Maintenance on Dell PC'S

Question

Hey All, just wondering for all U techies and such out there. How often do you perform maintenance? Actions such as defrag, scandisc, virus scan, adware scan, spyware scan and so on? Did I miss anything? Appreciate it if you help me out on this as I like to keep my pc running smooth. Also any recommendations for downloading music? Like to do it but will do it legally though, and do you recommend it or is it a no no for threats to your PC? Thanks all. Have a good one.....

kain123 · Answer

Once a week for anti-virus and ad-aware.defrag once every two weeks.and Cleaning temp file everyday I go on the web

kain123 · Answer

Music do it legally

ky331 · Answer

anti-virus: 1) update your definition files EVERY TIME YOU LOG ONTO THE INTERNET 2) complete system scan, at least once a month... but i won't argue with people (like Kain) who say it should be done more often (every other week, or even every week)

ad-aware and spybot (or comparable programs): update and full-scan at least weekly.

scandisk: anytime your system "hangs", or shuts-down improperly...

defrag... it's debatable. on one of my machines, i waited 2 years before defragging... and while it may, technically, help in the file-system's organization, i can't assert that it had any noticeable impact on system performance.

likewise, i haven't noticed any real problem with TEMP files accumulating, but I'd suggest it's probably a good idea to clean the cache at least weekly... i guess this will also depend on how much free space you have on your hard drive, and how much time you spend surfing the Net.

Message Edited by ky331 on 08-18-2005 08:06 PM

msgale · Answer

Anti Virus, a full scan should be done after every virus signature update.  More often will do no good and less often leads to vulnerabilities.  I no longer use Ad-Aware SE or Spybot S & D, too many false errors and associated problems.  Microsoft Anti Spyware Beta every night.  Defrayment and cleanup on February 29th.  .

ky331 · Answer

i'll second one point just made by msgale...  users need to be very cautious about 'false positives', which can be reported by anti-adware, anti-spyware, and yes, even anti-virus programs.   (the heuristic-scan feature of anti-virus programs, which tries to 'anticipate' new viruses before they're officially acknowledged, is generally the culprit here).   in fact, SpyBot has an entire forum page devoted to the matter of False-Positives: http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?showforum=72   unfortunately, the 'average' user is at a loss to distinguish between a 'legitimate malware' warning and a 'false positive'...  and  if you remove programs (or registry entries) based on a false-positive report, the program involved may no longer function properly, if at all.

ky331 · Answer

Windows Critical/Security updates:   AS SOON AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE... which, at present, is the 2nd Tuesday (Wednesday??) of each month.

Virus & Spyware

Maintenance on Dell PC'S

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