PC Maintenance Guide

Upgrade, Tune-up, Repair Your Windows PC

www.WindowsSecrets.com

PC Maintenance Guide

Simple Effective Tips for

Tuning, Upgrade, & Repairing

Your Windows PC


www.WindowsSecrets.com Page i

Introduction:

As a weekly publication, Windows Secrets covers a broad swath of topics especially

all things Windows. Some of that coverage is driven by the latest news in the world of

PCs, such as the latest malware threats or the release of Windows 7. Other topics are

generated by questions and suggestions often sent in by readers like you.

Over the years, Windows Secrets has accumulated at vast amount of information about

Windows and Windows-related hardware and software. You can find all of it in the

WindowsSecrets.com

looking for, because our stories are organized by issue date, not subject category.

a Windows Secrets special-edition e-book comes in concise guide

that presents our accumulated PC wisdom such as it is based on a theme.

Grouping the information this way can save hours of digging through back issues. In this

format, the most essential articles and links are collected into one, easy to use reference.

For this e-book, the Windows Secrets editors pored through several years of published

information and selected the best tips in three major categories:

1. Upgrading your system

2. Tuning up/speeding up your PC

3. Emergency troubleshooting

Each section starts with an anchor story covering the basics of a topic.

10 or so additional items, each with abundant direct links to the Windows Secrets

archives. (Paid-content links are shown with an asterisk.) Using these links, you can

quickly find the topics and subtopics that most interest you.

You to read the entire e-book from front to back, but

quick-reference guide that you keep at hand. Each of the three major sections is a self-

contained unit that lets you rapidly hone in on the information you need when you

need it.

Because each section is self-contained, some topics appear more than once. For

example, the defragmenting your hard drive tip appears both in the sections on

cleaning up your PC and improving boot times.

have to remember which section it resides in, nor will you have to flip back and forth

through the e-book to complete the overall task.

We hope you find this thematic approach a useful complement to the normal flow of

diverse information appearing every week in the Windows Secrets

like to give a special thanks to Fred Langa for providing most of the leg work needed to

put this e-book together.

Happy computing!

---The editors of the Windows Secrets Newsletter


www.WindowsSecrets.com Page ii

Table of contents:

Part 1: Upgrading your system

The absolutely safest way to upgrade to Win7 .............................. 1

What you need to start the transition to Win7

Back up your data and create the dual-boot system

Move your data to the new Win7 partition

When ready, toss out the old Windows partition

An alternative: Install Windows from a USB drive ......................... 5

Buying a new system with Windows preinstalled? ....................... 5

Seven simple steps for optimizing your new Win7 setup ............. 6

Get rid of the preinstalled junk software

Free does not always mean useless

Change Windows settings for safety

Show filename extensions

Create a user account

Consider turning off Automatic Updates

Need it or not, set up a Windows homegroup

Get automatic daily backups working

Install the basic helper applications

Add useful but unobtrusive utilities

Other Upgrade Information ........................................................... 11

Solid-state hard drives

Networking

Miscellaneous

Part 2: Tuning up/speeding up your PC

Start with a thorough system checkup......................................... 12

Check the hardware

Check your hard drive's physical health

Check your hard drive's logical health

Correct driver errors now, while you can


www.WindowsSecrets.com Page iii

Review and update your PC's security system ........................... 13

Patch and update Windows and apps

Verify system security

Give your computer a thorough file cleaning .............................. 13

Take out the trash all of it

Rein in three worst space hogs

Defrag

Use disk imaging to preserve your new setup ............................. 14

Build a rock-solid safety net with Win7 ........................................ 15

System repair disc

Use the new Create a system image tool

Fully automate your routine backups

Restore a previous version

A step-by-step guide for improving boot times ........................... 16

Clean the Registry

Shrink the Recycle Bin

Trim the browser caches.

Defrag, defrag, and defrag again

Try a different anti-malware tool

Also: speed shutdowns

Make Internet Explorer 8 faster, better ......................................... 19

How to manually reset IE8 to as first installed condition

How to automatically reset IE8 to as first installed condition

How to adjust Internet Explorer

Other tune-up/speed-up information ............................................ 21

Networking, Registry, Hard Drive, Video, Laptop, and User Interface/Shortcuts

Part 3: Emergency troubleshooting

What to do when your PC gets hosed ......................................... 22

Try Windows' built-in repair tools

Use Linux to restore data and test your PC

When you know you have a hardware problem


www.WindowsSecrets.com Page iv

Use the tools on the Windows CD-ROM

Bootcfg, Fixboot, Fixmbr, and Diskpart

Your last, desperate move: reinstalling

Rescuing Windows with a bootable flash drive

Fixing your damaged Windows with bootable rescue CDs

Fixing Windows disasters with custom boot CDs

Resources for solving other issues .............................................. 25

Boot and startup problems

Networking problems

Sleep/suspend/hibernate Issues

Viruses, malware, and so on

Driver problems

More free troubleshooting/repair tools


www.WindowsSecrets.com Page 1

Part 1: Upgrading your system

Upgrading can mean anything from buying a single stick of RAM to buying an entire new

PC or installing a totally new operating system. Of course, Windows Secrets covers it all.

buying a brand-new Windows PC or are planning to upgrade selected hardware

components, skip ahead.

upgrading a current PC to Windows 7, let Windows Secrets author Lincoln

Spector explain a great way to proceed:

The absolutely safest way to upgrade to Win7

Few things are scarier than installing a new version of Windows at least, few things

you can do while sitting at a desk.

The safest route to a successful Windows 7 upgrade is a dual-boot configuration on your

PC, letting your old OS and Win7 coexist during the transition.

What you need to start the transition to Win7

Nothing causes PC-induced heartburn faster than upgrading to a new OS and finding out,

too late, that some critical program or peripheral no longer works or discovering that

an all-important document was lost in the transition.

