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General Matinence
Hello!
I was recently confronted with a corrupted OS softwear on my Aurora Alienwere computer that I have had for 2 years now. I had to make a fresh load, deleting all of my files. I was very sad, and am still very sad.
Anyway, now, that I've gotten my computer running again, I want to keep anything like that ever happening again. I have been told that general matinence, just general mantinence can help crashes like that.
Well, the many people who have told me that were not very clear on what this "general mantinence" is.
So, I have 3 questions for you:
# 1: What tasks do you define as general mantinence? I have been told a couple (see list below), so if you want to add any additions or change the frequency of when you do them, please post. So far, I have been told that general mantinence is defined as a few of these tasks:
Updating any Windows updates every two days
Scanning your compute for viruses every week (MacAfee, Norton, etc..)
Defragmenting every month
Backing up every month
Finally, deleting everything from the temporary files folder and recycle bin every week
#2:One friend of mine is so paranoid about losing his things, he logs everything he does to his hard drive (install programs, downloading songs, saving documents etc...), so should I do that to? Should I not do it? Should I do only a couple things?
#3: I have been told that after a while, your registry begins to gunk up. Is there any program that you have used that is trust worthy? I've heard some Ccleaner, or defraggler.... stuff like that...
Anyway, I might have more questions later... so if you can, please answer! I am very thankful to anyone who replies!
Cidma
Cidma,
You should only have one virus program and firewall being used.
I also use the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware update it and do a weekly scan.
I think a monthly defragment is enough. Use CCleaner before running the defragmenter.
Rick
Philip_Yip
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Posted July 11th, 2012 12:00
General maintenance for me. First involves A Clean Install of Windows as my wiki. Next there are a few things I do:
1. I copy all items I would require for a reinstall onto an external harddrive. This includes all the installers for my software, the drivers, the Windows installation files.
2. I copy all my files say every week onto an external hard drive. My files from documents, music, pictures and videos. If I used Desktop alot I would copy them also.
3. With regards to virus checking I dislike McAfee and I dislike Norton more. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and a third party firewall such as Windows 7 Firewall Control. I have personally found this to be superior to McAfee on all my systems. I like Malwarebytes' AntiMalware alot. I would update the Microsoft Security Essentials and scan my system once a week and do the same with the Malwarebytes.
4. For cleaning up temporary files and system maintenance, I use CCleaner and Defraggler again about once a week or month depending on how often you use your computer.
5. For very important files in select folders, I use Windows Live Mesh. That way I have them backed up on Windows Live SkyDrive and can access them when I need to on any computer running Windows Vista or 7. See here for details.
DELL- Sreenath
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Posted July 10th, 2012 18:00
Hello Cidma. My name is Sreenath and I work for the Social Media and Community team at Dell. All the steps you listed, that is updating windows, running virus scans, defragmenting and backing up pretty much sums up general maintenance. CCleaner is a safe program that you can use to remove unwanted entries from the registry and also cleaning up unwanted files from your computer. I hope I have answered your queries. Feel free to post any questions you have.
Thanks & Regards
Dell-Sreenath G
Dell Social Media Responder