: I disable it, it's annoying. Under System Properties > Advanced > Error Reporting, choose Disable (but Notify).

BSOD behavior: System Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > System Failure.
Disable all three checkboxes, especially Automatically Restart. This way you'll be able to examine/write down the info on any BSOD (like the stop error code, faulty library etc.) to look it up later and use it in solving the problem.

4.5. Services setup

This is one of the important parts where you can optimize the OS. If properly done, services customization significantly reduces system load. Services have three startup options: Disabled (don't start at all), Automatic (start every time OS boots), and Manual (contrary to the name, start automatically but only when needed, not on every boot). Many services are by default set to Automatic, but they're needed rarely or not at all, so they consume resources needlessly.

Here follows the setup on my computer, a notebook on which I do pretty much everything: printing, scanning, downloading photos from cameras, connecting to wired and wireless networks, connecting to dialup. One important thing that I don't use is bluetooth devices. The message is: it's likely that my setup will be OK for you, since it doesn't disable any of the functionality mentioned above.

Don't follow these instructions indiscriminately, check the service descriptions and if you believe a service is needed, keep it. Conversely, if you think it's useless for you, disable it. If you believe it might be useless, but are unsure, switch it to Manual and stop it -- it will be started again by the OS upon need. If something that used to work doesn't work anymore after you finished setting up the services, go back and see if it can be blamed on some disabled service. Reenable it and try again. You can also google for service setup instructions, although you might find recommendations for minimalist setups that remove functionality which is actually needed.

Overall, I think my setup is a good starting point for most users out there.

You can customize services under Computer Management > Services. Here is my current setup. I tried removing the application-specific services (like the antivirus and firewall) to prevent confusion, but some might have been left over, so don't get alarmed if you see something here that's not on your list of services.

Service	Startup	Observations
Alerter	Disabled	Not useful.
Application Layer Gateway Service	Manual
Application Management	Manual
Automatic Updates	Automatic
Background Intelligent Transfer Service	Manual
ClipBook	Disabled
COM+ Event System	Manual
COM+ System Application	Manual
Computer Browser	Automatic
Cryptographic Services	Manual
DCOM Server Process Launcher	Automatic
DHCP Client	Automatic
Distributed Link Tracking Client	Disabled
Distributed Transaction Coordinator	Manual
DNS Client	Automatic	Essential for connecting to a network.
Error Reporting Service	Disabled	Not needed.
Event Log	Automatic
Fast User Switching Compatibility	Disabled	Needed if you want to switch between users without logging off.
FTP Publishing	Automatic	Not needed if you don't use the IIS FTP server on the machine.
Help and Support	Manual
HID Input Service	Automatic
HTTP SSL	Manual
IIS Admin	Automatic	Not needed if you don't use the IIS FTP or Web server.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service	Manual	Not needed if you don't have a CD/DVD burner.
Indexing Service	Manual
Infrared Monitor	Manual
IPSEC Services,	Disabled	Not needed unless you want to do fancy IP filtering, tunneling etc.
LightScribeService Direct Disc Labeling Service	Automatic
Logical Disk Manager	Automatic
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service	Manual
Messenger	Disabled	Not needed.
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider	Manual
Net Logon	Manual
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing	Manual
Network Connections	Manual
Network DDE	Disabled
Network DDE DSDM	Disabled
Network Location Awareness (NLA)	Manual
Network Provisioning Service	Manual
NT LM Security Support Provider	Manual
Office Source Engine	Manual
Performance Logs and Alerts	Manual
Plug and Play	Automatic
Portable Media Serial Number Service	Manual
Print Spooler	Automatic	Not needed if you don't print from the machine.
Protected Storage	Automatic
QoS RSVP	Manual
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager	Manual
Remote Access Connection Manager	Manual
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager	Manual
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)	Automatic
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator	Manual
Remote Registry	Disabled	Not needed unless you want to connect to the machine using remote desktop.
Removable Storage	Manual
Routing and Remote Access	Disabled
Secondary Logon	Disabled	Probably needed if you want to use user switching.
Security Accounts Manager	Manual
Security Center	Manual
Server	Automatic
Shell Hardware Detection	Automatic
Smart Card	Manual
SSDP Discovery Service	Manual
System Event Notification	Automatic
System Restore Service	Automatic
Task Scheduler	Disabled	Not needed, unless of course you use it.
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper	Automatic
Telephony	Manual	Needed if using a dialup connection.
Terminal Services	Manual
Themes	Disabled	Needed if you don't use Windows Classic theme (i.e., no theme).
Uninterruptible Power Supply	Manual
Universal Plug and Play Device Host	Manual
Volume Shadow Copy	Manual
WebClient	Manual
Windows Audio	Automatic
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)	Automatic
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)	Automatic
Windows Installer	Manual
Windows Management Instrumentation	Automatic
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions	Manual
Windows Time	Disabled	Useless.
Wireless Zero Configuration	Automatic
WMI Performance Adapter	Manual
Workstation	Automatic
World Wide Web Publishing	Automatic

4.6. Pagefile (swapfile) setup

Since we already created a swap partition, we're going to enforce that the pagefile takes up that entire partition, and nothing more. Prior to doing this, you might want to reallocate drive letters such that the swap partition is the last. Anyway, its use is going to be completely automatic so you won't want it to be in the way between your system and data partitions all the time.