Sure, you can (and should) use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (download page) before

you even buy the upgrade. But the advisor is not perfect and you could still run into

problems during and after the upgrade, anyway.

By keeping your existing OS (which I'm assuming is either Vista or XP) alive while you

install Windows 7, you always have a working fallback system, should the unexpected

happen.

Before you start the upgrade process, check that your main drive or partition has at least

30GB of free hard-drive space (more is better). You should also have an external backup

medium, as well as backup imaging software. (If you don't have the latter, I offer a

recommendation in the next section.)

In the following sections, I tell you how to install Windows 7 for dual booting and how to

remove your old version of Windows when you no longer want it.

I strongly suggest you read all of these instructions before trying them. Let's begin:

Back up your data and create the dual-boot system

Although I consider this the safest way to upgrade, things can still go wrong. Create an

image backup of your hard drive before upgrading the OS whether or not you're going

the dual-boot route. An image backup allows you to restore everything on the hard drive,

including Windows and your data, to its pre-backup condition. Use an external hard drive

as your backup medium.



You may already have an image-backup program, such as Ghost or True Image. If not, I

recommend Macrium Reflect Free Edition (download page). It's easy, creates a bootable

rescue CD, and as the name implies it's free.

After you're backed up, you need to shrink your current Windows partition to make room

for another one. Although Vista comes with its own partitioning tool (as does Windows 7),

I've found it unreliable. So I recommend the EASEUS Partition Master. If you're using 32-

bit Windows, go to the download page for the free version. But if you've got a 64-bit

version of Windows, you must shell out $40 for the Professional Edition (info page).

You should shrink the partition by at least 30GB. (See Figure 1.) Freeing up more space

is better the larger your Windows 7 partition, the easier it will be to make the transition.

You won't actually have to create the new partition. A big, blank spot on the hard drive is

sufficient.

Figure 1. Use the EASEUS partitioning application to create a new

Windows 7 partition.

Now you're ready to start the upgrade:

Insert your Windows 7 DVD into the drive and reboot. Press any key when asked

to do so, and start the installation process.



The installation program will ask what kind of installation you want. Click Custom

(Advanced), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Choose the custom installation in the Windows 7 installation-type

dialog box.

When asked where you want to install Windows, select Unallocated Space.

The installation automatically creates a dual-boot system, letting you choose with each

boot between either version of Windows. As with any clean install, you'll have to reinstall

all of your programs in the Windows 7 environment. Because your old partition will still be

accessible, you won't have to move your documents, photos or music at least, not yet.

Move your data to the new Win7 partition

You probably want to keep the dual-boot setup for a few weeks. (I kept mine for

approximately a month.) But eventually, you'll feel comfortable leaving XP or Vista

behind. And even if you decide against staying with the new OS, your old OS is right

there: nothing's lost but the cost of Win7 and a little time.

First, you must move or copy all your data from the old partition (probably drive D: when

you're in Windows 7) to the new one (C:). That includes documents, music, photos, and

so on.

The trickiest files to move are those in the hidden appdata folder (Application Data if your

old OS was XP). Simply copying them into Windows 7's appdata folder may cause

problems. So copy them to a separate folder called, say, old appdata, so they'll be

handy if you need to import their information into specific programs.

Before going on to the next step, create another image backup of your entire drive (all

partitions, in their new configurations and sizes). You need this because something could

go horribly wrong, and you may discover, weeks after deleting your old partition, that you



had not moved all your data. Any decent image-backup program (I don't count the ones

that come with Vista or Windows 7) can restore individual folders and files.

At this point, you don't need to keep the original image you created before installing

Windows 7. You are now ready to transfer your files:

Boot Win7 and open two Windows Explorer windows one to C: drive and the

other to D: drive.

In either of them, click the Organize menu and then Folder and search options.

Click the View tab, click Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and uncheck

Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Confirm and click

OK.

Drag the file bootmgr from D:\ and C:\. It's very important that you drag this file

and only this file.

bootmgr file, go back to the Folder Options

dialog box and undo those settings I just had you select.

If you haven't already done so, install EASEUS Partition Master into Windows 7 and

launch the program. Right-click the Windows 7 partition, select Advanced, and then click

Set Active. (See Figure 3.) At the warning that this may render your PC unbootable, click

OK. Then click the Apply button on the toolbar and then Yes twice.

Figure 3. EASEUS warns you that your system may be unbootable when

you set the partition as active. That's OK.



When your PC reboots, select Windows 7 from the boot menu. Instead of booting

Windows, the EASEUS environment loads, alters your system, and reboots it.

And you know what? That warning was right your PC is now unbootable.

Don't panic! That's expected and easily fixed. Reinsert your Windows 7 DVD, reboot, and

press any key when asked. When asked whether you want to install Windows 7, click the

Repair your computer link in the lower-left corner.

After considering the problem, the repair program will tell you it found problems. Click

Repair and restart. This time, don't press any key when asked Windows should boot

normally.

When ready, toss out the old Windows partition

Back in Windows 7, reload EASUS and delete the old Vista or XP partition. Then move

and resize the Windows 7 partition to fill all available space. Once again, the program

must reboot your system to do its job.

After you're back in Windows 7, the old partition will be gone, but you'll still be asked

about it every time you boot. Let's fix that:

Click the Start orb, type advanced, and select View advanced system settings

under Control Panel.

On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. Make

sure the Default operating system setting indicates Windows 7.

Uncheck Time to display list of operating systems, and click OK.

Congratulations! You now have a Windows 7 and only a Windows 7 computer, with

a full image backup of your previous OS safely tucked away!

An alternative: Install Windows from a USB drive

If you need to set up Windows 7 on more than a couple of computers or if you need to

add Win7 to a PC without a working DVD drive you can save yourself time and bother

by converting a USB drive into a Windows setup "disc."

With a couple of free utilities, a 4GB or larger USB drive, any Windows 7 setup DVD, and

a little time, you can build your own Win7 universal USB installer. For compete step-by-

step information, see Woody Leonh article Install Windows 7 many times from one

USB drive.

