Do you run it on all your hard drives (if you got several), or just on one where OS is?
Standard ChkDsk gets ran on all of them (just have C: and D:) because that's how I have the batch file configured when it reboots the system.
Full/Thorough ChkDsk is typically only ran on drive C: with the OS during that every 1 to 3 months checkup, and at the maximum twice per year on my secondary hard disk.
Full/Thorough ChkDsk is typically only ran on drive C: with the OS during that every 1 to 3 months checkup, and at the maximum twice per year on my secondary hard disk.
I'm a little embarrassed to ask, but where is "ChkDsk" and how do you access it?
You could use the Scheduled Tasks function of Windows XP. You could probably set those tasks on separate times.
Go to Control Panel, and (in Classic View) double-click Schedule Task.
Is it possible with Scheduled Tasks to make an anti-spyware program lauch itself and start scanning right after the anti-virus has finished, or will I need to mesure the amount of time taken for the scan of the latter ?
Before step 4 - cleaning the registry - I would definitely make a registry backup, using ERUNT.
Seems like a waste of time to me. I doubt you would see any difference between doing this monthly or even ever 3 months or so instead of weekly.
The only thing I may do weekly is make back ups(just copy and paste files onto an external drive) and run CCleaner. I have registry mechanic which might use to clean up/compact my registry when I think about it.(which isn't close to weekly or even monthly...) Just have your AV scan automatically and then maybe run a spyware scan every now and then if you think you need to.
All I really do on a very regular basis is run ChkDsk, Defrag, and I just started scanning for viruses a couple times a week. Some people can get by only defragging once a month, or twice a year but when working with audio files at the frequency that I do the hdd does get fragmented.
Yes, you should defrag on regular basis. If you defrag very rarely, disk can get highly fragramented, and there for defragging takes a lot of time and disk gets under lot of stress, which in worst case may lead to possible hard drive failure (or possibility for failure is higher).
If you don't EVER defrag, then your system performance really goes down in long run.
Yes, you should defrag on regular basis. If you defrag very rarely, disk can get highly fragramented, and there for defragging takes a lot of time and disk gets under lot of stress, which in worst case may lead to possible hard drive failure (or possibility for failure is higher).
If you don't EVER defrag, then your system performance really goes down in long run.
From my experience this isn't true. I have computers running windows 98 that still have the first HD I put in them.
I'm not saying you shouldn't ever defrag, what I'm saying is that doing so weekly is a waste of time.
I'm not saying you shouldn't ever defrag, what I'm saying is that doing so weekly is a waste of time.
I'm not saying, that you should defrag weekly, but once every couple of months or monthly. Or atleast twice a year. How much disk gets fragmented, depends. If you i.e. install/uninstall lot of programs, you should defrag more often.
Right click on the icon of the HDD in which Windows is installed in My Computer ---> Propreties ---> Disk Cleanup ---> More Options ---> System Restore "Clean up...".
Is it possible with Scheduled Tasks to make an anti-spyware program lauch itself and start scanning right after the anti-virus has finished, or will I need to mesure the amount of time taken for the scan of the latter ?
Not too sure if Scheduled Tasks will do that, but you can (if your program allows you to do this) set your Anti-Virus and Spyware Programs to run at certain times at certain points of the day, week, or month. Alot of programs allow you to specify certain times to scan.