You can change its drive letter from Computer Management > Disk Management. Assuming you have used my recommended partitions layout, you will have something like:

• C: System
  
• D: Swap
  
• E: Data
  
• F: Media

Use the following sequence to assign the Swap partition to drive letter F:

1. Change Swap letter to an intermediary Y.
   
2. Change Data letter to D.
   
3. Change Media letter to E.
   
4. Change Swap letter to F.

The pagefile configuration can be found under System Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change. Select the swap partition, choose Custom Size, and set initial and the max to equal the size of the partition minus around 10 MB. Then select the system partition, and choose No paging file. Apply changes and optionally restart to let them take effect. Oherwise, restart sometime later (but do it before defragmenting under post-installation procedures below).

4.7. Disable Recycle Bin

I never use Recycle Bin. I'm responsible enough to know when I want to delete a file and when not. Files recycling can be disabled from Recycle Bin's properties. Furthermore, to remove the recycle bin icon from destkop, start the Group Policy Editor and activate the corresponding option in User Config > Administrative Templates > Desktop.

4.8. Miscellaneous setup

Driver signing

I disable driver signing to stop the OS from whining whenever it doesn't recognize a driver as signed by Microsoft. System Properties > Hardware > Driver Signing > Ignore and Make this action the system default.

Remove low disk space notification

This is going to be needed, since the swap partition is practically full, and the OS will keep complaining about it and annoying you in the process. To remove the notification, start RegEdit. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer,
create a new DWORD value with the name NoLowDiskSpaceChecks, and set it to 1.

Disable removable media autoplay

Tired of stupid windows popping up every time you insert a CD or a flash drive, of you setting them to Take No Action, and of them buggily always forgetting your setting and popping up again the next time? Then do this: under Group Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System, enable Turn off autoplay for all drives (or only for CD drives, depending on what you wish).

Warning: This also disables autoplay for driver CDs etc., so you will need to start the autorun file manually every time.

Internet Information Services

If you want to host a FTP server on the machine, or want to develop and test webpages, the easiest way is to use the Internet Information Services built into XP Professional. You can do that from Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components. You will need the XP CD to copy the installation files.

5. Installing essential software

As essential software, I list: an antivirus and a firewall program, a file manager and a browser. I mean, Windows Explorer is a poor excuse for a file manager, and Internet Explorer... don't even get me started about that piece of crap.

Whatever antivirus and firewall you use, make sure they're lightweight. Don't install a bloated piece of software like Norton Antivirus; it will take half the system's resources to do the same things a 5MB utility will do.

Antivirus

I recommend Symantec Antivirus. It's free and lightweight. It's no longer supported or offered for download by Symantec, however it does its job very well, and virus definition updates still work without a hitch.

Firewall

Sygate Personal Firewall. As above, free and lightweight. As above, no longer supported.

If you aren't requiring too much from your firewall, you can use the one built into Windows. Sygate PF offers however more efficient control, like one-click disable/enable from the system tray, easy control of network access on a per application basis etc.

File manager

Total Commander. The best file manager for Windows out there. Not free, but has a fully functional shareware version. One important note if you use this: Under Options > Copy/Delete, choose Also use big file copy mode. This will greatly improve copying speed. Be sure however to include letters for CD/DVD drives, and removable flash sticks, under the Compatibility mode textbox. And be sure to tell the Commander correctly the division of your physical harddisks into drive letters.

Browser

Mozilla Firefox. Consider installing the following useful extensions:
CustomizeGoogle, MouseGestures, FasterFox, SmoothWheel, CookieSafe, DownloadStatusBar, UndoCloseTab.

5.1. On ASUS notebooks

Power management software might be helpful. ASUS Power4Gear is buggy and offers little control.
I recommend RMClock for undervolting / CPU frequency control. It's more lightweight than Notebook Hardware Control (NHC), more profesionally developed, and more focused on its task.

To monitor CPU and HDD temperatures / CPU frequency / battery charge and wear levels, use MobileMeter. Just a few kilobytes of executable, and it does its job well.

If you're a minimalist, have doubts about your knowledge on undervolting / controlling the CPU frequency, or simply doubt the correctness of the ACPI implementation on your system (like me), just use the Portable/Laptop power scheme under Windows Power Settings. Intel Speedstep will take care of the speed of your CPU just fine.

Be aware that some newer laptops (among the Core Duo line) have issues with older software like Everest / SpeedFan. Don't use such software unless you know exactly what you're doing. Don't overheat your notebook!

6. Post-installation steps

After you have completed the steps above, and you have installed all the software you regularly use (a media player, mail client, image viewer, music player, IM client are all in order I believe), follow these steps to finalize, cleanup and organize your WinXP installation.

6.1. Windows update

Soon enough, if you're connected to the internet, Automatic Updates will start downloading upates. Let it do that, it will take a while to download everything for the first time.

Do not install updates undiscriminately! E.g., if you never use Windows Media Player, Windows Messenger, or Outlook, it makes no sense to install updates for them. By indiscriminately installing updates, you'll only make your Windows installation bloated. It will become bloated enough without that, trust me.

Don't skip security updates, however.

Do install the latest Malicious Software Removal Tool! Not because it's useful -- if you've installed the antivirus and firewall, your system is not infected by anything. However, the moron programmers at Microsoft forgot to disable showing you older versions if you refused a newer one; this means that if you don't install the latest version, you will then be prompted about the earlier one, and then the one before that, and the one before that... There's a version for each month starting I think late 2004, so you'll have to click a lot of cancels if you skip the latest one.

6.2. Antivirus update

Update your antivirus to the latest definitions.

6.3. Moving data files from the OS partition

A lot of bad things can happen on a system partition. It's always better to keep your data somewhere else. If e.g., Windows breaks down at some point, or you simply decide to reinstall it, you don't have to worry about backups, you just format the system partition and get going.

