General Housekeeping Tips

This section is designed to give general advice on how to optimise the performance of your machine and keep things running in good working order. If you are already experiencing problems start with step 4 the disc checking routines and then perform steps 1 to 3.

Step 1 - Clear Up all unnecessary temporary files and Cookies.

Double Click on 'My Computer' which is normally either on the desktop within Windows 98 / ME, right click on your main disk drive (normally the 'C:' drive). On the Properties tab it will open up the 'general' tab and click further down on the tab 'Disk Cleanup'. It will then take up to a couple minutes to check what can removed, you then check all the boxes that come up in the 'Files to delete' section.

This you should run this weekly.

Step 2 - Run an Antivirus Scan

If your system does not automatically run an Antivirus scan - ensure your virus definitions are up to date and run one now. If in doubt try the online scan at Symantec (Norton) you can also check your online exposure to other security threats Symantec Online.

Running an Antivirus Scan should also be performed weekly.

Step 3 - Run and Anti-Spyware Scan

For Windows 98 / ME we recommend that you run a good Anti-spyware package such as Ad-Aware from Lavasoft which has a good reputation, this can be found in the Download Section. Ensure that you install the spyware definitions are updated prior to running this. If you suspect spyware problems that have not been cleared by Ad-Aware then install Spybot search and destroy, update the spyware definitions and do a further system scan with Spybot.  For real-time protection enable 'The Tea-Timer' functionality within Spybot.

Running an Anti-Spyware Scan should also be performed weekly.

Step 4 - Run the Windows Disk Checking Routine.

Double Click on 'My Computer' which is normally either on the desktop within Windows 98 / ME, right click on your main disk drive (normally the 'C:' drive). On the Properties tab, click on the 'tools' tab and click on the 'Thorough' tab, and when prompted click on 'Automatically fix errors'. Click start and shutdown as many open applications as you can and leave the computer to complete, it will periodically re-start as and when Windows access the disk drive for other reasons, don't worry about this.

If you find errors the chances are that if there are small number your system will be OK, if however the scan finds a large number of disc problems particularly is these are 'bad block' then it could be suggestive of a disc that is starting to fail, we would suggest you back-up to another media your data at the earliest opportunity.

Appleton Computers would recommend that you run this monthly.  Note if Disk Checker continually re-starts and does not finish even after an hour or so, then it possible that open applications (or those automatically loaded at start-up) are causing this problem, to get round start your computer in 'Safe Mode' and try again. To startup in 'Safe Mode' press F8 several times as your computer starts up.

Step 5 - Run a 'Disk Defragment' on your hard disc.

Double Click on 'My Computer' which is normally either on the desktop within Windows 98 / ME, right click on your main disk drive (normally the 'C:' drive). On the Properties tab, click on the 'tools' tab and click on the 'Defragment Now', and on 'Disk Defragmenter' windows that appears click on 'Defragment'. This take a long time typically up to an hour or two if this has not been run before.

Appleton Computers would recommend that you run this monthly.  Note if Disk Defragmenter continually re-starts and does not finish even after several hours of unattended running, then it possible that open applications (or those automatically loaded at start-up) are causing this problem, to get round start your computer in 'Safe Mode' and try again. To start-up in 'Safe Mode' press F8 several times as your computer starts up.

Finally always shutdown Windows properly and avoid switching the power off, if this ever happens then run immediately the disk check routine detailed under step 4.