Buying a new system with Windows preinstalled?

One of the most fundamental questions about new hardware is whether to get a 64-bit

system, or to stick with the classic 32-bit architecture.

The main benefit of 64-bit hardware is access to vast amounts of RAM. However

attractive that seems, you might not actually need more than the 4GB supported by 32-bit

hardware at least, not yet.



A useful rule of thumb says that 4GB to 6GB of RAM is the sweet spot for most users

today 6GB for 64-bit systems (and those modified 32-bit machines that can support it)

and 4GB for standard 32-bit systems.

(Want to see the background on this reaso Is 4GB of system

memory a poor investment? My new computer has too much RAM?

dig further into the topic with the Ehow.com article, "How to determine if you need more

RAM in your computer," or Microsoft's less-detailed article, "Determine how much RAM

you have and how much you need.")

If y that is, if

you plan to keep your new PC for many years then a 64-bit system can be a great

choice.

But for most of us, 32-bit hardware and software is still perfectly fine to buy and use now

and for at least the next several years.

This is especially true if you wish to keep and use any 32-bit peripherals you already

have, such as printers and scanners. Older gear may not work with a new 64-bit system,

unless the vendor offers 64-

site to see if such drivers are available.) If you want to use your older hardware, and only

32-bit drivers are available, you should stick with a 32-bit PC running regular 32-bit

Windows.

Simply stated: f still safe and cost-efficient to buy a new 32-bit PC with

regular 32-bit Windows 7 and to load the PC with the maximum 4GB of RAM. (That's the

physical ceiling for normal 32-bit memory addressing.)

With that, your system should be good to go for at least the next several years!

Seven simple steps for optimizing your new Win7 setup

Whether you upgraded an older PC or bought new hardware with a fresh copy of

Windows already installed, this article (by Woody Leonhard) shows you how to set it up

the correctly:

1 Get rid of the preinstalled junk software

PCs ship with tons of useless software. If the friend you're helping has played with

her new PC for more than an hour or two, chances are good it has even more

garbage installed. Before you try to do anything else, defenestrate (to use my word of

the day) the junk.

Begin a thorough cleaning of a new PC by going into Windows 7's Uninstall or

change a program utility. Click Start, Control Panel; then, under Programs, click

Uninstall a program. Now sit your friend down next to you and decide whether any

of the more questionable programs are absolutely essential to her future happiness.

Those that are not zap 'em.

And while you're at it, get rid of the trialware; she's likely to end up paying for apps

she doesn't need.



Next, remove all the space-wasting programs preinstalled on the PC, starting with the

devils you know such as manufacturer-specific utilities, unwanted browser plug-

ins, and other digital detritus. Then take a few minutes to download and run PC

Decrapifier (download page), a remarkable, free-for-personal-use utility that roots out

and destroys the most common offensive programs. PC Decrapifier is particularly

good at finding stubbornly attached pieces of unneeded antivirus programs.

2 Free does not always mean useless

If your cousin Bill's new PC came with a so-called free antivirus program preinstalled,

get rid of it. (The exception to this rule is Microsoft Security Essentials. Fred Langa

weighed in on the superiority of MSE in his Sept. 16 column in the paid section of the

newsletter.) Antivirus companies pay computer manufacturers big bucks to install trial

versions of their software on new PCs. These apps are usually good for a few

months, and then you have to pay to keep them current.

Once you've removed the trialware AV app, install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's

free for personal use or for use in companies with 10 or fewer Windows machines.

MSE is fast, very effective, and unobtrusive; and best of all, it never begs for money.

If your cousin has already paid for a different antivirus program, tell him to wait for the

subscription to run out and then replace it with MSE. One final and extremely

important point: make sure you download the real Microsoft Security Essentials

(download site), not one of the cleverly dressed malware fakes Fred discussed in his

Dec. 2 column.

3 Change Windows settings for safety

Windows 7 has a handful of default settings that drive me nuts. Your opinion may

differ, but at the very least you should consider these changes:

Show filename extensions: In all my books, I rail against Microsoft's decision

to hide filename extensions by default. The 'Softies argue that neophyte users

don't need to see the .txt on a text file or .doc on a Word document or .xlsx

on an Excel spreadsheet.

But in my experience, not showing filename extensions leads to all sorts of

confounding behavior: errors such as accidentally naming a file incorrectly

mystuff.txt.doc, for example; running an unsafe or unexpected program

double-clicking on iloveyou.txt.vbs, for instance; or making their files difficult

for other people to open such as sending XL2007sheet.xlsx to someone

using Excel 2003.

To make Windows show filename extensions, click Start and Documents.

Next, click Organize in the upper tools bar and choose Folder and search

options. Click the View tab and uncheck the box marked Hide extensions

for known file types. (While you're there, consider checking the Show

hidden files, folders, and drives box.)



Create a user account: Most people get a new PC with just one administrator

account, typically with a name such as Admin, Owner, or even something silly

such as Satisfied Customer. Whatever it's called, this default admin account

usually doesn't have a set password. You know the dangers of unrestricted

system access, but many PC users don't.

Give the user a leg up on safe computing by first assigning a password to the

default admin account (it doesn't have to be anything fancy). Then, set up a

new account under the user's name that is set to the more restrictive

Standard user security level. You can add a password for that new account,

too, or create additional accounts whatever the situation dictates. Give your

friend the password to the admin account, but emphasize that only the

standard account should be used.

Consider turning off Automatic Updates: I always get a flood of hate mail

when I make this recommendation. If your Aunt Gertrude doesn't understand

Windows security and fears that winning a game of solitaire will make her PC

blow up fair enough she needs to have Windows Automatic Update

turned on. If a PC is likely to run unsupervised for a while, it should get

automatic updates, too.

But most moderately alert PC users are capable of regularly checking whether

the monthly Black Tuesday, er, Patch Tuesday updates are safe to install.