E.g., if you're using some programming IDE, make sure it stores all the programs on the Data partition. I never store anything in My Documents, so I don't move that, but I think there exists a procedure to relocate it. Google for it. To relocate your Mozilla Firefox profile folder, such that you don't configure it / install extensions / save passwords every time you reinstall the OS, use this guide from the MozillaZine knowledge base. If you already have a profile folder somewhere else, just point to it using the guide.

6.4. The big cleanup

Yep. Here we go. There's a lot of stuff to clean up once the WinXP installation is complete.

Cleanup Windows components

This step is optional. It removes some Windows software that you'll never use, such as MSN Explorer.
Search in the Windows directory for a file named sysoc.inf. Open it. Search and remove all instances of the word "hide" (without quotes). Do not remove any commas. In the end, the file should contain lines of the form:

NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4

Notice the two consecutive commas; that's where the "hide" was. Save and close the file. You have now enabled the display in Add/Remove Windows Components of several applications that were hidden.

Open Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components. Remove Windows Messenger, MSN Explorer.

Cleanup temporary files

These are found under \Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp (assuming you've worked under the Administrator account), and \Windows\Temp. Delete everything from those folders.

Cleanup DLL cache and prefetch

Upon installation, the DLL cache will contain more than 500 MB of libraries. That is silly and unnecessary; not even a few tens of megabytes of libraries are going to be used on a regular basis. So, delete everything from the DLL cache folder: \Windows\system32\dllcache. It will have no noticeable impact on performance, and in a while, the OS will populate the directory with those few libraries that are really needed often.

The \Windows\prefetch folder contains information about applications which are to be partially loaded into memory upon booting the OS. At the end of the installation, a lot of junk will be present there, slowing down the OS boot. Delete everything from that folder. As above, in time the OS will populate the directory with prefetch data about applications it really needs. It's also possible to disable prefetch entirely (or allow it only for system files) but I don't recommend these options. Just leave the OS recreate the prefetch database, that should work fine.

Cleanup starting programs

Nowadays, almost all applications wish to put their "little" system tray application to start up by default when Windows starts, and forever take up resources without actually doing anything but annoying the user. The designers think, "oh well, it's just one app, what if the user absolutely needs to have our (essential, magnificent, central to the Universe) software one click away? and the process doesn't eat up that many resources, anyway." That is plain stupid, of course, since on a typical system many such applications will be installed, and many of them will be only rarely used. Not only system tray applications will start up automatically, but also hidden stuff like autoupdaters, removable media checkers and so on. Many unsavvy people do not know or do not care about turning these processes off -- and as a result, in half a year their system tray looks like a battlefield, with more than 10 or 15 icons colored in the most various shades populating it just after Windows boot. This boot takes just about 10 minutes, and then the system runs like crap.

The solution is simple: run the System Configuration Utility, and under the Startup tab disable anything that is not needed. Particular examples are (taken from my case):

• Adobe Gamma Loader (from Adobe Reader).
  
• NeroFilterCheck (from Nero).
  
• SunJavaUpdateSched (from the Java Runtime Environment).
  
• Bluetooth Manager (from the Bluetooth stack on my ASUS notebook).
  
• Power_Gear (ASUS Power4Gear).
  
• etc.

Any automatically starting updaters are typical candidates for disabling. Other than these examples, follow your common sense to remove anything that you believe is not needed. Take care though not to incapacitate your OS, antivirus or firewall.

Cleanup unused registry entries

Use a software like jv16PowerTools or RegCleaner.
Scan the registry and remove what isn't needed (with care though, otherwise you might remove something essential and the OS will malfunction). In jv16PowerTools, any registry entries which are marked as safe to remove are always really safe to remove.

Cleanup System Restore points

During the installation of all the drivers and software, many restore points were created. If your system is running fine (and it should, provided you didn't install doubtful drivers or applications), it makes no sense to keep restore points earlier than this final state of the OS, with all applications installed but still fresh.

The easiest way to cleanup the restore points is to disable/reenable system restore. Do that from System Properties > System Restore. Turn off System Restore on all drives, then reenable.

Additionally, it's a good idea to disable System Restore on all partitions except the OS partition. Since they contain only data (and the swap file, for the swap partition), it makes no sense to keep restore points on them. So, disable it. Leave it on only for the system partition.

6.5. Finalize UI customization

The UI setup is, as I've said once before, a matter of personal preference. However, I have some recommendations to make at this point.

Start menu organization

After you've finished installing the software, the start menu will be a huge, disorganized, flat collection of software folders. It's way more efficient to have them organized logically. In order to do that:

• Put related applications in folders. E.g., media, web browsers and instant messenger(s), system tools, utilities.
  
• Don't keep all the entries applications create upon installation. Uninstall entries are not needed -- applications can be uninstalled from Add/Remove Programs. Changelogs, support forums links, website links, shortcuts to help files in seven languages, all put in the Start Menu - useless, pointless, suffocating. Remove them.

Desktop organization

I don't like to have icons on my desktop. I like my wallpaper on my desktop. Therefore, I put shortcuts to often-used applications in an auto-hiding toolbar along the side of the screen. The shortcuts are, as with the start menu, organized into several major categories, e.g., system tools, media, programming/writing, dictionaries. See screenshot 2 for how my desktop looks.

6.6 Defragment the OS partition

Almost done now. One final thing to optimize performance. The OS installation creating files, the application installers copying files, removing temporary files, all left the system partition in a state of significant fragmentation.

Defragment it using Computer Management > Disk Defragmenter. It'll take a while, perhaps even more than an hour depending on how much software you have installed.

7. [Optional] Backing up the Windows XP installation

Note: This is an optional step, in no way necessary for a healthy Windows installation. It can save time on the next install, however.

