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How to Keep your
Computer Clean
by
The F@t Guy
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How to use Clean and Scan |
The "Clean and Scan" Folder: Beginning in the summer of 2006, I began trying to come up with an easier way for my clients to use the programs I recommend. For the most part, folks were having problems finding the proper programs. This lead me to come up with a simplified presentation I call the "Clean and Scan Menu". If your machine was worked on previously, the Clean and Scan menu will not be present. That's OK, the programs will work the same way... you'll just have to find them in their natural locations in the program menu. If that is the case, you might as well skip this section and go directly to the "Clean and Scan" section. If you will open your Start bar and look at your Programs list (Win9x: Start => Programs | WinNT: Start => All Programs) you will find a folder called "Clean and Scan". The programs listed therein are the programs we will use to keep your computer clean:  The number in front of each program denotes the order in which the programs will be run, so one would start with "1- Run CCleaner" and once CCleaner is complete, move to "2- Run Spybot - Search and Destroy", and so on. While the system is as simple as I can make it, it is somewhat complicated by the fact that some variation occurs within the list depending upon which programs are installed. Sometimes these variations are because your system requires a particular program instead of another. A good example of this is that I have quit using or installing Lavasoft Adaware on Win98 boxes because of problems with it locking up or running really slowly on the Win98 platform. Because of this I have begun recommending SuperAntiSpyware instead for all Win98 boxes. Sometimes the variations are because of a client's choice. I support several antivirus programs, and therefore the antivirus program depicted may be different, depending upon which one you chose. All in all though, it is a simple process:  For the moment, there may be an additonal number "5" which will be listed as "(optional)". If that is there, I have installed additional scanning support for trojans in your machine. Normally, this would be one of three: Trojan Hunter, AVG Antispyware (Ewido), or A-Squared. There may be several more "optional" numbers coming soon as I plan to provide support for registry cleaning and disk cleaning through Wise's excellent products, and also direct links to defragging and disk-checking utilities native to Windows. While these optional programs are important and are not to be ignored, they need not be run every time- Perhaps only once per month under normal conditions. It is the non-optional programs that I need to have you focus on as they are critical. How to find each program's menu folder: Furthermore, all of the installed utility programs were causing a fair amount of menu clutter. Due to this, about the same time as the "Clean and Scan menu" method was developed, I began putting all the menu folders for the utility programs I have installed into a single menu folder in your start bar. The folder name is "TFG System Utilities".  The
idea here is to keep your Start Menu a little more organized, to make
all these utilities less intrusive, and to allow for ease-of-use during
phone conversations with you.
There may be extra programs within this folder which have been installed on purpose to aid in phone-diagnosis. As an instance, often one will find a link to "HijackThis" in there, especially if we've had trouble keeping your box clean. These programs are not to be trifled with, and can mess up your machine if used incorrectly. If you don't know the program, don't mess with it. If you see something there you would like to know about, please feel free to give a call or drop an e-mail, and I will be happy to tell you it's function and instruct you on it's use. -TFG    |
