Ways to Maintain Your PC

Every PC owner wants to keep that machine running smoothly. In this Part of
Tens chapter, I outline several tricks that you can use to keep your machine
reliable and stable. Some of these tips cost money (such as selecting faster hard-ware), but others won’t cost you a cent. Go, Speed Racer, go!

Defragment Your Hard Drive

Over weeks and months of use, computers running any version of Windows XP and
Vista will invariably slow down significantly because of hard drive fragmentation.
First, a quick explanation about fragmentation: When you delete a file from your
hard drive, that area of your hard drive can then accept data from another file. If the
file to be saved is larger than this open area, however, Windows must split the file
into fragments. When your computer needs to load a file, Windows automatically
(and invisibly) reassembles these fragments back into the complete file. However,
the more fragmented the files are on your hard drive, the longer this step takes, and
the slower your PC becomes.
When you defragment your hard drive (called a defrag), the program rearranges the
data on your hard drive so that each file is contiguous(no longer divided up into indi-vidual fragments) — making it much easier and faster for Windows to read that file
when you ask for it!
To defragment your hard drive, follow these simple steps:

  Windows XP

1. Click the Start button, and then choose Programs➪Accessories➪
System Tools➪Disk Defragmenter.
2. From the list that appears, click the drive you want to defragment.

3. Click the Defragment button.
4. When the defragment is complete, click the Close button on the Disk
Defragmenter window to exit the program.

  Windows Vista

1. Click the Start button, and then choose All Programs➪
Accessories➪System Tools➪Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click the Select Volumes button to choose which drive you want to
defragment.
3. Click the Defragment Now button and then click OK.
4. When the defragment is complete, click the Close button to exit the
program


  Get Connected with the Speediest Data Transfers

For the fastest possible throughput(the data transfer rate between components on
your system) from your internal hard drives and DVD drives, your computer cries
out for a serial ATA (SATA) connection. For plugging in external devices, demand a
FireWire, a USB 2.0, or an eSATA connection.
If you build your PC with an enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE) hard drive,
you can still add any of these connections, either by using your motherboard’s built-in hardware or by buying a PCI adapter with the correct connectors. (Chapter 7
describes more about your hard drives.) However, if you’ve done your homework
and you’re building a power user PC, it pays to build your computer around a moth-erboard with serial ATA, FireWire, and USB 2.0 built-in. “Just say noto EIDE!”
I recommend using a PCI-Express video card as well, especially if gaming is high on
your list of applications! Chapter 14 covers gaming PC performance like a blanket.

  Keep Your Backgrounds Plain

Graphical operating systems, such as Windows Vista and Linux, can be dressed up
with 16 million–color photographs as backgrounds, animated icons, and other exotic
eye candy. If you want your PC to run faster under one of these operating systems,
however, select a simple, single-color background because your PC must use extra
RAM to display true-color images or animated icons. Some full-screen background
pictures that I’ve seen are nearly 6 megabytes (6MB) in size — 16 million–color
bitmaps! meant for widescreen resolutions of 1680 x 1050 (and even higher)! If you
use a high-resolution, full-screen bitmap with 16 million colors as your background,
you might notice that your PC slows down significantly when it’s loading the back-ground image (or redrawing it after you close a window or quit a game).

  Remove Resident Programs

Beware! Your computer might be harboring hidden programs that suck power and
resources from your applications. No, I’m not talking about viruses. I’m talking about




resident programs,which have been around since the days of DOS. (Yup, you win the
secret prize if you remember DOS Days.) A resident program is loaded automatically
when you boot your computer, and the program continues to work in the back-ground while you run the applications that you want. Unlike a virus, a resident pro-gram is usually doing something you want, such as checking the status of your disk
drive, polling your Internet service provider for your e-mail, or displaying stock
quotes.
Unfortunately, if you load down your computer with too many resident programs,
your PC has to devote too much processor time and RAM to maintain them; thus,
your applications will slow down accordingly. To make sure that this slowdown
doesn’t happen, don’t load more than two or three resident tasks. Also avoid
installing programs that automatically start each time that you boot your PC
unless you really need them to.
Under Windows XP and Vista, you can recognize most resident programs by their
icons in the system tray, which occupies the lower far-right side of the status bar
opposite from the Start button. To determine what each of these icons does, you
can usually left- or right-click the icon to display a menu. (And most resident tasks
have a menu item that you can select to shut them down.) If you don’t need a
program and it keeps loading a system tray icon, feel free to choose Start➪
Control Panel➪Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP) or Start➪Control Panel➪
Uninstall a Program (Windows Vista). This takes you to a dialog box where you can
click the offending application and then click Change/Remove (XP) or
Uninstall/Change (Vista) to delete it. Hurrah!
Although uninstalling a resident program is always the best way to banish it from
your system, you can also stop a specific program from loading during startup under
Windows XP and Vista. Here’s how:


      Windows XP
    1. Choose Start➪Run to display the Run dialog box.
    2. Type MSCONFIGand then click OK.
     Windows Vista
   1. Choose Start and then click in the Start Search box.
   2. Type MSCONFIGand then click the magnifying glass icon.
   3. Click the MSconfig program.