So, now you have a complete, fresh, and optimized Windows XP installation. Many things can go wrong with an operating system over time, however: viruses or adware might make their way into the system files, driver installations can go bad and mess up the registry in a way that is impossible to repair, and so on -- God knows it's impossible to have a 100% reliable Windows installation. Of course, you can always take this guide and install Windows from scratch. This can however take a while, so if the problem arises unexpectedly you might find yourself in a situation where you lose a day of work to reinstall Windows (it happened twice to me already). That's not so pleasant, so here is a better solution:

Do a backup of the entire Windows installation, with the applications and configuration that you like! We are going to save the entire Windows partition in an image file, using the PartImage open-source software (there are alternatives, free as well as commercial). This is a guide on how to do that.

• First, download an ISO of the SystemRescueCD, which includes the PartImage software, and write to a CD.
  
• See how much of the Windows partition is occupied. The easiest way to do this is to right-click the partition in Windows Explorer. Then, make sure you have at least that much space on a different partition (actually when using GZIP compression, you are going to need approximately 60% of that space; but to be on the safe side just make enough space for all the data, unarchived). In order to minimize the required space, you can temporarily disable hibernation; that will save an amount of space equal to the amount of RAM in your system.
  
• Make sure you do a cold, proper shutdown of Windows (not using Hibernate). Also make sure that the Windows partition is defragmented, and there are no system files on other partitions (like a swapfile). If you created a swap file on a different partition, temporarily disable it.
  
• Boot from the CD.
  
• Mount the destination partition of the image. Say it is the first logical partition part of the extended partition on the hard drive. This will be seen by Linux as /dev/hda5 -- because there can be 4 primary partitions, this is the first partition after those, so it's number 5; hda means the first hard drive in the system. Then you will need to issue:
  mkdir /mnt/backup
  mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/backup
  if the partition is FAT32, and:
  mkdir /mnt/backup
  ntfs-3g /dev/hda5 /mnt/backup
  if the partition is NTFS.
  
• Start PartImage, by typing partimage at the command line.
  
• Configure the backup process. The GUI of the program is self-explanatory. You will first need to select the partition to back up. This is most probably in a laptop /dev/hda1, i.e., the first primary partition on the single hard drive in the system (this might be different if you're dual booting with Linux or Vista, however). Then, you need to type a name for the destination image file. This should be under the mount point of the destination partition, so something like /mnt/backup/winxpimage. You also need to select a compression method; I recommend GZIP, or if you're really in a hurry, just choose no compression. If you believe you might want to write the image to DVDs in the future, it's a good idea to split it in chunks 4400 MB large (there is an option for that). Start the backup process, and go drink a coffee or something. In 10 to 25 minutes, depending on how much software you have installed, it will be done.
  
• Finally, when the program is done, exit it, and type reboot at the command line. This will reboot you into Windows. Re-activate hibernation and, if such is the case, reconfigure the swap file properly, and you're done.

In the future, when you wish to restore the saved image to the partition, you need to:

• Boot from the CD. Start the program.
  
• Mount the partition with the image file(s) to the backup point (no need to use ntfs-3g even if the partition is NTFS, since you're not going to need write support).
  
• Select the image and write it over the destination partition (probably the first partition). Warning: This will destroy all the data on the destination partition! Make sure you are writing on the intended partition (the first is /dev/hda1), or else you will destroy possibly important data on other partitions!
  
• Stop the program and reboot.

Warning: Backing up NTFS partitions is currently experimental in PartImage. It is very likely to work, nevertheless. If it doesn't, you'll get an error, and then you need to use different software. Also: I have not yet tried restoring an image, so I can't guarantee the above steps will work for restoring. There is however no real reason for which they shouldn't. In any case, you might want to keep a Windows XP installation CD handy, to issue a fixmbr and fixboot from the Recovery Console, if your restored Windows is not booting.

One more thing: do not install all your games before doing the backup. Installing and configuring a game is not too troublesome or time-consuming, and it can be done again once you recover. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of space or DVDs for the system image.

8. Operating system maintenance

So, now you have a complete, fresh, and optimized Windows XP installation. To ensure it runs smoothly however, you need to perform continuing maintenance. Some essential elements are:

Periodic cleanup

Consists of repeating the cleanup steps described above:

• Temp folders (in Windows and under the user profile), and Temporary Internet Files if you're using Internet Explorer (shame on you! :) oh ok, maybe you were testing some website you're writing). This should be done with a period of roughly one or two months.
  
• System restore points: once every few months, if the OS is running smoothly, repeat the system restore cleanup step above. Otherwise, restore points will keep accumulating and eating up space needlessly. Even if you set a limit for the disk space occupied by System Restore, the OS won't respect it (surprised? you shouldn't be, it's typical for Windows, it happens with IE Temporary Internet Files as well).
  
• Unused registry entries: roughly once every half a year.
  
• DLL cache and prefetch folder: roughly once every half a year, but only if they become overpopulated.
  
• Automatic startup. Check the list of starting applications every once in a while, and remove what's not needed.
  Whenever you install an application, make sure it doesn't add an unneeded automatically starting process.

Defragment

At least once every half a year. Not only on system partitions, data partitions benefit from it as well (not the swap partition though, that's a single big file, no sense trying to defragment there).

Software updates

Periodic updates of virus definitions (at least once every month) and windows updates (this latter will be automatic if you haven't disabled it).

Driver updates

Don't check the support website every day, but try to keep up with newer drivers, they might improve performance or stability. Don't install however undiscriminately, check the list of changes to see if you can really use the update. Also, if updates are posted often, don't install every one of them, keep a longer interval, you'll load the OS unnecessarily. Use Drivercleaner when updating video card drivers, it removes all driver files and registry entries very efficiently, and works for all major manufacturers of video cards.

