The following 8 actions should be done at least once a month.  However, heavy internet usage dictates that they be done once a week. By not doing these actions, you will see your computer performing slower and slower until it may finally lock up.  It will eventually not execute programs correctly (events out of order, colors wrong, sounds broken, etc.) and on most computer's the mouse will disappear! All you can do then is press reset but it will disappear again shortly.
So, take a deep breath let's get into your machine.

Keep minimum stuff ( bytes:-)

Clipboard stuff is stored on your RAM memory. You don't have lots of RAM so don't slow down your system by using up RAM to hold something you don't need. When something is put on the clipboard, Windows wipes it clean first. So why not put something tiny on the clipboard to keep the RAM freed up for faster computing?

Let's do it. .Put onto the desktop any text document like this one you're reading now. Highlight a small word...like..."Pete" Do this by holding down the Ctrl key and run the mouse over..."Pete"

You just cleaned off the clipboard and put "pete" on it. "Pete" is a lot smaller than the last item you coppied/cut or whatever some program decided to put there for quick use. RAM is "precious"' protect it always. 

NOTE: If you do allot of work with your web page like I do and are copying and pasting all the time it would be a good idea to do this at least once a day.

CLEAN out THE Internet folder. . .

Each time you visit a web site & click through it's pages, each page's web address is stored in the HISTORY folder and the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES/CACHE folder.  Two hour's on the web & my folder is so full my mouse freezes! Delete them away.

• For Internet Explorer 4.0 and later

 

Single Click. . .START | Select. . .SETTINGS

Single Click. . .CONTROL PANEL

Double click on the . . .INTERNET OPTIONS Icon

The folder you're looking at has 6 tabs.

We will deal with the GENERAL tab and the ADVANCED tab.

 

  On the GENERAL tab:

See "HISTORY"

Set the days to 1 if you use the web a lot, set to 5 if you don't.

Single Click the. . .Clear History TAB

See the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES in the middle?

Single Click the. . .Delete Files TAB

See the CLEAR COOKIES tab?

Single Click the. . .Delete Cookies TAB

 

  On The ADVANCED tab:

Scroll down to the Cookie Settings and put a check or mark next to the "Prompt Before Accepting Cookies" I'll tell ya about cookies later. Close the Internet Properties window then close the Control Panel window. (This suggestion is mine, do what works best for you.)

 

NOTE:  This also can be done from within Internet Explorer while you are connected to the Internet.

Single Click. . .Edit on the tool bar

Select. . .Internet Options

Then follow the instructions as listed above. 

I delete my temporary Internet files
at the end of each session on the Internet.

While on the Internet and your Netscape window is open. . .

Single Click. . .Edit on the tool bar

Select. . .Preferences

You will see 7 folders there, we will be dealing with the NAVIGATOR and the ADVANCED folders.

 

Highlight the NAVIGATOR folder

See "HISTORY"

Set the days to 1 if you use the web a lot, set to 5 if you don't.

Single Click. . .Clear History

 

Highlight the ADVANCED folder

See the COOKIES section:

Place a mark next to "Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating sender." (This suggestion is mine, do what works best for you.)

 

Now open the ADVANCED folder by clicking on the "+"

Click on the "CACHE sub folder"

For better performance:

Set Memory Cache to 2000 KBytes

Set Disk Cache to 10,000 KBytes

Single Click. . .Clear Memory Cache

Single Click. . .Clear Disk Cache

I delete my temporary Internet files at the end of each session on the Internet.

Let's take out the trash. . .

 

Single Click. . .START | Select. . .FIND/Search

Single Click. . .FILES OR FOLDERS

 

Type in *.tmp then Single Click. .FIND NOW in C drive

Highlight all the files present and using the Shif + Delete keys get rid of them.

 

Then type in ~*.* and find and delete them also.

 

These temporary files are created by Windows and are SUPPOSED (minor Windows flaw) to be closed out when you shut down your computer. Sometimes Windows forgets some. Enough of those leftovers are called TRASH! There may be some that are active and you will be unable to remove these, so don't bother with them. The ones that should be eliminated will go quietly.

Dump your old stuff. . .

Remember the letters written to friends and family, or businesses. If they are more than a year old DELETE them. If you still need to keep them move them to a floppy. Especially true for old pictures.

Empty the recycle bin. . .

Every time you empty the kitchen trash can, empty the recycle bin for me, ok? It's icon looks like a trash can for a reason!

 

NOTE: With Windows 98 you can use the DISK CLEAN-UP for some of the steps above.

Single Click. . .Start | Select. . .Programs

Select. . .Accessories

Single Click. . .System Tools | Select. . .Disk CleanUp

However it does not clean everything off your hard disk that should be removed.

Now we'll do two built-in 

NOTE:  It is important to shut down any running programs before starting your Scan Disk and Disk Defrag. 

SCAN DISK

Basically it scans the hard disk for errors.

