Re: Vista System maintenance (was Upgrade computer Was (Re: "budget" laptop?)

["Chris Morton" <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Oh, and the Event Viewer logs track such occurrences as Windows not booting
properly, a driver not initializing properly during boot, a Windows system
component having a problem, etc.

Examination of the most current log file can tell you a wealth of info about
what may be ailing your system, but only if you know how to interpret the
information.

You can delete older logs, but a have to tell you that 35 MB ain't nothin'
to worry 'bout. That these are taking up such an inconsequential amountn of
disk space is, well, *inconsequential*.

You'd be FAR better off to set *Windows Updates* (see *Control Panel*) to
alert you when OS updates are available, then adhering to the regimented
discipline of immediately installing these as they become available. You can
set updates for "automatic," but I prefer to look at the list first to get a
better idea what M$ is up to.

> Chris

> Chris

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Kathleen MacDowell <
kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com> wrote:

> You've all been a huge help with your suggestions, so if you have some
> Vista experience, I'd appreciate any other comments re the following:
>
> I'm in a recursive process right now, which started out as an attempt
> to use a demo copy of Flare. Flare needed Flash, Flash needed Windows
> .net (or something), .net wouldn't install till I installed XP service
> pack 2 (which I cannot find at the download site) and on and on. In
> the meantime, my system decided it needed to update too (twice), so I
> haven't actually accomplished much in the last couple of days. But I
> did disable Aero, and started looking into defragging, clearing out
> temp files, and cleaning the registry.
>
>  Here's where the questions come in:
>
> Do I clear out the Temp folder at C//Windows/Temp or is there a
> different folder?
>
> Where is the registry I need to clean? Cannot find.
>
> Can I clear the logs in the Computer Management directory at System
> Tools/Event Viewer/Windows Logs? They are using up about 35 MB. I
> suspect they might be part of the MS customer participation program (I
> haven't signed up)
>
> I did find the defragmenter, and it was already set up to do an
> automatic defrag once a week.
>
> I hope this doesn't sound silly to anyone, but I once ruined a
> perfectly good OS by a panic delete one time, so I'm very cautious
> about what I do about the system.
>
> All suggestions highly appreciated. I hope your work is abundant and
> your weekend is free!!!!!
>
> Regards,
>
> Kathleen
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 3:33 AM, Edgar D' Souza
> <edgar -dot- b -dot- dsouza -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 1:45 AM, Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Respoding to Geoff's questions, Kathleen MacDowell wrote (in part):
> >>> I am using Vista.
> >>
> >> That's your problem right there.
> > [...]
> >> 1GB is simply inadequate for Vista
> >> itself, never mind any memory-hungry apps. If you're going to stick with
> >> Vista, upgrading to at least 2GB should be considered mandatory. It will
> >> yield a night-and-day difference.
> >
> > Or downgrade to XP... but whichever you do, let me second Henry's
> > recommendation to defrag and clean out temp files often. My boss sees
> > a huge pick-up in performance after defragging her WinXP (also Toshiba
> > but I don't remember the model) laptop's hard drive. I tend to get
> > antsy about too many temp files, so wind up cleaning those out quite
> > often, but I too see large performance improvements when I defrag,
> > which is infrequently.
> >
> > If you're staying with Vista, and if your laptop is running the full
> > Aero interface, you might consider turning it off and going to the
> > Basic UI...
> http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-aero-on-windows-vista/
> >
> > HTH
> > Ed.
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Kathleen MacDowell
> www.writefortheuser.com
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