Excellent information on the latest patches can be found in the Patch Watch

column of the paid section of Windows Secrets, on my AskWoody site, and in

many other sources. Give the recommendation that it's better to apply patches

when the user want to not when Microsoft first rolls updates out the chute,

sometimes to ill effect.

4 Need it or not, set up a Windows homegroup

If cousin Bill has several PCs on his network, but only one with Windows 7, he can't

use Windows homegroups Vista and XP don't support it. But on networks

containing more than one Windows 7 PC (even if there's currently just one) setting up

a homegroup now will make it much easier later on to get additional Win7 PCs talking

to the network.

I explained homegroups in detail in my October 1, 2009, Woody's Windows column.

Suffice it to say that, assuming you trust all PCs on your network, setting up a

homegroup makes sharing files, printers, and other hardware much simpler.

To set up a homegroup, click Start, Control Panel. Under Network and Internet,

click View network status and tasks. Look below the heading View your active

networks. If you see a house icon (as shown in Figure 4), you're connected to a

home network. In that case, get a homegroup going by clicking Start, Control Panel;

under the Network and Internet heading, click the link to Set up a homegroup.



Figure 4. To set up a homegroup, you must tell Windows that you're

connected to a home network.

If you see an icon that looks like a computer with a shield (work network) or bench

(public network), it's easy to change to a home network. Click the link marked Work

network (or Public network), choose Home network, and click Close. As soon as

you change to a home network, Windows asks whether you want to join a

homegroup. Click Join now, and you're in.

5 Get automatic daily backups working

Yeah, yeah do as I say, not as I do.

Setting up cousin Bill's new PC for regular backups? In Windows 7, it's easy. If the

machine has Windows 7 Home Premium and a second hard drive, he can use that

for backups. With a one-drive system, talk him into running out to the nearest

computer shop and buying an external hard drive. It's the best hundred bucks he'll

ever spend.

(If Bill is running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, and he's connected to a

network, he can use a network drive for backups.)

When you plug the new external hard drive into a USB port, Windows 7 should

automatically ask you whether you want to use it for backups. Follow the easy

instructions, and you're soon good to go for nightly backups.

If you don't get the prompt to set up backups when you plug in a new external hard

drive, click Start, Control Panel; then, under System and Security, click Back up

your computer. Click the link marked Set up backup, and follow the wizard. It'll take

two minutes, max, to get daily backups running.

This would also be an excellent time to make an emergency boot disc (see the Fred

Langa's Top Story item, "Build a rock-solid net for Win7") and a complete image

backup of Bill's machine. Win7 comes with its own image-backup tool: select Control

Panel and, under System and Security, click Back up your computer. Select

Create system image.



6 Install the basic helper applications

There are certain base applications that every PC needs. No doubt you have your

favorites; permit me to list mine.

I won't preach about the superiority of Google Chrome for Web browsing I'll simply

direct you to the Chrome download site. If you prefer the largest selection of browser

add-ins, head over to the Firefox site.

Every PC needs a PDF viewer. At this point, I'm thoroughly ambivalent about Foxit

Reader (product page) because the company has started infesting its installer with

junk. But if you carefully choose the correct check boxes when you install it, Foxit is a

much smaller and nimbler alternative to Adobe Reader.

Alas, most PC users still need a Flash player. The Chrome browser has a

sandboxed version of Adobe Flash Player built in (info page), but if you use any other

Web browser, the only real choice is to dance with the devil and download (page) the

standard Flash app.

For keeping your PC completely up-to-date, install Secunia Personal Software

Inspector (product page). This free-for-personal-use program periodically scans your

PC and tells you whether you need to update common programs to patch security

holes. It's worth its weight in gold.

7 Add useful but unobtrusive utilities

Beyond the must-have base apps, there's a whole world of useful Windows add-ins

and utilities. A handful I highly recommend include the following:

7-Zip: Because we live in a world that still has Apple computers, I always

install 7-Zip (download page). (No! Put down that brickbat!) Seriously, people

are always sending me .rar files, almost invariably from Apple computers. You

need to have a .rar-savvy program to decompress them. If all you ever receive

is .zip files, Windows handles those nicely.

Paint.net: Windows Paint is good enough for very simple tasks, but I generally

install Paint.net (download page) on all the PCs I set up. It gives you excellent,

compact, fast tools for editing photos and otherwise manipulating image files.

IrfanView (info page) is another good choice, particularly if your cousin has to

cope with many different file formats or needs scanning tools.

VLC media player: Windows Media Player has its strong points, but it doesn't

play many kinds of media files. It also won't work with iPods (and I refuse to

struggle with iTunes). VLC media player (site) handles every type of file I've

ever thrown at it and it connects to iPods, iPhones, and iPads, too.

Finally, two excellent utilities are ideal for anyone who depends on the Web. (And

who doesn't these days?)

Dropbox (site) lets you drag and drop files into a special folder on your

Windows desktop. The files then magically appear on all PCs, laptops, phones,



and iPads that also have Dropbox installed. It has good password-based

security and fine file-sharing options.

LastPass (info page) stores your passwords in the cloud, where they can be

retrieved with ease (as long as you're connected to the Internet) and are

protected by strong security. I don't know how I ever managed without it.

Other upgrade information

Hardware evolves rapidly, and prices change almost every day. Therefore, referencing

older hardware-specific articles runs a high risk of referencing obsolete information.

But these next four articles discuss hardware in more general terms, and can help you

make buying decisions regardless of what is actually on the shelves at the moment you

decide to buy.

Solid-state hard drives

Windows, solid-state disks, and 'trim

Networking

How to pick and optimize your home router

What speed LAN hardware do you really need?

Miscellaneous

Problems purchasing hardware for custom-built PCs



Part 2: Tuning up/speeding your PC

-

era computers still happily running that OS some 10 years after its original release.