Good software management practice

Don't bloat your OS by installing a billion applications. And, when you don't need a piece of software any longer, uninstall it. But don't overdo this, don't uninstall only to reinstall again, that's worse than keeping the software in the first place. Check Program Files for leftovers from uninstalled software, and delete them -- many programs leave files after being uninstalled.

Hibernation

I will say this here, although it's not directly related to maintenance. It's much more efficient to use hibernation instead of shutdown. Shutting down every time you need to power off the computes takes a lot of time. The ensuing "cold" OS boot also takes a lot of time. Hibernation is several times quicker in both steps. Hibernation can be enabled under Power Options > Hibernate > Enable hibernation.

---

Appendix

A.1. Accessing configuration utilities

• Computer Management
  Right-click My Computer, choose Manage, or find it under
  Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
  
• System Properties
  Hit the Windows Button + Break, or find it under Control Panel > System.
  
• Group Policy Editor
  In the run box, type "gpedit.msc" without the quotes.
  Start menu and desktop configurations are under User Config > Administrative Templates.
  
• System Configuration Utility
  In the run box, type "msconfig" without the quotes.
  Autostarting programs are under the Startup tab.
  
• Registry Editor
  In the run box, type "regedit" without the quotes.
  
• Start menu customization
  Right click taskbar, Properties > Start Menu > Customize.

A.2. Useful applications

• Knoppix
  Live Linux on bootable CD. Download the latest distribution at http://knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html. The basic distribution includes qtParted. Alternatively, you can use the more lightweight Slax distribution from slax.org with the qtParted module.
  
• FreeDOS
  A free version of DOS including the FDISK utility. Download from http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/. See http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/ for
  bootable FreeDOS floppy images (check Normal Bootdisks).
  
• Partition Magic
  The product page at Symantec is here.
  
• BootIt Next Generation
  Download trial version (including bootable ISO image for partition work) from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html.
  
• Symantec Antivirus
  This program is no longer offered for free.
  
• Sygate Personal Firewall
  This program is no longer offered for free. A free version is available at http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=sygate.
  
• Mozilla Firefox
  Download from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/.
  
• Total Commander
  Download shareware version from http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm.
  
• RMClock
  Download from http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml.
  
• Mobile Meter
  Since it seems Mobile Meter can no longer be downloaded from the author's website (automatically translated from Japanese): http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/, get it from here: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~rjy2985/mobmeter.html.
  
• jv16PowerTools
  Download trial commercial version from http://www.jv16.org/. The last free version of the software is available here.
  
• RegCleaner
  Download from http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html#RegCleaner. This software is rather old, I recommend using jv16PowerTools instead.
  
• DriverCleaner
  Download from http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php.

A.2. List of acronyms

Non-obvious acronyms used in the document.

• OS: Operating System.
  
• UI: User Interface.
  
• HDD: Hard Disk Drive.
  
• WLAN: Wireless LAN.
  
• BSOD: Blue Screen of Death, Windows stop error screen.
  
• IIS: Internet Information Services.
  
• IDE: Integrated Development Environment.
  
• IE: Internet Explorer.

25. How To Clean Your PC

By: David Wurst
From: Directron

Introduction

You are finishing up a 10-page report for school or work when suddenly your computer shuts down on you. Frantically you throw your arms up in the air and yell at your computer because you forgot to save. You check and find the power is still working, power cords are plugged in correctly, and you know you just ran a virus check last night. So what could possibly have shut the computer down? DUST!

Clumps of dust can nestle around your processor, cuddle up to your power supply and choke ventilation. Computers can become havens for dust and other natural-borne air pollutants when not properly cleaned. In this guide, Computer Cleaning 101, we will teach you how to properly clean your computer system, manage cords and restore the natural brilliance to your computer system!

Let's start off with a brief explanation of how dust collects in and around your system. Static electricity. Yes, you can blame static electricity for attracting dust to your computer. Why? Well, when a computer is in operation it creates a field of static electricity which attracts dust particles in the surrounding environment. A CRT or LCD monitor also creates static electricity. In fact, if you put your forearm up the monitor screen you may feel the little hairs on your arm rise! This is a perfect example of the static field encompassing your monitor.

Not to worry though, you won't have to spend hours on end cleaning your computer system to prevent hardware failures and loss of ventilation. If your computer is in a clean environment you shouldn't have to clean it out more than three or four times a year! A clean environment in our opinion is one without tobacco smoke, large amounts of pet dander or outdoor pollutants (smog/road dirt/sand). If any of these conditions are present in the computer?s environment more frequent cleanings should be considered. Let?s discuss these conditions that affect the quality of a computer?s environment. Smoke; smoke can seep into the openings of your case and settle on your motherboard and other hardware. Smoke is also responsible for discoloring keyboards, mice, cases, screens and wires. Pet hair; this can be worse than dirt because of how much larger it is. Hair can easily block the ventilation of a computer system.

Cleaning Supplies

Here is a small list of supplies that you should have handy before cleaning:

Anti-Static Wrist Guard

Compressed Air

Cotton Tip Swabs

Glass Cleaner

Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol (80% dilution only!)

Lint-Free Cloths

Paper Towels

Phillips Screwdriver

Tweezers

Let?s Start Cleaning!

Cables

Everyday you have to look at the cables laying around your computer station, so why not clean them up a bit? Cables can get in pretty sad shape after a little while. They can become discolored, worn and even tangled with other cables. If you find any cables that are frayed (refer to picture) please replace them. They are a safety risk if not replaced. This task takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete if you have your supplies ready.

