Number 217 - June 2001

Clean Out
from PC Primer by Roger Creighton Copyright (c) 2000 via January 2001 QBits
Let's close out the Year with a commitment, to do more things with the computer and for the computer. What? You may ask can I do for my computer? Or for that Matter, Why?     Well the answers are quite simple, what you can do is take better care of the operating system as you use it day to day. Taking a few simple steps each time you close down can save a whole lot of trouble later.     Let's take a look at the normal shutdown, by the average user. My research shows that the average user just shuts off the power when they are done and does not close through the normal path designed on the start button in Windows 95 98 & Windows ME (Ok so I suppose it is somewhat redundant to go to the Start button when you want to stop. Let's just look at it as our way of starting to stop.) Click on the start button and then choose shut down the computer. Wait until the system notifies you that it is safe to turn off the computer. Then you shut down the power supply.     Failing to do this as a normal procedure can cause you untold grief that you can prevent. The problem is that there are some files that are not removed from the memory when you shut down improperly. When you start up again, these unattached fragments of files can attach themselves to another file resulting in corrupted files. (These are the fragments that you find in clusters when you do a Scandisk of your hard drive.) Windows 98 and Windows ME eliminate this as a problem by automatically doing a scandisk every time the computer is started up following an abnormal system shutdown.     Sometimes, abnormal shutdown cannot be prevented: power failure or lock up of the system that requires a Control-Alt-Delete re-booting of the system. It is for this reason that Microsoft has seen fit to require a scan disk after a faulty shutdown. In the	process of testing Windows 98, I frequently shut down improperly through re-boot and laziness. I have been surprised by the number of times that scandisk has found lost clusters and I told the system to delete them. In the three years that I have been using the system, I have not seen evidence of corrupted files. I am convinced that this will be a great aid in preventing problems in the future.     Another way to help your computer and yourself is to frequently do some house cleaning of you hard disk. Go to the Windows explorer; double click on the Windows file folder that is located the left-hand column. The result of that double click will be a listing on the right side of the screen of all the files and sub folders that are in the Windows file folder. Look for a folder called TEMP Double click on it and you will see a listing of all the .tmp files that have been left as orphans for various reasons. (The biggest reason for them would be improper shutdown.) Hold down the control button while you click on each .tmp file. When you have them all marked, go to the top right of the screen, drop down the file list, and choose Delete. Choose yes for all files that are marked and those worthless files will be purged from your system. Once you see that the system operates well without these files, click on the trash bin and empty the trash. By doing this, you will recover usable hard drive that these worthless files used.     By taking proper care of the computer you will free yourself of unnecessary stress and additional confusion and cost. This is an easy cure for what ails your system.     Missed a column? check out the PC PRIMER WEB PAGE www.rollanet.org/~pcprimer a listing of the last ten weeks of columns. Any questions or comments about this or other columns can be sent by E-mail to pcprimer@RollaNet.org or 16075 State Hwy. F Rolla, MO 65401
Number 217 - June 2001