Regardless of how old your system or OS is, all systems benefit from regular

maintenance. A properly maintained PC is fast, stable, and a pleasure to use.

The basics of system maintenance are the same for XP, Vista, and Windows 7 in fact,

e largely the same for all operating systems. But because XP machines are the

or Windows 7, just make the mental adjustment as you read along. Some newer tools

(such as those built into Windows 7) are also covered in a later section.

Start with a thorough system checkup

Check the hardware: No operating system can be better than the hardware on

which it's installed, and older systems are prone to age-related problems. One often-

overlooked problem is dust buildup, which can cause chips and drives to overheat and

malfunction. These hardware errors can masquerade as software problems, causing you

to waste time troubleshooting the wrong thing.

It's easy to clean your PC. Consult my how-to article, "Getting the grunge out of your PC."

(It's a few years old, but still completely apt.) While you have your PC's case open, make

sure that all plug-in cards and socketed chips are fully seated and all cables firmly

connected.

Check your hard drive's physical health: Most new and XP-era drives are

equipped with Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, also known as

SMART reporting. SMART data is stored within the hard drive itself and can often alert

you to impending problems before they get serious.

It's easy to check the SMART data. Two tools I like are PassMark's DiskCheckup

(info/download page) and Active@ DiskMonitorFree (download page). Both programs are

free for personal use and also come in commercial versions for organizations.

Check your hard drive's logical health: Run chkdsk.exe to check the integrity of

your hard drive's files and to repair any errors.

Click Start and Run, then type chkdsk c: /f into the Run dialog box. Click OK.

Chkdsk may tell you that it can't check the drive because the drive is in use. It will then

offer to check the drive at reboot. Type Y (yes) and hit the Enter key.

Repeat for all drives/partitions on your system.

Correct driver errors now, while you can: Just as Microsoft is providing less

support for XP, third-party vendors are withdrawing support for older hardware. Someday

soon, you may discover that the drivers you need are no longer available. Fix problems

now!



Boot XP and right-click My Computer. Select Properties, Hardware, and then Device

Manager. (Or, click Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager.) Click View and

select Show hidden devices to make sure you're seeing everything.

Correct any problem indicated by a yellow exclamation mark or a red X; in most cases,

you should get correct or updated drivers from the hardware vendor's site.

It might also be wise to save copies of any special drivers your system needs; burn 'em to

a CD or DVD, and tuck the disc away in a safe place.

Review and update your PC's security system

Patch and update XP and apps: Starting with Windows Update, make sure your

operating system is fully up-to-date with all necessary patches, fixes, and updates. Do

the same for all your non-Microsoft software, visiting the vendor sites to download any

new updates and patches for your applications and utilities. A tool such as Secunia's

outstanding, free-for-home-use Personal Software Inspector (PSI) (download page) can

make this step a breeze.

Verify system security: Regardless of the antivirus and anti-malware tool(s) you're

using, visit a competing vendor's site and run free live or online scan to verify

that nothing slipped past your usual defenses.

Next, check that your firewall is providing the protection it should. There are many good,

free, online firewall-test sites, such as Hackerwatch, Gibson Research ShieldsUP, and

AuditMyPC.

Give your computer a thorough file cleaning

Take out the trash all of it: Needless file clutter makes a system harder to use

and slower to operate. For example, AV scans and Windows' indexing both take longer

when they have many junk files to process.

Start by deleting old $NtUninstall{xxx}$ files from XP's C:\Windows folder; these files

can occupy a shocking amount of space! You need these files only when a Windows

Update fails and you (or the OS) have to roll back your system. If your system is working

well, $NtUninstall files serve no purpose.

Next, wade through your hard drive, folder by folder, making sure files are where they're

supposed to be and that you're not storing needless duplicates or other useless files.

Next, uninstall obsolete or unused software.

Finally, use a tool such as Piriform's free CCleaner (site) to rid your drive of useless junk

files and broken or obsolete Registry data.

Rein in XP's three worst space hogs: System Restore, the Recycle Bin, and

browser caches are like black holes for data, and your system can run better if you limit

their voracious appetites.



System Restore is at best a limited recovery tool, so I don't feel it's worthwhile to devote

vast amounts of disk space to it. The Kellys-Korner article, "System Restore for Windows

XP," tells you how to manage it.

Windows' default Recycle Bin can consume hundreds of gigabytes on a large drive. Pare

this down to a reasonable size by right-clicking the Recycle Bin and selecting Properties.

Reduce the size of the Recycle Bin to a smaller percentage of the total disk space. (Click

the disk tab e.g., Local Disk (C:) to determine its reserved Recycle Bin space in

gigabytes.) I set it to around 500 MB (0.5GB) on large disks and 250MB (0.25GB) on

smaller ones.

To reduce Internet Explorer's cache size, click Tools and Internet Options. Then under

the Browsing History section, click Settings and adjust the cache size downward to, say,

50MB.

For Firefox, click Tools/Options and then click Advanced. Under the Network tab, look for

the settings box in the Offline Storage section.

Chrome's cache-size adjustment uses the command line, as described on a Chrome

Help forum page.

Defrag: Once your disk is rid of all unnecessary files and is organized the way you

want, run your defragmentation tool to reorder your files for optimal performance. If your

disk was badly fragmented, it may take several iterations of defragging to achieve

maximum benefit. (Paid subscribers can read an in-depth discussion of defragging in my

Aug. 5 column.)

Use disk imaging to preserve your new setup

After you've worked through all the preceding tasks, your XP system should be lean,

clean, defragged, and fully up-to-date. Wouldn't it be great if you could somehow

preserve your PC's current software state so that, should you ever need to in the future,

you can bring it back to this nearly perfect condition in just minutes?

You can! Use a disk imaging tool to create a perfect, complete, working copy of your

current setup. You'll never again have to rebuild your system and reinstall all your

software from scratch.