1. Unplug all the devices connected to the back of your computer. Make sure not to drop them into an unreachable area, this can be quite the annoyance!
2. Dampen one of your lint-free cloths with some isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
3. Run the cloth along each cable until stickiness and discoloration is gone
4. Taking one device plug at a time, try to untangle the wire so that no other wires are wrapped around it. Use a twisty tie and bundle up any extra wire that is not needed. Plug the device back into your computer.

Note: If you notice any dirt inside one of the plug heads use a little compressed air to blow it out.

Case Cleaning:

This is where the dust goes at night to cuddle up with your processor. Dust is not your friend, it is not something to be laughed at, and it deserves respect. This is war ladies and gentlemen! Load up with some compressed air because you?re heading off to the frontlines! Actually, cleaning a computer case isn't that difficult. In fact, the entire process won't take more than about 20 or 25 minutes if the dust is really bad.

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Remove the side cover of the computer case, exposing the motherboard and other hardware components.
3. Inspect all cables and connections. Be sure to look for cables that are frayed, loose, pinched, snug or otherwise damaged. If you come across any cables that are damaged in any way or form you should immediately replace them. If a cable is frayed do not attempt to patch it up with electrical tape, this is very dangerous fix. We also advise that you replace snug cables with longer ones before it accidentally snaps.
4. Now its time to get out the compressed air. Shoot the canned air at everything in your computer. Pay special attention to the heatsink and fan on top of your processor. This area collects a lot of dust. Some other areas to focus on are add-on cards (audio/video/modem), case fans, hard disks, power supply and removable media drives (cd-rom). A vacuum may help suck out the dust while you knock it loose with the compressed air. Caution: Follow the directions on the back of compressed air! Do not spray hardware at close range! If you choose to use a vacuum, do not attempt to vacuum anything in your computer!!!
5. If you notice dust in the PCI and AGP slots of your motherboard it may be wise to remove each add-on card and shoot some compressed air into the slots to break away the dust.
6. If your case has an air filter remove it and run it through warm water to remove the dust. To dry it simply use a cloth (lint-free if possible) and gently dab away the excess water. Place the filter back into the case.
7. Replace the side cover of the computer, but check first that there aren't any cables that are lying next to any fans. Fasten the cover and restore the power.

Ball Mouse Cleaning:

You hold onto your mouse everyday, oils off your hand get onto the mouse and overtime will discolor the plastic of your mouse. If you use a ball mouse there is more to worry about than just discoloring though, because dust doesn't leave anything alone! If you don't already have one, we recommend you buy a cheap mouse pad. Cleaning a ball mouse usually takes about five to ten minutes.

1. Disconnect the trackball mouse from the back of the computer.
2. Dampen one of your lint-free cloths with some isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
3. Clean the outside of the mouse with the damp cloth. Pay extra attention to the mouse buttons. Locate and remove the circular disc that holds the trackball in place. There should be a set of arrows on the disc indicating which direction to turn.
4. After removing the circular disc place both the trackball and the disc on a clean surface.
5. Use the same damp, lint-free cloth containing isopropyl rubbing alcohol and gently dab at the inside of the trackball cage. Be careful not to get it too wet.
6. Inside the ball cage you should see two rotating wheels. Most likely these wheels have a layer of dirt around the entire surface of the wheel. You can easily get this dirt out by using a tweezers. We recommend a tweezers because it will decrease your chances of dropping the dirt deeper inside the mouse.
7. Put the ball mouse back together and reconnect it to the back of the computer.

Optical Mouse Cleaning:

You should exercise more caution when cleaning an optical mouse. You do not want any cleaning products to come in contact with the optical sensor on the bottom of the mouse. If anything does come in contact with the sensor you may experience difficulties when attempting to move the mouse cursor. It is also very important that you don't use any paper towels or non lint-free materials when cleaning the mouse. Lint or paper fibers could find their way to the optical sensor and impair mouse precision. Cleaning an optical mouse shouldn't take more than five minutes.

1. Disconnect the optical mouse from the back of the computer.
2. Dampen one of your lint-free cloths with some isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
3. Clean the outside of the mouse with the cloth. Pay extra attention to the mouse buttons DO NOT attempt to clean the optical sensor!
4. Reconnect the optical mouse to the back of the computer.

Keyboard Cleaning:

Keyboards also collect the oils off hands. The keys may become harder to read over time because they tend to collect brownish colored grime where you would usually place your fingers. Cleaning your keyboard can rid yourself of sticky keys. This entire process should take no longer than five minutes.

1. Disconnect the keyboard from the back of the computer.
2. Hold the keyboard upside down over a desk or counter and smack the bottom of the keyboard to knock out any filth.
3. Lay your keyboard back down on a table.
4. Use compressed air and shoot it between the keys to get out anything loosened, but not removed from the good smacking you gave it. We recommend shooting the compressed air into the keyboard using a crisscross pattern. This way you will get both the rows and the columns of keys.
5. Use your isopropyl rubbing alcohol dampened cloth and clean the surface of each key along with the surrounding areas of your keyboard. This should restore the natural brilliance of your keyboard!
6. Reconnect the keyboard to the back of the computer.

Monitor Cleaning:

That's right, its due time that the fingerprints and dead gnats are removed from the computer screen! We will focus on cleaning the outside of your computer monitor. Please do not attempt to open the inside of your monitor for cleaning purposes unless you are an experienced technician. Even if you unplug your computer screen there is still a high amount of electricity in the monitor! Cleaning a monitor should take no more than five minutes.

1. Turn off your monitor if you feel uncomfortable cleaning it with the power on.
2. Spray the monitor glass cleaner. Use a lint-free cloth and rub the monitor and screen in a circular pattern to remove the dirt and grime.
3. Restore power to the monitor if need be.

Note: Exercise caution when cleaning the screen of your LCD monitor. If you press too hard you may damage the screen!

