Long time no blog, but here I am, kinda overwhelmed with work but i need a short break so i decided to throw some “useful” information in case you didn’t know already.
I will use Windows 7 for my examples since i think its most common. Other Windows Versions may have different folder descriptions, but the main behaviour is the same.
In the past days i worked on many computers of friends, tried optimizing stuff and figured out that there is some general misunderstanding when it comes to computers at all.
Let’s start with quotes:
“My computer is totally full of data i think i need to format the system again, like you should do every 2 years or so”
~ Well, no! Back in 1999 it was pretty common to format the HDD every now and then, cause Windows managed to crash every now and then refusing to boot the OS again.
So you were like forced either to format your HDD and install Windows 98 (for example) again or to go into DOS command shell and try to rebuild the boot sector.
Many people still think like that, even if its not the case.
Generally i advice you to have a clean desktop. Use your Profile Folders (C:\Users\YourUsername) to store your documents and stuff. If you have a large amount of music, movies or other stuff, i would even say you use a different HDD (or atleast Partition) called “Data” to store them.
For example if your Windows crashes, you could easily plug the HDD into another PC and go into the Data Partition to backup all your data, without hours of searching where in the hell you stored your music again.
A No Go for you should be C:\Windows. If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t go into that folder anytime! Windows stores all the important applications in this folder it needs to work.
What i basically want to reach is that you always know where your data is. You need a tidy PC. Even if you lack in knowledge this should be the basic rule.
What we reach by that is, if your HDD is full, you can easily see why.
For that I advice a tool called “treesize” in the free edition.
https://www.jam-software.de/treesize_free/
This programm analyses your HDD and shows you which folders need the most space. So you can easily see if something weird is going on.
Let’s talk about the main folders of your Operating System.
The most important ones are:
C:\Users – Your Userprofiles are stored here, and every piece of data from your desktop, documents folder, music folder, and all your individual settings. (Outlook signature for example)
Depending on your documents it shouldnt be higher than 5GB. Otherwise i suggest a separate partition to store your data. Don’t fill your desktop with rubbish!
(Vary’s for IPhone/IPad users since Apple stores all the backups in your Userprofile….)
C:\Programs | C:\Programs(x86) – Most installed programms will store their data here, if you install a programm you will most likely find it by its name, or the name of the company in this directions. Don’t delete stuff from here, you delete it from SystemSettings – Software (or for geeks: appwiz.cpl). Depending on your programms it should be around 10GB – 50GB
C:\Windows – Windows stores all the important OS stuff here, from printerdrivers up to system configurations, Windows layouts, and Windows general habits. Don’t do stuff here unless you know what to do.
Depending on drivers, system updates and stuff it can be very large. 20-40GB shouldn’t worry you nowadays. (Varys extremly between older operating systems!!!)
Let’s make it short:
Keep your PC clean, store your data either in C:\Users\Yourusername\ or on a separate partition/HDD
If diskspace reachs its limits, try “treesize” in the free edition to analyse your data usage.
Do not touch C:\Windows.
“My pc needs years to boot, i can grab plenty coffees before i can do anything”
It’s most likely that a massive amount of apps start while you start your operating system. Basically every installed programm thinks it’s so important that it needs to boot with OS start.
What you can do is go into the Boot Operator to uncheck every program you don’t need.
For that click on the Windows Start Button and type in the search bar “msconfig -4”. [msconfig -6 on Windows XP, can generally differ between the OS, if youre unsure just use msconfig and look for the application tab]
You will see a list of applications which launch during your system start. Apart from your anti virus system, which you obiviously have installed *cough*, i’d say you can disable everything. No you don’t need skype, msn, icq, adobe, msoffice, pdfcreator and stuff to launch during boot.
What happens then is, that your windows reacts very slow to your input since it has to open skype and all the applications in the background, some of them even popup and log in automatically.
Another thing you can check is the “Windows Task Scheduler”, simply type it in the search box after clicking the Windows Start icon. It takes a bit time to open but there you see all the random tasks scheduled by applications for several times. You can delete everything (except anti virus tasks again), unless you planned some on purpose. They just annoy by launching every now and then.
Another tweak to speed up your pc is to reduce the visual effects of your pc.
For doing that, go to system properties, advanced tab, performnace, settings, visual effects.
(And again for geeks: Execute: control sysdm.cpl -> advanced -> performance -> settings -> visual effects)
Here you can uncheck everything. The design will change drastically. If you leave the last box checked, it wont change that much but speed up your movement between folders. Personally i only check three boxes. The two ones regarding invisible background of fonts, and smooth edges of screen fonts, and the last checkbox visual styles for Windows.
You dont see a big design change, but it speeds up a lot especially if you have a bad graphic card.
And here we come to a main mistake of many people. If you experience a lag while scrolling through browser windows or folders, i highly recommend to update your graphic card driver. If the default graphic driver is installed, it often lags very hard. That basically means windows uses its own default graphics driver, because it can’t find the one of your graphics card. Please go to manufactur site and download the latest graphic card driver for your graphic card, and install it!