XP requires third-party disk-

such as Acronis' U.S. $30 True Image (info page), Norton's $70 Ghost (site), or my

personal favorite for non-Win7 systems Terabyte Unlimited's geeky-but-powerful $35

BootItNG (info page).

All three programs make disk images and bootable recovery discs that can be used to

restore a complete, everything-installed-and-working setup even to a raw, unformatted

drive.

There's plenty of free disk imaging software available, too. For example, see Freebyte's

page titled "Free disk image software;" TheFreeCountry's list of "Free hard disk and

partition imaging and backup software;" or OptimizingPC's how-to, "Create free bootable

Windows XP image disk."



Run through the preceding steps once or twice a year to keep your system in tip-top

shape, and make a fresh disk image from time to time especially if you make any

significant changes to your hardware or software. Store your disk images in a safe place

(off the hard drive), such as on CDs or DVDs stored away from your PC.

With this kind of routine maintenance, your XP system will most likely run well for as long

as you need it. And, should the worst (major crash, hard drive failure, or something else

equally dire) happen, you can use your disk images to rapidly restore your system to the

near-perfect state you just created.

You're now set for the long haul!

Build a rock-solid safety net with Win7

Window 7 is the first Windows to ship with a total backup solution built-in. It offers

incremental and full backups plus disk imaging, System Restore, and ability to make a

bootable system repair disc and

use.

System repair disc: When you're starting out with a new OS or a new PC, things

sometimes go awry. That's why it's always smart to make an emergency boot disk.

An emergency boot disk lets you start your PC and perform repairs, even if the hard drive

is trashed or the operating system is otherwise unbootable. Having an emergency boot

disk on hand can be the difference between successfully completing a quick do-it-

yourself repair and having to send your system off to the repair shop!

Windows 7's built-in system repair disc tool creates emergency boot disks, and the whole

process takes just a couple of minutes. Click the Win7 Start orb and type the phrase

system repair into the search text box. At the top of the search results you see Create a

System Repair Disc (under Programs). Click it and follow the prompts. (See Figure 5.)

That's all it takes!

Figure 5. Windows 7's built-in System Repair Disc feature makes it

incredibly easy to build a bulletproof emergency boot CD or DVD.



Put the new disk in a place that's safe but where you can grab it quickly if it's ever

needed.

Bonus information: Lincoln Spector's July 8, 2010, Insider Tricks column shows how to

create a flash-drive version of the emergency boot disk.

Use the new Create a system image tool: Windows 7 is the first Windows to

include an app that makes a complete image backup of your setup. Unlike a

conventional file-by-file backup, an image backup is a compressed, byte-for-byte clone of

your entire hard drive's contents.

Restoring a saved image puts your hard drive back into exactly the same state as when

you made the image. It's the gold standard of backups and is the only way to absolutely,

positively roll back a system to a prior state.

Win7 makes image backups a snap. Open the Control Panel and, under System and

Security, click Back up your computer. In the left pane, select Create system image

and follow the steps.

Should you ever need to restore a system image and you'd like some pointers, see the

MS article, "Restore your computer from a system image backup."

Fully automate your routine backups: Image backups are great for rolling back an

entire system. But file-by-file backups are best for restoring one or more individual

documents, photos, or other files you accidentally delete or destructively alter.

Open the Control Panel and click System and Security, then Backup and Restore. In

the right pane, select Set up backup and follow the steps.

At the end of the process, before clicking Save settings and run backup, you can

change your backup schedule by clicking Change schedule. (Find more info on backup

and restore in an MS tutorial.)

Restore a previous version: Couple Win7 backups with the OS's built-in Restore

previous version feature, and you may never lose a file again ever! (See Microsoft's

FAQ for the limitations and steps required for recovering previous versions.)

A step-by-step guide for improving boot times

Even powerful, capable hardware can sometimes get bogged down, and few things are

more irritating than a needlessly long start-up process. There are many causes for slow

PC boot-ups, but some simple maintenance will usually set things right. Some of these

substeps have been mentioned previously, but are included here so that you have all

necessary information in one place.



1 Clean the Registry: Removing dead, obsolete, and broken Registry file

references reduces the time Windows takes to load the Registry into memory and

parse it. Probably the best of the free, easy-to-use cleaners is Piriform's CCleaner

(download site).

2 Shrink the Recycle Bin: Windows sets up enormous Recycle Bins by default;

they can consume hundreds of gigabytes on a large drive; Windows must parse

and track the Recycle Bin contents, which takes time. Pare your Bins down to a

reasonable size by right-clicking the Recycle Bin and selecting Properties. Next,

reset the amount of disk space used by the Recycle Bin. (See Figure 6.) I usually

use 500 MB (0.5GB) as a starting point on large disks and 250MB (0.25GB) on

smaller ones.

Figure 6. In all versions of Windows (Win7 shown), you can set the size

of the Recycle Bin via its right-click Properties dialog box.

3 Trim the browser caches: Newer browsers don't retain as much content as

older versions, but even they can have huge caches and Windows has to track

and manage it all. For each of the leading browsers, use the following steps to

reduce cache size:

Internet Explorer: Click Tools and Internet Options; then, under the

Browsing History section, click Settings. Once the settings are open, you

can adjust the capacity of the cache to a smaller amount. (See Figures 7

and 8.) I typically use a 50MB Internet cache plenty for normal surfing

on standard broadband.



Figure 7. All versions of Internet Explorer offer this dialog box

(or a very similar one) for changing IE cache settings.

Figure 8. Once you're in the settings dialog box, select a smaller

cache size.

Firefox: This browser's cache-size adjustment is similar to IE's. Click

Tools, Options; then click Advanced. Under the Network tab, look for the

settings box in the Offline Storage section.

Chrome: The only way I've found to adjust Chrome's cache size is with a

command-line switch, as described on a Chrome Help forum page.

