PC Optimization Tools

1) Clean Out Prefetch and Temp Files:

a) Click: Start / Computer / left click on the “C” drive (Operating System Drive) / Windows / Prefetch – press “Ctrl + A” to select all then hit the Delete key on keyboard – (Prefetch Files are pages you’ve visited on the Web and the computer has saved their Cookies for speeding up the next time you visit that particular page)…(obviously we don’t always visit the same pages each time we surf the Web) / click the Back Arrow in upper left of screen scroll down and select the “Temp” folder / again press “Ctrl + A” to select all then press the Delete key on keyboard (these are temporary files (usually log files) Windows has saved on your hard drive as well from your surfing the Web)…using the Back Arrow in the upper left of screen press three times to return to the Computer page where you started then close the page by clicking the Red X in the upper right corner of page.

 2) Disk Clean-Up:

a) Click: Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Cleanup: Select drive to Cleanup using down arrow if necessary for separate drives / partitions (default listing should be your operating system already listed)… (make sure all boxes are checked under “Files to delete”) click on the More Options Tab / select “Clean Up” under System Restore and Shadow Copies / Delete / OK / Delete Files…box will disappear when done.

b) From this point you want to create a new Restore Point since you just deleted all of them except the last one: (most likely gaining you Gigabytes of hard drive space)

Click: Start / Control Panel / System / in upper left of screen click on “System Protection” / select the “Local Disk” option / Create / name the restore point (your names Restore Point) / Create…should not take more than a few minutes…click OK when box says successfully created the Restore Point.

 3) Disk Defragmenter:

a) Click: Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Defragmenter / select Drive to Defragment (you can Analyze Disk if so desired but not mandatory to check Fragmentation level) / select Defragment Disk to run program…program should be run two or even three times (more if necessary…until program takes one minute or less) in a row to speed up hard drive…or until program takes the same amount of time to run each time.

(Suggested Advanced Defragmenter Program would be Vopt from www.goldenbow.com

 4) Check Disk Utility: Program where the Windows Operating System can SOMETIMES repair itself by running a Five Step Diagnostics on the Operating System…( usually takes an hour or so) and the computer will Restart automatically when completed and Boot –Up in Normal Mode ready to be used for everyday use.

a) Click: Start / Computer / right click “Local Disk” drive / Tools / Error Checking / Check Now / select both boxes under “Check Disk Options”/ select “Start” / Schedule disk check / From “Start Button” / select “Restart…computer will automatically restart when finished.

 5) Check Disk from the “C” prompt (Command Prompt): Smaller version of the Check Disk Utility… (With Windows XP you may need your Windows Operating System Disk to repair corrupted files).

a) Click: Start / All Programs / Accessories / Rt. Click “Command Prompt” select Run as Administrator…at the blinking prompt type: sfc /scannow (there is a space between sfc and the forward slash)…hit Enter on the keyboard…usually takes ten to fifteen minutes depending on hard drive size…sometimes longer.

 6) Create a Complete System Backup (Operating System and your programs):

a) You will need an external drive or a secondary hard drive already installed in your computer with plenty of Free Space to write a new Backup.

b) If you have an existing Backup already on this drive, you may want to format this drive if you’re sure you don’t need the old Backup or you have the necessary space to save a new Backup on this drive. 

c) First you want to make sure all your programs and Windows have all their updates…reboot if prompted to do so…(remember Windows Updates can create Windows Update so recheck by scanning for updates in Windows Update until no more updates are listed on left side of  page…(showing zeros by each listing).

b) Click: Start / Control Panel / Backup and Restore / in upper left of page click “Create a System Image” / select external or secondary drive / Next …click OK when complete…if you are using an external drive be sure to “Safely Remove the Drive” by clicking it’s Icon in the Taskbar.

 7) System Restore: Bring your computer back when everything was working correctly… (Hopefully /usually this is done as soon as something goes wrong).

a) Click: Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore / Next / select Restore Point from listings (choose the one before something went wrong) you can always do this again if necessary / select Next…computer will reboot after completion telling you system has been restored to this point in time you chose…again you can retry this procedure if necessary.