Panda's guide to maintaining your comp!

[Panda Man]

I wrote this guide for people that are new/fairly new to computers to help them maintain the computers. And now I am posting here because I can. Also I was also incredibly bored. So tell me what you think! Comments and Suggestions welcome! Except from Polobunny of course. This is also old, I wrote it over a year ago now, and though I'm trying to keep it up to date...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Clean out the Viruses! I would recommend cleaning once a week if your a novice/intermediate user, and maybe once every 3 to 6 months if your a careless power user =D (power users should be able to keep an eye on their own traffic.) If you need a good AV, grab a free copy of AVG Antivirus, it will rock your sox. Also, if you want the absolute best, NOD32 is my recommendation. Give the free trial a chance and you will love it. It eats viruses that AVG left behind and uses so little resources, I forgot it was there! Also note that everyone else recommends AntiVir. I have no personal experience with this, but everyone else loves it!

2. Run a spyware scan every one or two weeks. My personal three choices for spyware detection and removal are Ad-Aware, Spybot-S&D, and Microsoft Defender

3. Run Disk Defragmenter about once a week. This will clean up fragments and help keep disk read/write speeds up to par. To run Disk Defragmenter, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. I would also recommend trying out Diskeeper. Its not free however, just try out the trial and if you like it, buy it! As far as free ones go, I don't know of any really good ones, I would jsut stick with the built-in defragger.

4. Maintain Your Registry! Run a repair tool about once every 2 weeks, or if your computer seems to slow down (and the first 3 steps haven't worked). A good utility is RegScrubXP, though it is a tad out of date. CCleaner is also good for cleaning the registry. Registry Mechanic is also a good utility if you care to shell out the money for it.

5. Run CheckDisk about once a month. To run checkdisk, boot into safe mode, click on My Computer, right lick on C: and go to tools, and under error-checking click check now. Also, click on "Scan for and attempt recovery of Bad Sectors" before starting the scan. Alternatively, go to start, run and type "chkdsk C: /f". This will check your HDD for disk and disk surface errors. Be sure to run it on all your hard drives!

6. Clean out your case every so often, and vacume in the room where your computer is at least once a week. Make sure you have good filters in your case fans. To clean out the case, grab a can of compressed air, such as air duster, to blow off all the dust on the parts (Hold the can as upright as possible, just to make sure no moisture comes out, and i also recommend using short blasts rather than one long burst. Read the directions on the can for more info.). DO NOT USE YOUR OWN BREATH TO BLOW OFF THE DUST, as your saliva will most likely damage something. You'd be amazed at how many problems dust bunnies can cause you.

7. Dust and clean your monitor! For CRTs, using a damp paper towel and a dry paper towel to wipe off all the dirt, smudges, etc. is ok (its what I do anyways). HOWEVER: On anti-glare/anti-static surfaces (ALL LCD screens fit under this category), ammonia based chemicals will destroy the anti-glare and anti-static coatings on the monitor screens. You'll need to pick up some anti-static non-ammonia based wipes. You can get them at Wal-Mart in the electronics department, or pretty much any computer shop.

8. Update your drivers! About once a month, you should always update your video drviers, sound drivers, and any other drivers for hardware that you use on a regular basis, such as you motherboards chipset drivers. If you don't know where to go to get drivers for a shipset, just google the model number or search driverguide.com

9. Install a fresh copy of your OS. Especially if you are using windows, you should install a fresh copy of your OS (Operating System) about once every 6 months.

10. Check all your fans and heatsinks, and keep an eye on heat. It causes the internal components and chips to wear out. Heat also lowers the performance of your system. The first thing to check is the ventilation around your system. Many of the standard computer desks force you to place your computer in an enclosed cabinet. If your system is in an enclosed space, move it out into the open or make sure there is an opening in the back so that the fans can bring in cool air.

----Recommended Utilities----
These are recommended maintenance/monitoring utilities that weren't already listed in the guide. Details can be found on the page the link leads to.

Motherboard Monitor (great for monitoring motherboards, as the name suggests :wacko: )
SpeedFan (Can help with fan speeds, voltages, and monitors temps)
CPU-Z (Great for general info, particualarly about memory)
Memtest86 (For testing Memory stability)
PowerStrip (Great for monitoring and adjusting any video card)
Fraps (See how many Frames Per Second you getting)
PCMark05 (Measures general performance of your PC)
MetaBench (Another benchmark program w/more than 55 different tests)
3DMark05 (Kind of like PCMark, only this will benchmark 3D capabilities of your comp)
Everest (Home Edition) (I LOVE this program. It will pretty much tell you anything you could possibly want know about your comp)
Hijackthis (good for maintaining browser security and keeping other misc. proggies safe)
EasyCleaner (small program which searches Windows registry for entries that are pointing nowhere)
TweakUI (Great for tweaking hidden settings)
3DMark06 (See 3DMark05!)
JV16 Powertools - Thanks Stinger! (A massive suite of misc. tools for cleaning and protecting. Its like Christmas early! Just a free trial though)

More stuff.
(NOTE: These links are mostly for benchmarking/checking for stability)
* CPU: Prime 95 - http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
* RAM: Memtest 3.3 - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download350.html
* RAM: Memtest86 - http://www.memtest86.com/
* VID: Code Creatures - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1256
* VID: RTHDRIBL V.1.2 - http://www.daionet.gr.jp/%7Emasa/rthdribl/index.html
* OVERALL: Sandra - http://www.sisoftware.net/index.htm...264&langx=en&a=

Thanks to polo for a few suggestions in the links

I, Panda Man, wrote this guide, I did NOT write any of the programs listed above. All credit is to go to the respected authors, who can be found at the download pages.

**note - This guide I made is gettong somewhat old. If something doesn't work let me know ^__^

[Lead Head]

Ah, this very usefull guide I have seen many times before has reached HL!

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

Ah, this very usefull guide I have seen many times before has reached HL!

Indeed. Just be sure to read through it again please, as you know this is pretty old and I'm not sure if this is up to date.

[stinger608]

Pretty complete from what I can remember, other than maybe adding
jv16 powertools:

http://www.macecraft.com/jv16powertools2006/

The registered version is not free, but there is a free trial download on there web site.

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by stinger608

Pretty complete from what I can remember, other than maybe adding
jv16 powertools:

http://www.macecraft.com/jv16powertools2006/

The registered version is not free, but there is a free trial download on there web site.

Added. Thanks for the input!

I just can't help but feel there is something missing.

[gvblake22]

Lots of great linkage, thanks Panda Man! :thumb:

[polobunny]

AVG Antispyware, known as Ewido Security Suite is a very good antispyware i'd recommend to anyone. The full version is not free, but the trial is great and can save your life. :P
Also, i'd recommend AntiVir for a good antivirus. I used to be all for AVG, but after trying AntiVir again I couldn't switch back to it. Like AVG there's also a free version available.
For memory testing, i'd recommend Memtest86+. Developpement on Memtest86 has stopped since a good while now but Memtest86+ is still being updated. (www.memtest.org)

[deantn]

Everest( Home Edition) not being kept up to date anymore but still worth having on machines.

[Capper]

Don't forget our Recommended Software List on the main page

[screwballl]

my personal favorites for real world maintenance/cleanup is a-squared and CCleaner.
I also recently switched 3 of 4 PCs to AntiVir from AVG.. but for ease of use I still suggest AVG to new users