4 Defrag, defrag, and defrag again: Hard-drive files neatly packaged into long,

unbroken chains load faster than those whose segments are scattered all over the



drive. Most defraggers also move the most-used or first-accessed files to the front

of the disk, further speeding load times.

All versions of Windows have competent defraggers built in or available. For

instructions on using them, click Start, open the Help system, and then search Help

using the keyword defrag.

Any good download library also offers a huge range of third-party defrag tools. Take

your pick.

5 Try a different anti-malware tool: Temporarily uninstall Trend Micro and try a

smaller, simpler AV tool such as Microsoft's free Security Essentials (download

page). If Trend Micro's software is causing your slowdown, you should see a big

speed improvement with Security Essentials.

It's a good time to run a different AV tool anyway, just to make sure the slowdown

isn't caused by malware your Trend Micro setup might have missed.

After all that, if your boot times still aren't what you'd like, here are some resources

for deeper tweaking.

For XP:

TweakXP.com's index page of performance tweaks tips

Microsoft's article, "Restore your computer's performance with Windows

XP"

For Windows 7 and Vista:

Microsoft's article, "Optimize Windows Vista for better performance"

Incidentally, many of the things you do to speed startups also speed shutdowns. A

double benefit!

Make Internet Explorer 8 faster, better

As the gateway to the Internet, our browser might well be our most important app.

Internet Explorer 8 is preconfigured with ancillary features that could slow it down. But

you can review and selectively alter those options. Here's how:

First, reset IE8 to its as first installed condition.

Close any Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer windows that are open.

Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start orb, and then clicking Internet

Explorer.

Click the Tools button, or select Tools on the menu, and then click Internet

Options.

Click the Advanced tab, and then click Reset.



Select the Delete personal settings check box if you would like to remove

browsing history, search providers, Accelerators, home pages, and InPrivate

Filtering data.

In the Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialog box, click Reset.

When Internet Explorer finishes applying default settings, click Close, and OK.

Close Internet Explorer, and then restart it.

Alternatively, you can use a free automated tool

available for download on this Microsoft page.

preferences.

When you first launch IE8 after restoring the defaults, you'll be asked to choose

your settings. Select Choose custom settings.

When asked whether you want to turn on IE8's suggested sites, select No,

don't turn on.

When asked to choose a default search provider, select Show me a webpage

after setup to choose more search providers. Making a manual selection

helps ensure that you bypass any associated initial default settings. I prefer

Google over the default Bing anyway, but you can choose Bing or any other

provider you wish. The point here is to avoid accepting the initial, built-in

defaults.

When asked to download search provider updates, select No.

When offered a choice of accelerators, select Turn off all Accelerators that

are included with Internet Explorer, as shown in Figure 9. (They don't really

accelerate anything.)

Figure 9. IE8 performs faster if you turn off the default add-ons and ancillary

features that can slow it down.



When asked whether you want to use Compatibility View updates, answer Yes;

compatibility view is useful on older and nonstandard websites, and having it

enabled doesn't seem to slow down normal browsing.

At some later point, IE8 will ask whether you want to turn on autocomplete.

Select Yes; it is a time saver.

Other Tune-up/Speed-up information

Networking

Simple change speeds Win7 networks by up to 12%

An old QoS speed-up hoax reappears

Spectrum-analysis tools can help cure Wi-Fi headaches

Registry

Fine-tune your Registry for faster startups

Hard Drive

Are the benefits of defragmentation overblown?

Should you defrag a solid-state drive (SSD)?

Video

Unplugging streaming video bottlenecks

Laptop

Extend the life of your laptop's battery

User Interface/Shortcuts

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts can boost your efficiency

Twenty-six ways to work faster in Windows 7



Part 3: Emergency troubleshooting

.

with the system, or maybe the

sizes, and Windows Secrets can help with them all.

worst problems that can befall a PC: the system hangs during

the initial startup or doesn't even try to boot.

For this stop-you-in-your-tracks event, here's what to do and how to do it, as explained by

What to do when your PC gets hosed

Try Windows' built-in repair tools

If Windows can't start in the usual way, you may be able to boot and repair it in a simpler

mode.

Turn on the computer, and put your finger on the F8 key. The moment the first on-screen

text disappears, just before Windows begins to load, press the key. Pressed at the

precise moment, the F8 key should bring up the Windows Boot Menu. Depending on the

PC, it may take a few tries with reboots to get the timing right.

That's assuming, of course, that your PC and Windows are both in good-enough

condition to get this far. If they're not, skip this section and go on to the next one.

If you get to the menu, select Last Known Good Configuration. This option runs System

Restore, which attempts to return Windows to a previous working condition.

Should that effort not fix the problem, reboot, press F8 again, select Safe Mode, and try

running System Restore from there.

If you can load Safe Mode but System Restore doesn't do the trick, try running a good

diagnostic and repair program (such as CCleaner) while still in Safe Mode. (If you don't

already have CCleaner installed, I recommend the portable version download.)

Still not fixed? Running in Safe Mode at least lets you back up your data a task that's

arguably more important than rebooting the PC in serious situations. Plug an external

drive into a USB port and drag important folders (such as your documents, photos,

music, and videos) onto the external drive.

Using Linux to restore data and test your PC

If you can't boot into Safe Mode, recovering your data files becomes an even more

important job. You may be able to access your hard drive and recover these files via a

bootable (also known as live) Linux CD or flash drive.

Booting Linux does more than help you recover your data: it helps you diagnose your

trouble. If you can successfully boot this way but can't access the hard drive after you're



in Linux, you know that the problem lies in your hard drive. If you can't boot at all, you've

got a hardware problem that doesn't involve the hard drive. But if the whole process is a

success, you've got a Windows difficulty, not a hardware one.

There are a lot of live variations of Linux out there, but I recommend Puppy Linux

(info/download). It's not the most powerful one by a long shot, but it's small, fast, and

easy for Windows users. (See Figure 10.)

Figure 10. Puppy Linux gives you access to your hard-drive files when

Windows won't.

