Alot of programs allow you to specify certain times to scan.
True!
There's something else to also keep in mind:
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 agree. FYI, I used to defrag really often, weekly or oftener, in an effort to make the computer run faster. Nowadays I pretty much follow the advice of the OEM defragger, if it says no need to defrag, I don't. Frequent defragging didn't speed up much, infrequent defragging doesn't seem to hurt.
I was wondering if anyone cleans out the Prefetch Files?
To access these, you enter C:\Windows\Prefetch. You can safely delete all of these files, or at least I have been doing this for about 5 years.
As I understand it, these files build up and can slow down the PC. Someone told me about 5 years ago that these should be deleted once in a while. I delete them a couple of times each year.
Any thoughts on the removal of these?
I was wondering if anyone cleans out the Prefetch Files?
Any thoughts on the removal of these?
Yes, you should delete them once a while, but not TOO often, because then they lost their actual purpose. As far as i know, prefetch files are used for quicker accessing to applications (faster launch). Actually benefit of prefetching is very minimal and in long run it can slow things down. That's why it's good to delete those files once a while.
I personally have disabled prefetching completely, because benefit is so minimal and because it actually "eats" some memory. Here's guide to disable/modify prefetching: http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips1285.html
wow, you guys are hardcore neat freaks, eh? your computer has to be 100% error free / 100% defragged at any given time?
i don't defrag / chkdsk very often.. maybe when i have a little extra tme on my hands, and/or i'm bored and have nothing better to do. on average, i do it once every 40 days or so, and my computer runs fine..
i think some of you guys are a little obsessive compulsive
I defrag less often than I used to, now, but download/move/delete files fairly often, trying out different software, playing around with tweaks etc. So about every two weeks I do a boot defrag with Bootvis, and a full defrag with JKDefrag. This is following a scan/check disk. CCleaner gets used at the end of every browsing session. Avast! and SpywareTerminator auto-update, Comodo Firewall, Firefox and Windows are set to advise me of updates but don't download them, all other applications (SAS, Asquared, AVG AS,SPybot, PG2, the printer, the camera editing program, Java, and Flash player, I update about weekly or two-weekly. Error messages generally only occur following an ill thought out tweak, and are usually explainable. Those that aren't, or recur, I ask for help on a forum like this one. Why should anyone put up with frequent error messages/things not working as they should?
Every two weeks or so it gets a full virus scan, one or two full spyware scans, and a rootkit scan.
I used to be a bit obsessive compulsive, I guess. Now I'm much more relaxed about it. I believe that to learn to un-f### something, you have to partly f### it up a bit first.
[Edit] my computer runs fine, too.
your computer has to be 100% error free / 100% defragged at any given time?
I wish that were true, but sadly it isn't - don't forget we're using something buggy called Windows. Although the slightest error if reoccurring and annoying is enough to have me format the hard disk if I can't find a solution to fix the problem and I've ran into some brick walls before with an erroneous or rare error/problem with no possible fix.
How often do you folks check hard drive(s) S.M.A.R.T. info, to see if it's ok? It's kinda a little obsession to me and i check (almost) every day.
Offtopic question: Is there any obsessions with computer, that you have to do/check every single day?
I once had a copy error in a program I use for backup CeeCee. It took awhile to get it sorted and even now when I make a copy I always check the log to see if there is an error.
It could be a mild form of OCD.How often do you folks check hard drive(s) S.M.A.R.T. info, to see if it's ok? It's kinda a little obsession to me and i check (almost) every day.
Offtopic question: Is there any obsessions with computer, that you have to do/check every single day?