Laser Printer Cleaning:

Yeah, it's a tedious job but someone has to clean the printer! If you are unsure of the location of various parts in your printer please refer to the owner?s manual or CD that came with your printer. This process should take no longer than ten minutes.

1. Unplug your laser printer.
2. Spray the outside of the laser printer with glass cleaner and rub it with a lint-free cloth.
3. Use your compressed air and open up all the trays and doors on your laser printer. If you find dust anywhere attempt to blow it out of the printer, never into it. If you can't get the dust out with compressed air feel free to use your lint-free cloth.
4. There is a fan in all laser printers to help vent the inside. Locate the fan on your laser printer and blow compressed air at it to remove the dust.
5. Look for toner spills and vacuum them up if found. Toner is very dangerous to your health so DON't USE COMPRESSED AIR!
6. Clean the rollers with isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
7. Clean the ozone filter with some compressed air. The filter can be replaced if need be.
8. Restore power to the laser printer.

Cleaning Fax Machines & ScannersKeep the fax machine in top notch condition, you don't want it failing on you right when you have to fax something to a friend or business! This shouldn't take more than five minutes to complete.

1. Unplug your fax machine or scanner.
2. Spray the outside of the fax machine or scanner with glass cleaner and rub it off with a lint-free cloth.
3. Use compressed air to blow out any visible dust within your machine.
4. Both fax machines and scanners have lenses. Remove the glass cover and spray glass cleaner on them and wipe it off with a lint-free cloth.
5. Clean the rollers with isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Restore power to the fax machine or scanner.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You are now a professional system cleaning technician! Hopefully you enjoyed freeing your computer of all that filth and restoring the original look and feel to your system. We recommend that you clean your entire system following this guide at least every three to four months. If you have trouble finding spare time to do a thorough job cleaning than at least try to clean out the inside of your computer case. Otherwise clean the entire system on a regular basis and remember, a clean computer is a happy computer! Don't you want your computer to be happy?

How to Keep Your Computer Clean Here are a few of our tips on how to keep a computer cleaner, longer!

• Clean the entire system at least three or four times a year
• Place computer in a well ventilated room
• Position the case on top of a shelf, never on the ground
• Place plastic computer bags over the case and monitor when not in use
• Always use a mouse pad, whether you own a ball or optical mouse
• Upgrade your computer case to one with at an intake and outtake fan, including an air filter
• Never allow anyone to eat at your computer workstation

24. Notebook and PC Partitioning Guide

by mujtaba
From Notebookreview


This guide attempts to help users on how to partition their hard-drives,however there are some Model specific guides, for example the HP-Compaq forum has a guide for that, please check your laptop's forum for specific instructions.

Note : I give no warranty with this guide not about the hardware nor the data and software, proceed at your own risk.

The hard drive is split into several partitions.
There are two main kinds of partitions :

Quote:

1 - Primary partitions : The main difference between the Primary and Extended partitions is the fact that MS-DOS and older Windows versions can boot only from a primary partition.The limit for primary partitions is usually 4 for each hard driver. 2 - Extended partitions : The Extended partitions split into logical drives.Linux and newer versions of Windows like WinXP and Win2K can boot from them.

If the format of the partition (e.g. NTFS,FAT32,ext3) is recognizable in Windows,the Primary Partitions and the logical drives will show-up in My Computer.
Note : If you have purchased an copy of Windows with your Notebook/PC,you would have a hidden partition for the recovery purposes.The recovery partition would usually be either on the beginning(like ASUS notebooks) or at the very end (like some of HP laptops).If you have not been given a recovery cd,make sure to take the best care you can of this partition.

The data about the position and size of the partitions,Also the indicator of the partition type is recorded in a small block at the beginning of the drive.This data is called the partition table.
At many times,only the partition table gets damaged,so if you back-up the partition-table before doing risky operations.

The Recovery partition is usually a FAT32 drive.With some kind of Windows installed on it.The boot partition (the drive from which the bios tries to boot) is the recovery partition,it waits for the special key (e.g. F9 on my ASUS),if the key is pressed the recovery partition brings up the recovery menu,if not after a few seconds it proceeds to booting from the first partition.

Recovery CD's not working :
Sometimes the MBR(Master boot record) gets changed for some reason(usually when newbies try to install linux).At this point trying to use the Windows recovery CD's will be useless.It'll give some errors or crash half-way installing linux.
At this point, you should change the MBR.You can do it in these ways :
(note these two ways only help you to re-install windows or use recovery CD's if you want to revive your dead linux, search for "Reinstalling Grub" rescue guides)
a) If you have a Windows XP Installation disk which is able to bring the recovery console :
Type in : fixmbr.
b) If you don't have such CD's.Find a DOS-based boot CD like this one : www.ultimatebootcd.com
Then boot from the CD.Type : "fdisk /mbr"
(Note some of the boot CD's might not have fdisk,you'll have to download it : like this one and burn it to the same CD)

Which partition format to use :
There are two main kinds of partition that Windows can make use of : FAT32,NTFS (FAT16/12 is outdated, and because it's size limit you are always forced to make FAT32 - and also some features like long file names).

Quote:

NTFS replaced Microsoft's previous FAT file system, used in MS-DOS and early versions of Windows. NTFS has several improvements over FAT such as improved support for metadata and the use of advanced data structures to improve performance, reliability, and disk space utilization plus additional extensions such as security access control lists and file system journaling. The exact specification is a trade secret of Microsoft. NTFS has five versions: * v1.0 * v1.1 * v1.2 found in NT 3.51 and NT 4 * v3.0 found in Windows 2000 * v3.1 found in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista source : wikipedia

But there are some problems, not many utilities can work with NTFS, linux cannot work with NTFS (I think it'll only be read-only and to be able to write to it you need to patch the kernel - a real pain).