Either path opens the System Configuration Utility, where you can make changes to
the behavior of Windows during the boot process. For both XP and Vista, do the
following:

   1. Click the Startup tab.
   2. When you see a list of the applications that Windows automatically runs
during startup, locate the program that you want to disable in the list,
clear the check box next to the program, and then click OK.




Keep Your Drivers Updated 
Although I mentioned this tip several times earlier in this book, it belongs here as

well. I highly recommend that you make it a habit to check your hardware manufac-turer Web sites every month for the latest and greatest versions of your drivers.
These drivers should include your motherboard’s BIOS, your video card, your sound
card, and your network hardware. Not only will the latest drivers keep your hard-ware running as fast as possible, but you might even eliminate the occasional
lockup!

  Use a Native File System 

When you use Windows (XP or Vista), Linux, or Unix, you’ll find that you have at
least one alternative format for storing and retrieving files: Each of these operating
systems has a native file systemthat improves on the DOS file system. In every case,
your operating system can save and load data faster from its native file system,
which was designed for use in a 32- or 64-bit multitasking environment. I especially
recommend using the NTFS file system if you’re running Windows XP or Windows
Vista.
When you install Windows, Linux, or Unix on a new hard drive, you’re given the
chance to reformat your hard drive for native file system support. I recommend
that you use the native file system. See Chapter 8 for more

Check Your Drives for Errors

 I have no earthly idea why Microsoft continues to hide the Check Disk feature, but
you should use it often. I check all the drives on my PCs every week. Checking the
disk for errors ensures that no corruption has occurred because of power outages or
misbehaving programs that don’t load and save files how they should. If you don’t
check your drives often, a small problem can rapidly escalate into something far nas-tier, and you could end up losing data.
To check a disk for errors, follow these steps.
   Windows XP
    1. Click the Start button and then click My Computer to display the drives
on your system.
    2. Right-click the drive you want to check and then choose Properties from
the menu that appears.
    3. Click the Tools tab.
    4. Click the Check Now button and then select the Automatically Fix File
System Errors check box

    5. Click Start.
If you’re checking your boot drive, you’ll see a warning dialog appear that
tells you that Windows will have to check the drive the next time you
reboot. This makes sense because you’re currently using it.
   6. Click Yes to confirm.
   7. Restart your PC.
Check Disk automatically does the deed.


Windows Vista
    1. Click the Start button and then click My Computer.
    2. Right-click the drive you want to check and then choose Properties from
the menu that appears.
    3. Click the Tools tab.
    4. Click the Check Now button and then select the Automatically Fix File
System Errors check box.
    5. Click Start.
If a warning appears, you’ll have to reboot.
    6. Click Schedule Disk Check to confirm.
    7. Restart your PC and allow Check Disk to run.


Uninstalling 101

This one’s common sense, but you’d be surprised how many PC owners simply don’t
remember to uninstall unneeded software! Over time, your Windows Program folder
can become clogged with dozens of demos, shareware programs you tried but didn’t
buy, and even commercial software that you needed once or twice and haven’t run
in ages. Those unneeded applications take up space that you could be using for
something you’ll actually use.
Most applications now come with an uninstall program, which you can usually reach
from the application’s Start menu group. However, you can always display all the
programs you’ve installed under Windows from the Control Panel:


Windows XP
   1. Choose Start➪Control Panel➪Add or Remove Programs.
   2. Click the program you wish to uninstall.
   3. Click Remove.
The uninstall program prompts you for confirmation
Windows Vista

   1. Start➪Control Panel➪Uninstall a Program.
   2. Click the program you wish to chuck.
   3. Click Uninstall/Change.
The uninstall program prompts you for confirmation.


Maintain Your System Registry
Most of the settings for Windows XP and Vista — as well as the settings for the pro-grams you run — are kept in a huge file called the Windows Registry. As you might
imagine, over time the Registry can become clogged with entries for programs
you’re not even running any longer, as well as incomplete and corrupted entries that
can slow down Windows (or cause errors, or even lock up your PC).
You can use any number of Windows Registry cleanup utilities to check your
Registry for errors and then remove the inaccurate and unnecessary entries. My
favorite is TweakNow RegCleaner Professional, from http://TweakNow.com. It’s
an inexpensive, $27 shareware program that keeps my Registry error-free, and it can
also safely reduce the size of your Registry (resulting in faster booting and faster
program loading).
Clean Up after Windows
Why do you have to clean up after Windows XP and Vista on a regular basis? You can
save space by deleting the unnecessary (like the temporary files that many pro-grams create) and compressing the stuff you do want to keep (like your documents).
These tasks are performed in both XP and Vista by the Disk Cleanup program.
To run the Disk Cleanup program, follow these steps.
Windows XP
    1. Click the Start button and then choose Programs➪Accessories➪
System Tools➪Disk Cleanup.
    2. After the Disk Cleanup program displays the files that can be deleted,
click each desired check box to enable it.
    3. Click the OK button; then click the Delete Files button to verify.
Disk Defragmenter automatically exits when it’s done.
Windows Vista
    1. Click the Start button and then choose All Programs➪
Accessories➪System Tools➪Disk Cleanup.
    2. Follow the preceding steps for Windows XP.


From book  Build Your Own PC FOR DUMmIES