Maintenance Section Updated on Above Date

NOTE:

I have moved the section on Hard Drives (a work in progress) to the Blog Archives (note Blog Archive section to right side of this web page) to the year 2009 in month of October under title of Hard Drives.


NOTE:
I have moved a section from the main page to the Blog Archives (note Blog Archive section to right side of this web page) to the year 2011 in month of August under title of Security Notices and Other Information.

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For a printable view of the Maintenance Schedule to print, copy and paste the following link to your web browser:

Note am updating this document and will be finished on December 4, 2012 please don't print until then
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYzkSEiMpqheZGhuNHNxdHJfNGhzODl0c2Zy&hl=en

This will bring you to Google docs where this web page is saved as a document, then click on File and then click on Print as webpage...

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For a printable view of this blog to print, copy and paste the following link to your web browser:

Note am updating this document and will be finished on December 4, 2012 please don't print until then
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYzkSEiMpqheZGhuNHNxdHJfMWY4enBkZ2Q4&hl=en

This will bring you to Google docs where this webpage is saved as a document, then click on File and then click on Print as webpage... This will print this blog in 5 letter size pages without the embedded YouTube Videos content.

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The following free maintenance programs will help you maintain your Windows Based PC. Towards the end of the following "Maintenance Programs" section I will include a maintenance schedule you can follow to make it easier for your to run these applications during the week and another application twice a month.

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Maintenance Programs

1. Ccleaner
2. Advanced System Care Free
3. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
4. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012
6. Error Checking
7. Disk Defragmenter
8. Windows Updates
9. STINGER
10. Create a Restore Point


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1.
Ccleaner is a popular Windows Cleaning program that removes unnecessary files from your PC allowing Windows to run faster. The Ccleaner website is http://www.ccleaner.com/.

FileHippo is a nice website where you can download some of the programs that I'll mention below with the exception of Advanced System Care Free and STINGER applications.


Instructions for downloading and installing ccleaner are at this website:

http://www.jahewi.nl/ccleaner/quick/quick.html

You may find this website as to how to run ccleaner at a specific time automatically important to read:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/setup-ccleaner-to-automatically-run-each-night-in-vista-or-xp/

The following YouTube video explains how to use Ccleaner. You may want to go to http://www.youtube.com and type in ccleaner in the search section of YouTube to find other related videos. You may also do this with any other maintenance information you may want to learn about, etc. The main goal is to learn more for yourself!



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2.
The Advanced System Care Free program which perform several maintenance routines is a free program which can be downloaded from

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3.
Malware is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and also spyware, programming that gathers information about a computer user without permission.

You can download the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program at the website:

Once downloaded and installed I would perform the Full Scan (which will take some time) as soon as you can and then vary it from time to time with a Quick Scan.

A YouTube video to show how to install, run and other features of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is shown here:



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4.
Next, no PC should be without an Anti-Virus program of any kind. If you have an Anti-Virus program and you are comfortable with it and it is doing its' job protecting your computer stay with it, but if not a free alternative is mentioned here.

A free and most popular one is AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition also known as AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012. It can be downloaded at the FileHippo website

http://www.filehippo.com/

I find it easier to download and install the AVG Free Edition Anti-Virus software from FileHippo.com.

Once in FileHippo Go to the Anti-Virus Section and Click on AVG Free Edition.

Once on the AVG Anti-Virus page in the FileHippo website you may want to scroll down and if you have a 64-bit operating system of Windows Vista or Windows 7 or 8 you may want to download that version.
As a sideline to the AVG Anti-Virus software is another popular free Anti-Virus application called Avast! Free Edition. For one client I had a problem installing the AVG Free Edition Anti-Virus on her machine and as she needed protection Avast! Anti-Virus became the solution for her. I have heard good accolades of users who use AVAST! A friend from Montana commented, "Avast! typically updates one to three times a day. These folks are really dedicated to keeping internet users clean." You can get Avast! Free Edition Anti-Virus from

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5.
You may want to perform an Error Checking before you defrag your computer. It is like the Scandisk was for Windows 98, ME machines.

Here's the processes to perform Error Checking in Windows XP from this website: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

Follow the steps outlined where is says: "Manual steps to run Chkdsk from My Computer or Windows Explorer" Here's essentially the same information: "Error Checking/Chkdsk" is a Utility that provides a disk check for Windows versions and specifically is used now on newer versions of Windows (2000/XP) in much the same way as "Scandisk" was used on older versions of Windows. It can be run a few different ways, but I prefer to do it like this: Open "My Computer", RIGHT click on the C drive icon, choose "Properties". When that loads, click on the "Tools" tab, then click on the "Check Now" button in the "Error Checking" section. When that little window loads, place a CHECK in BOTH boxes, then click on "Start Now". A message will pop up saying that Error Checking will run after you restart the computer, so......Restart the computer. Error Checking will run automatically after the restart and it locks you out from doing anything until it's finished. It takes a little time to perform the task but after it's finished,(assume 30-60 minutes) it will restart into Windows.

