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PC Maintenance |
                 
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Automatic system maintenance tasks in Windows XP
An Article compiled By
Last months article on conserving power and
your office technology hinted at the need to keep your windows PC
running at night (in a power conserving mode) in order to allow your
system to run automated maintenance tasks.
Of course there are others tasks that need to be run regularly like Backups and physical computer component cleaning but we'll talk about those more in another article. Disk CleanupThe Disk Cleanup tool is found by clicking Start, pointing to All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and then clicking Disk Cleanup. You can, of course, just run the tool whenever you happen to remember by clicking it and following the prompts but today we're talking about automatic system maintenance so here's how to automate the whole process to run while you're away from your computer:
Disk Cleanup opens with a list of the possible files to be deleted. Select a file type to display a description. Check the boxes for the files you want removed, and click OK. In most cases you should click all the boxes except "compress old files" which, for the hard drive space it saves you just costs you more in system performance in the long run. Also stop and think about if "Recycle Bin" is a good idea for your circumstances, although it's a great idea to empty it often you might want to do this manually instead of automatically as going to the recycle bin one day to retrieve a file you accidentally deleted the day before and finding it empty could be very frustrating! Once you've checked off the boxes that are relevant to your needs you can click OK, Notice that nothing happens? We've just now set the default settings "sageSET:1" for future use. Next, you can schedule Disk Cleanup to run using these same settings whenever fits your schedule best. IMPORTANT NOTE: Scheduled tasks will not work properly unless you have a windows password assigned to your computer, if you don't, you should, stop by the control panel and select User Accounts, Change an account, Select the user that logs in most often and choose "create a password"
Note You can customize Disk Cleanup to delete different files at different intervals by specifying more than one sageset. Just change the number to sageset: 2 or sageset: 3 (in fact, any number from 0 to 65535). Each sageset can have different files selected. Then you can set up a separate scheduled task to execute each set by specifying sagerun: 2 and sagerun: 3 and so forth. Disk DefragmenterYou can also automatically defragment your hard disk, although it doesn't need to be done as frequently as cleaning up your hard disk. Open Scheduled Tasks, and double–click Add Scheduled Tasks to start the Scheduled Task Wizard. When you get to the list of applications, click Browse, and navigate to windows\system32\defrag.exe, and click Open.
Again, select the frequency for the program to run—monthly is usually more than enough. To defragment a disk, you'll need to supply the name and password for an account with administrative privileges. The definition of administrator varies slightly from Windows XP Professional to Windows XP Home Edition, but essentially it means a user who has control over the computer, can install software, and can change user passwords. Check the box to open Advanced Settings when you're done. In the Run box, add the letter of the drive to defragment so it looks like C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe c: Only one instance of Disk Defragmenter can be running at any given time, so if you have multiple hard drives (C:, D: E: Etc... ), you'll need to add a separate scheduled task for each one. Defragmenter will only work on Hard Disk Drives, not CD, Floppy or Memory Sticks. Be sure to schedule defragmenting sessions far enough apart so they don't overlap. Note A minimum of 15 percent free space on your hard disk is needed for Disk Defragmenter to run. This is yet another argument in favor of frequent and aggressive use of the Disk Cleanup tool. Once automated these tasks will go along way to keep your system in tip top shape, Many of my existing clients benefit greatly from a monthly service visit to perform additional tasks that aren't necessarily automated but are a little more labour intensive and need step by step guidance.
If
you have questions about automating your system maintenance or keeping
your system in tip top shape in order to best serve your business don't
hesitate to
call me at the office at (905) 366-8234 or
Email The Technology Coach
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