Puppy downloads as an .iso file, which is basically an image backup of a CD. Double-

click it; there's a good chance any program that burns a bootable CD will load the file and

let you burn it to disc. If that doesn't happen, you need to download and install an app

such as the free ISO Recorder.

If you don't have an optical drive and therefore can't boot from a CD, see my July 8, 2010

Insider Tricks story, "Rescue Windows with a bootable flash drive," for instructions for

putting your Puppy on a flash drive.

After you prepare the CD or flash drive, insert it into your optical drive or USB port and try

to start your machine. If it fails, make sure your PC is set to boot from this device. When

you first turn on your computer, you might see an onscreen message telling you to press

a particular key for a boot menu (which is not the same as the Windows Boot Menu I

discussed earlier). Press that key to choose the right device.

The boot menu message may or may not appear, but you'll almost certainly find

instructions to press a particular key for Setup. In your PC's setup environment, which I

can't describe in detail because it varies from one computer to another, you'll find options

to control the devices it boots from and in what order. Look again for a boot menu. You

want your optical drive or USB ports at the top of that list.



After you successfully boot into Linux, you can click the hard-drive icon (or one of the

hard-drive icons) in the lower-left corner to bring up the drive's contents. If the drive

opens properly, find the files you need, plug in an external drive (you'll get a new icon, of

a flash drive), open that drive, and drag folders from one location to the other.

When you know you have a hardware problem

So what do you do if you can't boot from a CD or flash drive? Unless you have an

extremely recent backup, your first priority is to recover your files.

Open your computer and remove the drive. (If you don't know how, check the manual.)

After you remove it, you need to connect the drive to another computer but not as the

main, bootable drive. If the other computer is a desktop machine, you can open it and

plug the drive into a second SATA or IDE connector. If that sounds intimidating, or if the

PC is a laptop, buy an adapter such as the Bytecc USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter Kit

(info), which effectively turns an internal hard drive temporarily into an external one. I've

seen them on sale for as little as U.S. $17.

If you can't read the hard drive that way and there are files on it you really need, you

have to take it to a professional data-recovery service. Kroll Ontrack (info) and

DriveSavers (info) are the best known, but because I've never figured out a good,

practical way to test these services, I can't honestly say they're better than their cheaper

competitors.

Beyond hard-drive issues, what do you do if your PC won't boot from the hard drive, a

CD, or a flash drive? If you're comfortable enough with the inside of your PC to open it up

and check connections and then test and swap components, go ahead. Otherwise, take it

to a professional.

Using the tools on the Windows CD-ROM

If Safe Mode didn't boot or didn't fix the problem, but you were able to boot into Linux and

access the drive, it's time to try the tools on a standard, retail Windows CD or DVD.

But if you're using the version of Windows that came with your computer, you probably

don't have an actual Windows disc. That's okay. You can make a bootable CD that can

do everything that an XP, Vista, or Windows 7 disc can do except install an operating

system.

If Windows XP isn't booting, download the XP Recovery Console CD (download). Like

Puppy Linux, it comes as an .iso file.

Create the CD and boot it. At the main screen, press r for Repair to launch the Recovery

Console. This brings up a DOS-like, command-prompt interface with several useful tools.

The best are these:

Bootcfg: This is used for viewing and repairing the boot.ini file.

Fixboot: No, this isn't as wonderful as it sounds. It simply rewrites a partition's

boot sector.



Fixmbr: This fixes the master boot record.

Diskpart: This one manages partitions, but be warned: it also destroys them.

The tools on the Vista and Windows 7 discs are much friendlier than the XP versions. But

unless you have retail copies of the operating system, you must still make a disc.

To make the Vista recovery disc, download the appropriate .iso file, available on the

NeoSmart Technologies site, and burn it to a CD. You need BitTorrent installed to

properly download this file.

Windows 7 comes with a tool for creating its recovery disc. Click the Start orb, type

backup, and select Backup your computer. In the resulting window's left pane, click

Create a system repair disc. You'll be prompted to insert a blank disc.

When you boot from either the Vista or the Windows 7 disc, the boot process just might

find your problem and offer to fix it before anything else happens. If not, or if this doesn't

work, follow the prompts to the System Recovery Options menu. Everything is pretty

obvious from there.

Your last, desperate move: reinstalling

If your luck is good, you won't get to this point. But if all else fails, you're left with

reinstalling Windows which most of us know is a long, boring, and sometimes scary

process. Check out my how-to story, "Reinstall Windows without losing your data," for

instructions.

All the above can go a little more smoothly if you gather some recovery tools in advance

of actually needing them. For example, see these:

Rescue Windows with a bootable flash drive

Bootable rescue CDs can fix your damaged Windows

Custom boot CDs help fix Windows disasters

Resources for solving other issues

Boot and startup problems

Removing a false dual-boot option in Windows 7 (includes tools for managing

Win7 and Vista system bootup)

Tracking down and preventing unwanted reboots

Using Task Manager to troubleshoot startup woes

Using Bootrec.exe for startup repair



Networking problems

Solving Windows 7 networking problems

More on Win7-NAS networking problems

What or who is using your connection?

Give your flagging WiFi signal a boost

Sleep/suspend/hibernate issues

Insomniac PC simply wakes on its own, won't stay asleep

PC still seems active when 'standing by'

Viruses, malware, and so on.

How you can end a rootkit infection (as I had to)

Microsoft Security Essentials (free)

The 120-day Microsoft security suite test drive

Security Essentials test drive month 6

Readers weigh in on MS Security Essentials

Driver problems

Forcefully rooting out a bad hardware driver

More free troubleshooting/repair tools:

Free utility suite bundles over 100 portable troubleshooting tools

Windows 7's built-in disk-imaging utility

Beyond Chkdsk.exe

Free 'Process Explorer' helps end shutdown woes

Using Windows' System File Checker/ Windows File Protection (WFP)



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