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All advice given on this site is on a "YMMV" (Your Mileage May Vary) basis. These steps work well on my computer, and on the computers of countless other users. However, this is Windows, and one never can tell how something is going to work until they try it. :) If you have a specific question about these tips, feel free to email me. Otherwise, please limit the use of the email to site-related issues and comments. Thank you.
You should perform these tasks as often as necessary to maintain peak performance on your computer, but no less than twice a month. When instructions are given to type certain commands, be sure to type them EXACTLY! Remember, / is not the same as \, - is not the same as _, and ; is not the same as :. Clear? Good. (Note: many of the terms used have explanations at the bottom of this page.)
Start > Find > Files > *.tmp, *.gid, *._dd
(You can type it just like that, all three separated by a comma and a space.)
Click the first one in the list to highlight it, then hold down Control and press A. This will select all the items in the box. Now press Delete. Confirm. Occasionally, a file or two may be in use by Windows, and you will get an "Access Denied" error message. This is fine. Just skip those files. However, once you get that error, the deletion process will cease, and you will need to pick up where Windows left off. Remember to empty your Recycle Bin often.
Once you've deleted all the files you can, right click the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop and click Properties. Click the buttons to empty your History and Temporary Internet Files. Set the History folder to keep files for 7 days or less (personal preference as to the length of time, but 7 days should be more than enough).
If right clicking the IE icon and choosing Properties does not present you with the options I mentioned, then you likely only have a shortcut on your desktop and not "the" IE icon. No problem, just go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Internet Options and you'll find the buttons.
When that's done, Start > Shut Down > Restart in DOS mode. You will see a prompt that looks like this:
C:\WINDOWS>_
or perhaps like this:
C:\>_
At this prompt, type
deltree c:\windows\temp\
and press Enter or Return. You will be asked to confirm deletion of each subdirectory in \temp. Over time, this directory can become cluttered with all kinds of junk, from that .wav you listened to on a website six months ago to a leftover piece of a program installation. If you're uncomfortable deleting entire directories like this, just remember this: EVERYTHING in \temp should be absolutely safe to delete. In fact, if everything worked the way it was supposed to (ha!) files would never stay in \temp.
Anyhoo, once the temp directory is emptied, reboot into Windows (just type 'win' [no quotes] at the prompt and press Enter). Now run Disk Doctor (Start > Run > ndd32). A surface scan is really not necessary unless you're having major problems. It takes a while, and I've never had any problems there anyway. At the most, a surface scan could be done once every couple months.
Close down any programs running in the background that tend to generate lots of activity. This usually includes virus scanners, Windows Task Scheduler, programs that check your free memory, email programs, etc. You can usually get rid of most of these programs by right-clicking the icon they've placed in the systray (down there by your clock) and choosing Exit/Stop/Close/etc. Otherwise, press Control Alt and Delete, click a program name to highlight it, and click End Task.*.
Next, turn off your screen saver. Right-click a blank area of your desktop, click Properties, Screen Saver tab, and set your screen saver to None.
Now run Speed Disk (Start > Run > sd32). Once it's finished, be sure to re-enable your screen saver.
*.tmp: Temp files. These are automatically created when you print, download, or perform other routine tasks in Windows.
*.gid: Graphic index for Help files. These are the "interface", if you will, of help files. They can be huge! Whenever you access a program's online help files and see "Preparing Help file for first use", a .gid file is being created. They will be automatically recreated if you ever open the Help file again. In the meantime, it's just another file that doesn't need to be defragged.
*._dd: Norton's version of Windows check files. These are the files that Disk Doctor creates if you let it save lost clusters as files. Open them with Wordpad or Notepad (but don't associate them with anything!) if you want to see what they contain, but 99% of the time it's just gibberish.
Windows Task Scheduler - To disable Windows Task Scheduler, right click the icon in your systray and choose Pause Task Scheduler. Once Speed Disk is finished, reenable it the same way.
* - Note that it may take several tries before the End Task "takes"...and some programs may produce a "Not Responding" message. If/when this happens, just click End Task on the resulting window and the program will close.
If you find these tips helpful, let me know! I don't get any kind of compensation for maintaining this site, so it's always nice to know that I've helped someone.
