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May 23rd, 2005 21:00
Help! Clean up C drive
I just purchased a 2-year-old computer from a co-worker of mine. It will be used as a family computer. Before I allow anyone to use it, is there anyway of clearing "objectionable" material from the (C) hard drive? Who knows what's on it. Any assistance would be appreciated.
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SpotCheckBilly
932 Posts
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May 24th, 2005 21:00
There are several things that you should do:
1. Go to Add/Remove programs in control panel and uninstall any programs that you don't want or need. (Alternately, you can also use the programs "Uninstall" feature.)
2. Using Windows Explorer, manually browse each folder for objectionable material and delete any that you find. (This may be a little time consuming, but it's the best way to make sure you locate and get rid of get rid of anything you don't want.)
3. Following those two steps:
Download, install and run Cleanup! from Steven Gould, then:
1. Click "Cleanup!"
(wait for the program to finish scanning your system, and selecting files to be removed.)
2. Exit the program and reboot the computer, if necessary.
-
For more information about using Cleanup! see here .
4. Defragment the system.
What many people do, instead of going through all of these steps, is to just do a clean install (reformat/reinstall). That way your computer is as if it were fresh out-of-the-box. That way, you can install only the programs that you want. The downside of this option is that if the computer has programs you wish to keep, but you don't have the installation disks, you will lose those programs.
Run these free online virus scans.
House Call , and Panda Software .
Make certain that your antivirus software (there is a link to a highly regarded free antivirus system, AVG in my signature below) is always up-to-date with the most current virus definitions.
Be sure to keep your operating system current with all the latest critical updates.
Please note: what you have your computer the way you want it, keep it malware free. From my signature below:
Download these free programs
***** very important*****
After installing Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot S&D, please update, configure, and run them following the instructions in the Ad-Aware Tutorial and Spybot S&D Tutorial .
Following the above steps will help you to keep your families of surfing safe.
Also, please consider installing and running one of the free firewalls located in my signature below .
George a.k.a. SpotCheckBilly:smileyhappy:
msgale
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May 25th, 2005 02:00
Midnight Star
4.8K Posts
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May 30th, 2005 21:00
Ava,
Actually, SpotCheck has a good idea, since not all 'objectionable' material would be considered spyware/malware; like pornographic images and movies for example. "Cleanup!" should clear out the temporary internet and file folders on your system, and you might want to concentrate on specific folders for starters, like "Program Files" and the "Common Files" sub-folder. I'd also look at the "My Documents", "My Documents/Received Files", "My Documents/My Pictures" and "My Documents/My Movies" if you have it.