Single Click. . .Start | Select. . .Programs

Select. . .Accessories

Single Click. . .System Tools | Select. . .SCANDISK

 

Make sure there is or put a dot next to THOROUGH

and a check next to Automatically FIX ERRORS.

 

Select the hard disk you wish to scan and Click. .Start and go do the weeks laundry cuz it usually takes a while.  When you have scanned each of your hard disks, close the window.  Piece of cake, huh?

 

DEFRAG

Imagine a bag of M&M's on a platter, then you eat all the red ones. I come over and eat all the yellow ones. See all those random empty spaces on the platter, that's what your hard drive looks like if you don't DEFRAG once in a while. It takes the hard drive longer to find information if it's scattered around like the M&M's. Let's push them all together.

 

Single Click. . .Start | Select. . .Programs

Select. . .Accessories

Single Click. . .System Tools | Select. . .DISK DEFRAGMENTER

 

On the tiny window that appears, select the hard disk you wish to defrag and

Single Click. . .OK

On the next tiny window, Single Click. . .Start

Zooooom, off it goes!

Think I was silly about the M&M? Click "SHOW DETAILS" (told ya), keeping the details window open slows this process down so after you have taken a peek choose hide details. When you have defragged each of your hard disks, close the window.

Now for COOKIES. . .
Cookies are a mini tattle tale program that a web site wants to put onto your hard drive. Cookies look at the web addresses in your Internet History folder and tell the web site what other web sites you have visited. Is it for marketing or spying or to find out what your interests are so you can be sent even more junk mail (spam). If you've never heard of cookies, then you're probably laughing at me like the M&M story. OK, follow me for a reality check.

• For Internet Explorer 4.0

Single Click. . .START

Select. . .PROGRAMS

Select. . .WINDOWS EXPLORER

 

Think of what you see as a book that's folder open. Whatever you highlight (by clicking on the word) on the left, it's contents will be shown on the right.

 

On the left page, Click on the. ."+" next to the word ‘WINDOWS'. Under WINDOWS are all the sub folders in WINDOWS.

 

Oh my gosh! Is there really a folder called COOKIES? Single Click. . .the word COOKIES to highlight it. The right page will now show it's contents.

 

If you didn't know anything about COOKIES before now, and you didn't have a check next to "PROMPT BEFORE ACCEPTING COOKIES" on the ADVANCED TAB folder in Internet Properties, I'll bet you've got a lot of COOKIES on the right page.

Let's flush them out.

Single Click. . .Edit on the tool bar

Select. . .Select All

then

Single Click. . .File on the tool bar

Select. . .DELETE

 

What? You say they all didn't go away?  HaHa, you learnd too late and you've got a taste of..."SUPER COOKIE". 256 & 2048 are Super Booger cookies, look bad, taste bad & they're all yours.

 

NOTE:  Your RECYCLE BIN is full again so empyt it.

 

• For Netscape 4.1 and later

 

        Netscape does not collect cookies the same as Internet Explorer does.  All cookies for Netscape are saved in a Text Cocument, a very small amount of space is used by this document, DO NOT DELETE IT.

 

EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about these lovely cookies can be found on this site....A very informative site....Please check it out..

Single Click. . .START | Select. . .SEARCH

Single Click. . .ALL FILES and FOLDERS

 

Type in COOKIES
Then use the drop down list to find Local Hard Drive C. Single Click. . .SEARCH Tab

 

Locate the Cookies folder.

Double Click. . .Cookies Folder

Select ALL and delete entire contents of the folder. Anything that shouldn't be deleted will not be.

~~COOKIES~~
http://www.cookiecentral.com/

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And last but not least, let us not forget all those little temp devils in our MS-DOS.  This is where all these temporary files wind up if we are not careful!

To delete these, we must do the following.....

Shut all open programs down.. Click to Windows..Start.. Click on Shut Down.. Make sure the little black dot is in front of. . .Re-Start in MS-DOS.. Click on Enter... You should now be in MS-DOS mode.. Look down left side of your screen for Windows prompt: Type in... deltree tempor~1 Click on Enter.. You will be asked if you want to delete all temp files...yn Click on..y.. Click on enter.. You should now be deleting all temp files in MS-DOS... If you have never done this before, you may find this may take a while, so sit back and relax... When it is all done deleting, it will show you the Windows prompt again.. At this point, all that remains, is to hit.. Control, Alt, Delete, ..at the same time to reboot..

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Congradulations! 
your puter is now free of all those temp files that tend to slow things down . . . Anything I may have used with copyright, 
               has been done unintentionally and without knowledge of it... 
            So, PLEASE notify me with proof of copyright and I will remove it. 

!! IMPORTANT UPDATES !!

Tips for speeding up a slow computer..
http://kehs.ksd.org/tips/speedup.htm

Updates...Macintosh !!!
 http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Help/Mac/

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