Your Computer needs regular maintenance just like your car. Following these steps every two weeks will help keep your computer running its best.

Clean up unneccesary files and folders

Please download CCleaner
Install and launch CCleaner, click on check for updates. Under Cleaner Settings, make sure that everything is checked, including Advanced. Answer yes to all warnings. Click Analyze, when it is finished, click Run Cleaner, then OK. Allow the program to finish and exit application.


Scan Disk

Scan disk will scan your Hard Disk(s) to attempt to recover any bad sectors on the drive.
PCHF Strongly reccommends doing a through examination of your Hard Disks regularly (every two weeks)

For Windows 95/98/ME/2000 users

Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scan Disk

For Windows XP users

Right Click on? My Computer, click on Open, Right Click on Hard Drive (usually C
Click on Properties and select the Tools tab, Click on Error Checking
Click Check Now, Check both boxes and click Start

Note: You may need to schedule Scandisk to scan when your PC boots up.


Disk Defragmenter

Overtime you may notice your PC become slower. This is because too many files become fragmented from installed programs. To improve the speed of your Hard disk you need to run Disk Defragmenter.

NOTE: You may need to leave your PC on overnight depending on the size of your Hard Disk. Eg: for an 80GB hard disk, it could take from 8 to 24hrs.

For Windows 95/98/ME/2000 users

Click on? Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter

For Windows XP users

Click on? Start, All Programs, Accesories, System Tools, Disk Defrag

Note: Windows XP users can first analyze their drive to see if it needs defragmenting.

Registry Tool

PCHF recommends downloading RegCleaner, or other registry cleaning tools such as RegSupreme. These are tools that SAFELY delete invalid registry keys, invalid file types and other miscellaneous garbage that bloats your registry. It is good to use these regularly, like once a month to keep your registry running smoothly.