| CyberDefenseGuide A How-To Guide To Internet Security and Windows Repair |
| Internet Security | Windows Repair |
| Remotescan Remote Virus Removal and Security Maintenance Service Remotescan |
| Cleanup |
If your pc continually freezes or reboots it is likely to be malware but can also be due to a lack of harddrive space, physical problems with
the harddrive, problems with the file system or problems with core Windows files. It's worth checking these first to rule them out as the cause of the problem.
Open My Computer and select the drive where Windows lives, usually Local Disk (C:). If you have less than 200Mb of free space
then try to delete enough unnecessary files or uninstall software you don't need (but can reinstall from disk if you need to).
I find Windows functions fine with around 500Mb of free space but much better with over 1Gb free.
Make sure you don't have more than about 50 items on your Desktop. The number of shortcuts, files and folders on the desktop reduces the
response time whenever you click or run anything. If you have any realtime antivirus monitoring switched on your desktop can freeze for seconds
if it has say 3-400 items on it. Put everything except your most popular things into folders on the desktop called Shortcuts Tidy, Folders Tidy etc.
Realtime AV monitors like Comodo and Avira autoscan everything visible (if you can see a file the AV will scan it)
but if it's in a folder it won't scan it, until you open the folder.
DOWNLOAD Revo Uninstaller
Remove any unnecessary software like demos, zip/rar files you've unpacked, programs you'll never use again etc.
Use Revo Uninstaller instead of Add/Remove Programs because Revo deletes all the unnecessary files, folders and registry entries that
virtually all software uninstallers leave behind. Be careful not to delete any prized game saves.
DOWNLOAD CCleaner
Use CCleaner to remove any temporary files on the drive. Backup your data first though.
Use care when ticking the unticked entries in the checklist incase you lose important data. For example you probably DON'T want to remove
Start Menu Shortcuts and Desktop Shortcuts. It is also possible to remove Hotfix Uninstallers from Windows updates if you're sure
you won't need to rollback the installation incase an update causes problems (it does happen - but eventually Microsoft updates the update).
You can also clean the Registry of your pc with CCleaner, but you must have a working restore point incase you make a mistake.
Refer to the section on System Restore and when you have made a restore point select CCleaner's Registry tab and Scan For Issues.
Read the Issues to make sure there's nothing in the list you want to keep, and click Fix Selected Issues.
Allow it to backup your registry incase you break something. Scan For Issues again, and Fix again. You may have to do this several times
(don't agree to anymore backups, if there's a problem it's best to use the first backup).
If anything refuses to Fix then reboot into Safemode and Scan again, Fix again and Scan again until no issues remain.
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