Shorty:
msconfig -4 to decide which applications launch while OS start (except antivirus)
delete scheduled tasks (except antivirus ones)
disable most visual effects under system control panel to speed up your pc
“I think i have a virus”
Yeah, if you start thinking about having a virus, its most likely that you really have one…or more, or adware, or anything related.
Basic rule for Antivirus system is: The more the better <- NO! Only ONE antivirus programm per PC! If you have more than one antivirus programm they will disturb each other. Windows Defender is the default antivirus programm, coming with windows update. If your antivirus doesn’t do itself, deinstall this programm and then install your favorite antivirus programm!
Next thing is, you need to keep it up to date every day! So never turn off automatic updates from your antivirus. Most virus infections are “day one” infections. Even if your antivirus is up to date it still can happen that the virus is that new, that even the AntiVirus companys didn’t find a solution yet. Usually they come with one within the next days. So keep it always up to date and scan your PC every once in a while.
Don’t use stuff like CCleaner and think it protects you from anything. It just makes things worse, its not for beginners and its not an AntiVirus Software!
Apart from that follow simple rules:
Don’t open E-Mail attachements unless you can confirm 100% that you expect such attachement
That means, if your local post office, paypal, or your shop sends you an E-Mail with an invoice or stuff. Don’t open it unless you really know what its about.
So first check the ID number of the package, or the item you bought in the E-Mail before you open the attachements. Fake E-Mails can look like legit ones nowadays, especially for paypal.
Never click on any Link within an E-Mail unless you expect the E-Mail. (For example you registred on a website and 5 minutes later you get an e-mail to verify your e-mail adress…thats probably safe)
AntiVirus can’t protect you from your own faults!
Same goes for internet downloads. Usually i would say don’t download anything at all. But if you do, first check the Website youre on. Check if the link is correct, check as most as you can before you download a programm or anything else!
I usually recommend to not use accounts with administrative rights for surfing, playing games and stuff.
The administrator should be a separate account so in case of a virus infection, the user who is logged in, doesn’t has enough rights to crash your operating system at all!
I understand that for most people it’s too annoying, since whenever you want to install something you need to type in administrative credentials, but its still better than losing all your data to a script kiddy isnt it?
Last but not least: Always stay up to date on your programms and windows updates. Most viruses use security exploits in programms like adobe flash or java. Always keep your browsers, java, adobe and everything up to date, and install Windows Updates whenever its possible. They don’t get released to annoy you, they are there to protect you.
Shorty:
1 AntiVirus Software per Operating System
Always up to date!
Don’t open E-Mail Attachements, Links, or download stuff you dont expect.
Surf and Play with a non administrative account!
Always keep your programms and windows up to date!
“Okay Okay but now…I have a virus”
Yeah that escalated quickly somehow. I bet you started your antivirus programm and searched your system. But youre unsure if it found everything right?
First of all: If you used the surf account with non administrative rights, you are maybe lucky. Log into the infected pc with the administrative account and rename C:\Users\YourSurfuser folder to anything else. If your Surfuser is infected you change your profile by doing that, and windows generates you a new one, so hopefully the virus stays stored in your profile.
[Geeks do another thing: regedit.exe and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
there you rename the profile of your Surfuser. You can use the “ProfileImagePath” value to identify which one is the Surfuser. simply rename the whole S-1-5xyz folder under ProfileList.
Only after doing that you can be sure your profile is wiped clean.]
If you dont store anything at your surfusers profile anyways you could simply delete the user too and create another one.
If you used your administrative account, you should create another administrative account, and rename your infected Profile [and registry path] aswell, or even delete the whole user AFTER you created another User with administrative rights.
After you did that, youre not simply done. Now we need to scan the PC itself, some viruses can’t be found while youre logged on. So create an antivirus Boot CD and boot your PC from the CD. Since the “How to boot from CD” varies between each PC model, i wont go into that now.
Here now the rule “the more the better” takes place. If youre unsure what CD to use, you can download Avira AntiVir Rescue System and create a bootable CD with it. It would be better if you have something like “D’esinfect” which is basically a CD or USB Stick including more than one anti virus software. It boots from a Linux OS and scans your PC with each AntiVirus Software for viruses.
Usually you tend to use the Boot CD from the same company you have your antivirus from, which is good too.
If nothing helps, you can’t be more sure than by just formatting your HDD and installing Windows again. Because you stored all your important Data on a separate HDD/Partition or in your Userhome, (which you now need to copy to another HDD) you can do this easily can’t you? 😉
Shorty:
Clean your Surfprofile, and Userprofile Registry Entrys
Run Antivirus Boot CD and scan your pc
Usefull tools:
– Ninite: http://www.ninite.com (A quick installer for many common programms, runs silently and installs multiple programms at once, if the programm is already installed it checks for updates and installs them)
– Treesize: https://www.jam-software.de/treesize_free/ Scans your HDD or separate folders for data usage
– Windows USB/DVD Tool: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool Simple tool to create a bootable USB Stick or DVD to install your Windows from.
Anyways: Please be sure that you do everything described here at your own risk. I don’t take responsibility in your execution, nor in the effects it may have.
TheRealBarra 