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Why did my computer do that?Part 1 of 2
What is more frustrating than a computer? A computer that does things you don't want it to do, that's what. It is one thing for a computer to, say, run a program you didn't want when you accidentally clicked on the program you didn't want, but for a pop-up to show itself when you asked for no pop-ups, or your computer slowing down over time, or your computer to restart itself every 60 seconds when you asked for no such thing, or... the list goes on.
There is one word that will prevent most of these things from happening and it is called, funnily enough: prevention. Prevention starts with maintenance. It ends with updates. To keep things orderly, we will start with maintenance.
There are a number of tools that can help Windows machines become more lean, figuratively speaking, but the two that give your computer a great means of keeping up its reliabiilty are: scandisk and defrag. With later versions of Windows, (Windows NT, 2000 and XP), we don't see scandisk, though there is an option to perform similar tasks. What we see is a means of "checking for errors."
In Windows 95, 98 and Me, Scandisk can be found by going to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Scandisk. If you run a thorough scandisk once a week, you can be sure to catch files that are where they shouldn't be. It is not something you would observe by looking at your file structure. This is stuff in the background -- "behind the filing cabinet," one could say. In Windows 2000 and XP, go to Explorer (Windowskey-E), right-click the drive you want to scan and select Properties. Go to the Tools tab and select Error-Checking. You will have to checkboxes. If you select both, one will say that the option you selected will be performed when you next reboot. Since we're doing maintenance, you might as well reboot after saying OK to these options.
![]() So you may say to yourself, "Well, this is all very lovely, but I have no time/memory for such things." To those who think this, I say: My friend, you will be as happy as a mosquito at a nudest colony when you learn of the option to schedule these tasks. This is an option that has been in Windows since Windows 98. This option cannot be used in Windows XP and 2000 if you have a blank password to log in. If you traverse the now-familiar path to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools, you will see a program called Scheduled Tasks. It may also be called Task Schedule, depending on your version of Windows, but the gist of the program will be evident. Run this program. You will see a relatively blank window. If you run the program within this window called Add Scheduled Task, you will be given an option as to which programs you'd like to run. The fact of the matter is that you can automate a great deal of things with this program, but we will focus on the task at hand. If you are prompted with a "Next" window or some such thing, just click "Next" or "OK" until you get to the window that lists a lot of programs. This part may take a minute as the program collects information on what programs are installed. Select the program (Disk Cleaner, Scandisk (for Windows 95, 98 or Me) or Disk Defragmenter. It will ask what you'd like to call it. That's your choice, but I usually call them something similar to Weekly Scan or Weekly Clean. From here, you can tell it how often you'd like it to run. I'd select weekly, then click Next. The starting time is a time you would want when you are not going to be using your computer and a time where it will be powered on. At lunch or late at night are usually good times. These programs can take quite some time to run, but you don't need to be there when they do. You could select Friday at 11pm if that suits you. Click on next. You may be asked to enter your login name and password. Use the same name/password that you use when you log in to your computer (not to be confused with any Internet login information). Now click Next. This is where it gets a bit tricky:
Perform these tasks in the order outlined above. This way, your drive first gets cleaned of unwanted files, then it gets cleaned up for lost files (lost to the operating system), then the whole thing gets defragmented.
Next week, we'll continue talking about maintenance and how to keep your computer running smoothly. Instead of built-in applications, we will talk about things you can download that will make your life on the Internet much nicer.
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