Doing Partition from scratch :
If you are doing partition from a completely blank hard-drive,I personally suggest Ranish Partition manager it's complete,free and runs under DOS.
Another option is to do the partition using Linux,but remember,the vfat partition done by the Linux installer are not completely recognized by Windows so you might be forced to reformat them.
You can also install Windows XP/2K on the empty drive and let it do the partitioning.If it,by some reason,formatted the whole drive into a single-large partition,you can resize it by the steps below.
Some people might like to have their drives to exactly have 1,500,000 Kilobytes or something,this is usually impossible (except some special numbers),because this size depends on the number cylinders on the disk (the size of the cylinders is unchangeable)

How to Resize,Merge Partition :
If you delete/make files too much (don't worry,Windows does it all the time) the data gets fragmented,if you want to know how your hard-drive looks like do this : bring up the run window (windows key+R) or from the start menu,and type in : "dfrg.msc",select one of your drives and press the analyze button.
If you try to resize a partition using newer software like partition magic,you see that even if 10% of your drive is used (90% free disk space) you only can diminish the size to (for example 30%),if you do defragmentation,you will be able to do it.
Merging partitions,this sometimes proves to be a risky one,sometimes some partition software/OS makes little changes to the drives/partitions,so trying to merge the two drives simply fails and makes the second drive unusable.Once when I was trying to merge two partitions,Partition Magic mumbled something about wrong size or something,failing in the middle of the operation and thus destroying the second drive.
So,you might want to back-up your second drive somewhere if the data is important.

How to avoid partition-disaster :
1 - Do not use every partition software you can reach,some utils like the ancient MS-DOS partitioning ones,like the old FDISK might not recognize your "large" hard-drive.
2 - If no CD has been supplied with the notebook,burn to recovery partition to a CDs/DVDs at once.This can be done with Norton Ghost or similar software.At some notebooks like a friend's HP Pavilion,at some place the laptop itself suggests this thing to do(refer to your user manuals to find out how to do it).
3 - Use good software to do the partitioning,Paragon Partition manager is good,runs under Windows and user friendly.

What to do after a Partition-disaster :
Edit : 0 - Partition Recovery software is also available,it tried to find the volumes themselves without consulting the partition table.there are also free edition available,sadly,when I once came to use one of them,it was too late.(Partition Magic had made sure of that).There is also an extremely useful utility called "PC Inspector".Apart form detecting deleted partitions, it can also search for file signatures and magic id's and recovery them.
1 - Healing the damage : Before you go wiping all the data you have,the good thing will be to try to revive the data.On many cases the only damaged data is the partition table.
For example many users including me,had their partition table messed up after Trying to Install Fedora Core 2,the problem arises from doing the first partitioning using that ancient MS-DOS FDISK.For this particular problem a very easy solution can be found by google...
(Instead of fixing the partition table in 3-minutes, I proceeded with step 3)
2 - Trying to contact some of the support/crisis centers,they know how to do stuff...
3 - Sometimes the partition table has been completely messed up.In these cases even linux's FDISK,Ranish partition manager and any software I tried,get's confused and failes to edit the hard-drives.If the data is not crucial,you might want to try "Killdisk",the most brutal way to clean a drive.This thing starts setting every single bit of the data on the hard-disk to zero.I tried it once,let it wipe 6~8% of the hard-disk,skipped the rest,then started partitioning...

Converting Partitions
Conversion can be done by many utilis and by Windows itself.
Important notice : You cannot convert NTFS to FAT32 so easily.For example Kaspersky antivirus has some protective utility that adds some data for later lookup not as files but as some internal data.This feature only works with NTFS.So if you convert the drives.It'll be annoying.You first have to make Kaspersky delete these data before proceeding to conversion.

MBR, bootsector, what are they ?

Quote:

If the BIOS finds a bootable device, it loads and executes its boot sector. In the case of a hard drive, this is referred to as the master boot record (MBR) and is often not operating system specific. Usually, the MBR code checks the partition table for an active partition. If one is found, the MBR code loads that partition's boot sector and executes it. The boot sector is often operating system specific, however in most operating systems its main function is to load and execute a kernel, which continues startup. If there is no active partition or the active partition's boot sector is invalid, the MBR may load a secondary boot loader and pass control to it and this secondary boot loader will select a partition (often via user input) and load its boot sector, which usually loads the corresponding operating system Kernel.

-source:wikipedia.

WARNING : From the recent posts here and on the internet, it seems that Partition Magic cannot edit the partitions of Vista laptops correctly, leading to loss of data.


Some partitioning software :
-PC Inspector : An extremely useful and free partition/file recovery program.It can recover both partitions and find the files that were in deleted partitions (obviously the space that belongs to the partition shouldn't have undergone a full format) [Thanks to Sesshomaru for point this out )
-Paragon Partition : A partition manager I tried (suggested by a friend), this one is extremely good.I have much better experience with it that Partition Magic.
-Newer Versions of FDISK.
-PowerQuest (now Norton) Partition Magic : On of the most famous partition software,though I have some bad experience from it.Also under Windows.
-Ranish Partition Manager : A very good software,under dos,but very intelligent.
-Linux's FDISK : A good software - 100% user enemy but powerful - but as I pointed out,the vfat drives are not recognized too good under Windows.
-Disk Druid : The partition software running on Linux setup on many distributions (e.g. Fedora Core 5)
-QTParted and GParted : The partitioning utilities coming with KDE and GNOME.
-KILLDISK : The most brutal way to clean a drive.This thing starts setting every single bit of the data on the hard-disk to zero.