Periodic system maintenance should be performed in order to keep your computer’s operating system in top working condition. There are three basic system maintenance procedures every computer user should be familiar with: Scandisk, Disk Cleanup, and Disk Defragmenter.

Before running any of the system maintenance utilities, restart your computer. This will insure a “fresh” system. Then close or disable your anti-virus software. I also suggest that your computer be disconnected to the Internet. So, if AOL or another Internet software runs automatically, shut it down.

Scandisk & Error Checking
Scandisk is used on Windows XP to clean up computer files and folders that become cluttered during normal use. The utitlity for Windows VISTA & 7 users is called Error Checking.

For Windows XP Users
Double-click on My Computer. Select the drive you want to scan, right-mouse click and select Properties. Click on the Tools tab. In the Error-Checking Section, click on the Check Now button. Click the boxes to “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”, then click on Start.

Windows VISA & 7 Users
Click the Vista button, and select computer. Right-click on the drive to scan, and select Properties. Select the Tools tab, and choose Error Checking. You may or may not be promted with a security warning asking permission to run the program. Grand permission, and you will be prompted to restart or schedule a runtime for Scandisk.

You should not do anything else on your computer when running Scandisk. The time it takes to run can be as short as 30 seconds, or as long as 15 minutes depending upon the speed of your computer’s processor, memory, hard drive problems diagnosed etc.

Disk Cleanup
The operating system and computer applications create temporary files on the hard disk when they are running. Under proper system functioning, these temporary files should be deleted when the application is closed or the computer shuts down, however this is often not the case. Disk Cleanup is used to free up space from:

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove Internet downloaded program files.
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files.
• Remove optional Windows components that you are not using.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Windows XP Users
To start the Disk Cleanup utility, double-click on My Computer. Right-mouse click the drive you wish to clean up (usually c:\) and select Properties. On the General Tab, click on Disk Cleanup. Windows will analyze your system and display a dialog box with results. Click all the boxes in the “Files to Remove” window and choose OK. Your temporary files will be deleted.

Windows VISTA/7 Users
Click the Start button, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup.

Disk Defragmenter
Disk Defragmenter reorganizes the files and folders on your computer so they are accessible more efficiently.

To run Disk Defragmenter, click on Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools and click Disk Defragmenter. Click on Start to begin the process. This process is time consuming. Depending upon the size of and speed of your hard disk, this process will take anywhere from one hour to several hours. I suggest running it over night. You should not perform any other tasks while Disk Defragmenter is running.

There are many resources on the Internet about these procedures. Just go to any search engine and type in one of the utility names and you will be presented with a wealth of links.