A video to show the error checking process from YouTube is shown here:



It can also be run like this:
1. Click Start, select Run.
2. In the 'Open' box, type cmd
3. Click Ok.
4. Run the chkdsk utility by typing in the following command: chkdsk c: /f /r

NOTE: the /f command automatically fixes any errors encountered, the /r command locates bad sectors and recovers readable information

A reboot is normally required for the Chkdsk program to lock the disk and run correctly, so simply restart the computer and Chkdsk will run automatically. When it's finished, (This process can take quite a while depending on the size of your disk, etc.), it will boot back to normal Windows. I did find this for Windows Vista users it follows along the same process of Error Checking for Windows Vista users as for XP.

Here is the website with that information:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/bc1393cf-9f9c-79c7-0f91-9337c2c41f811033.mspx

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6.
To defrag your computer.
Click Start
Click All Programs
Click Accessories
Click System Tools
Click System Defragmenter
Click on Defragment

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7.
To manually do Windows Update:
Click on Start
Click on All Programs
Click on Windows Update
Click on Express
If there are any updates click on Install Updates.

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8.
Another good application is STINGER.

STINGER can be found at http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/.

Stinger is a stand-alone utility from McAfee used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection but from time to time I find in useful in keeping my PC free from viruses. You will find the STINGER website informative and the application useful.

The following YouTube video while it describes downloading a virus removal pack from Episode 2 it's explanation of setting up and running the STINGER program is useful and I found it important to include it here:



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9.
To create a Restore Point:
Click on Start
Click on All Programs
Click on Accessories
Click on System Tools
Click on System Restore
Click on Create a restore point
Click Next
Type in the Restore point description you want to use
Click Create

A valuable tool in using Create a Restore Point is to create one before a software installation or a hardware/software installation, so if there are problems you can use System Restore to get back to where you were before the installation of software/hardware.

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Maintenance Schedule ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

1. Ccleaner
I prefer to run it 3 times before I close down the computer every day.

2. Advanced System Care Free - Run once a week. You can set it to run, fix and shut down your computer

3. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware - Run once a week. Update and then do a FULL SCAN.
May take 1 - 2 hours.

4. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - or your current Anti-Virus.
Scan once a week at a time your computer is on and you may not be using it.
Scan may take 1 - 2 hours, depending on your scan setttings.

5. Error Checking - perform every two weeks. Follow the instructions I mention
in here in my blog on how to do Error Checking.

6. Disk Defragmenter - run once a week when you are not going to be
at your computer. May take several hours.

7. Windows Updates - Make sure Automatic Updates is set to ON
in Security Center in Control Panel. I sometimes
from time to time do the Windows Updates manually.

8. STINGER - run twice a month.

9. Create a Restore Point
Follow the instructions I mention
here in my blog for creating a Restore Point.


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ENDING NOTES:
ALWAYS, update your maintenance programs, i.e., Ccleaner (make sure you have the latest version, updates to those programs), Advanced System Care, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition before you scan.

Whatever applications you do use to maintain your computer, ALWAYS update and then scan.

At times, I delete all prior restore points (saved Windows Registry Files) and do my scanning, just in case a prior restore point in System Restore is infected and I can concentrate on scanning the current restore point (saved Windows Registry File).

To do this I right click on My Computer and Left Click on Properties.

Then click on the System Restore tab there.

I put a check mark in the box that says, "Turn off System Restore on all drives" and then click Apply.

You will see the Status on the drives go from "Monitoring" to "Turned of", but before that you will get a message that says, "You have chosen to turn off System Restore. If you continue, all existing restore points will be deleted, and you will not be able to track or undo changes to your computer. Do you want to turn off System Restore?"

Click Yes. Once the Status says, "Turned off" I go back and take the check mark out of where it says, "Turn off System Restore on all drives" and then click apply. This will turn on System Restore so that your computer will create additional restore points when it deems necessary or when you manually create one.

The applications I mentioned are free applications. Some of these applications have an enhanced or professional version which can be purchased while others if you feel you want to contribute a donation you can.

NEVER, EVER fall prey to a pop up window that says your computer has problems. They want to scare you into buying their product. Read the information in the Security Notices and Other Information under the Blog Archive section in this blog in 2011. The applications I have mentioned above have been around for years and have had many accolades by PC Magazine publications.

If you have questions use your search engine, like Google.com or Bing.com and do some investigating on your own. Your search engine can become a valuable tool to learning computer maintenance and how to run certain applications or if some error message comes up you don't understand, enter it in your search engine.

And finally have another web browser on hand to surf the net in case you have problems with the one you use regularly. I have Mozilla Firefox which I have downloaded from http://www.mozilla.com/. There are other popular web browsers available to help you surf the internet. I might mention as a sideline a friend who had trouble seeing a web browser page and he was able to see it better using Google Chrome.

Their name and the link to download them is supplied in the following list:

Apple's Safari for Windows
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Google’s Chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome/

Opera’s Web Browser
http://www.opera.com/download/


Lastly, a good registry cleaning program is worth it's weight in gold. One I have used in the past is Registry Mechanic by PCTools.

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