Comments on: Leave a comment: Tips to clean your PC data

By: Ahmad Fatoni

Ahmad Fatoni — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:40:19 +0000

Great Posting!!

By: Aroursigo

Aroursigo — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:54:26 +0000

Don’t dumb it down. The audience is smart and gets what you are doing.

By: Kassenrollen

Kassenrollen — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:07:22 +0000

I use Antivir Avira and Hijackthis, works good for me

By: Joey

Joey — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:39:44 +0000

I got help from http://the-spyware-removal-guide.blogspot.com/. They list a bunch of free programs that did the job.

By: Seksi Babi

Seksi Babi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:21:27 +0000

horny 18 year old girl … please IM me, skolopendra@hotmail.com. I have pictures, S2R.

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:42:59 +0000

You really need to do this type of stuff. Little things can creep onto your computer from the darnist places too. You think you are safe with anti-virus, but things still get on there. It’s like ants getting into the house. All they need is a really small crack.

By: Charlotte NC Real Estate

Charlotte NC Real Estate — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:26:03 +0000

I use a package of free shareware: AVG for viruses, ZoneAlarms for firewall (most important) and spyware. Windows Defender is OK. Also run windows update everyday. Stay safe!

By: nike shox

nike shox — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:37:14 +0000

But the real reason I want to mention Revo is that it has an additional file cleaning tool similar to CCleaner. the thing is, it seems to find different stuff (just found 50megs on my PC) than CCleaner does, so I wouldn’t use one of them without the other. As freaky as that is!

By: hello world.. war

hello world.. war — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:55:01 +0000

The HP site only lists Defender because the program comes preinstalled on HP machines shipped with Vista. If you want to tweak your security for the better, you really want to download a standalone antivirus package. (Just mind that the free ones (AVG, avast, Avira Antivir) are about as functional and good as the expensive ones. Don’t let anyone rip you off!)

Recommended free software:

Browsing: Opera (lightweight, the one I’m using right now)/Firefox (lots of add-ons, views pages that Opera won’t: for example Facebook.com)
Cleaning: CCleaner (great basic cleaner)/ Revo Uninstaller (excels at a thorough uninstall procedure)
Security: AVG, Ad-Aware

It’s good to see a lot of love for CCleaner. It really is the most efficient and user friendly cleaner program out there.

But in addition to some people complaining that Windows doesn’t uninstall programs thoroughly, I can highly recommend Revo Uninstaller. It goes through the regular uninstall procedure but afterwards it asks you if you want to search for leftover files, and usually it finds a whole list of small files you might just want gone.

If you just have 5 or so programs that you want uninstalled, the Revo process doesn’t make the biggest difference, but if you’re a casual downloader and you like to try a lot of software out (if you have too much time on your hands, in other words, you lazy young slacker!) Revo can really give you a sense of difference. It just feels good to know you removed the software completely.

By: Suzyn

Suzyn — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:48:59 +0000

Thanks for this post! I downloaded CCleaner last night, and it found 415MB of junk on my ‘puter.

By: Spyware Blockers

Spyware Blockers — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:52:03 +0000

Making sure your your computer is free from viruses,malware,adware,spyware etc. is an important step to make sure your computer is running at it’s optimal level. Antispyware software, antivirus and firewall software along with frequent operating system software updates are all crucial steps to prevent your computer from bogging down. Running routine and scheduled antivirus/antispyware scans can be effective for most potential computer infections, however some of the most damaging viruses may not be detected by any of these software programs. The best spyware blocker software will include 100% “Real Time Protection” to prevent spyware from being installed in the first place. Another vital feature is “Anti-Rootkit” technology. Rootkits can allow a hacker, admin level access to your computer allowing him to take complete control of your computer. And it can even be accomplished without you even knowing it. Although many of the free antispyware programs available are fairly effective in many cases, they usually will not include these top level prevention technologies. The updates of free antispyware softwares may also not be as frequent, potentially allowing a new, undiscovered virus outbreak access to your computer. So the antispyware/spyware blocker program you choose may be tied to the amount of protection that you feel comfortable with. Practicing safe internet operations is a very good step in preventing spyware from being installed on your computer, but you better make sure that no-one else uses your computer without the same level of caution as you!

By: neff

neff — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:37:12 +0000

windows defender is really not very good spyware protection.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:08:04 +0000

I use only one virus scanning program (Norman) and I rarely run it. But then again, I don’t download movies, music, etc. (which might be a rare thing for someone my age [20 years old] to do) and I stay away from weird looking e-mails (especially with attachments) and I actually don’t have business on weird looking sites. I think that quite diminishes my risks at getting infections when you compare it with people constantly downloading stuff. I do a scan now and then when I feel like it, and I’ve never had any problems with my laptop in the three years I’ve had it, and never any problems with the computer I used before (it broke down last year, but it had been in use for 7-8 years or so, I think it was his time).

On file organisation: I did a spring cleaning two weeks ago in which I reorganised all my files. I also deleted a LOAD of files. I can really recommend it if your filing system isn’t working for you (or if you don’t really have a system).

Step 1: Do an assessment of what you store on your computer and then decide what you want to keep (that is, what you need).
Step 2: Create a new filing system based on your assessment and what you think is important.
Step 3: Create the new folder system and then start going through all your folders an files. Put them either in the new filing system or delete them. This might take a while. I spent a whole evening, but it’s all very uncluttered now.

If you feel uneasy about deleting stuff, you could also burn a cd with all your files and think of it as a Maybe-box that you will look at in 6-12 months or so.

By: David

David — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:38:43 +0000

“Is your PC a mess?” seems to ask if you have wasted space on your computer, but it really is about security, which most people have hit upon here.

My biggest complaint for wasted space is duplicated software/files. How many text editors or word processors do we really need? (For example, G/Vim, Joe, X/Emacs, Kate, KWord, Nano, etc.)

How many folders do we need to store files in? I would recommend caution/understanding before using Dimitar Nikolov’s second recommendation. I think the idea he is looking for is “everything has a place, and everything in its place,” but what often happens is something like “Well, I have all my photos in this folder, but I keep a copy of the ones I use for wallpapers in a different folder, and the originals for my web work are kept in this folder over here, …” and the next thing you know, you have 15 copies of the same image (sometimes at the same resolution!).

I don’t remember the name of it for Windows, but I do remember seeing an application which would search for duplicates files on a drive. There are a number of example shell scripts online which would do the same thing for Linux.

By: John @ Hard Work Blogging

John @ Hard Work Blogging — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:37:45 +0000

Working as a IT Consultant for the last 10 years i will only work with systems that meet some basic requirements. Systems without these i require they allow me to implement them or i will not work on their machines.

Business machines:
Managed Anti-virus (Norton if my preferred)
Anti-spyware (Windows Defender and Spybot)
Firewall (Hardware preferred)
Backup system

Friends and Family:
Anti-virus (AVG or Clamwin)
Anti-spyware (Windows Defender)
Sync files system (Mesh, Fileshare, Drop Box, etc)
Firefox, Opera or Chrome

My own computer has no anti-virus, only has Windows Defender because it is a Windows 7 beta machine. I reinstall Windows 2-4 times a year because cleaning programs like CC Cleaner don’t get systems clean enough. I don’t do things such that i don’t get viruses or spyware.

I organize files by file type and point Windows to those folders instead of the my docs, my music, my videos, etc. These are all on an 1.5TB external hard drive. I keep everything and move old files to an archive folder i clear out when i run out of disc space.