Slow computer? Part 3 - Defrag and spyware, follow this guide to speed up your computer.

Part 3, Now we are actually going to Defragment the hard drive, I know I said we where going to do it in the last part but I noticed that I had missed a part in the middle. 

If you've just joined us, heres the link to Part 1 start there and work your way back here.

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/13139_slow-computer-follow-this-how-to-series-to-clean-and-speed-it-up

In Windows Xp defragmenting hard drives is a little different to windows Vista but the process is the same.

In windows Vista, to start the Disk Defragmenter, click START -> All Programs -> Accessories -> system tools and finally Disk Defragmenter, in windows Xp the route to start it up is quite similar. Its in the same Place so you shouldn’t have any problems finding it.

Defragment in windows vista is automatic unless disabled, but its good to run it manually maybe ones or twice a year since its automatic you don't really need to worry about it, but if you don't keep your computer on while your not working on it, the disks might not get defragmented well.

Here you can see the Vista Defragmenter

Click on the Defragment now and all the drives will be defragmented, also its a good idea to make sure your disks have alteast 15GB of Space, It depends on the overall size of the drive but 15GB Is good. If you have only 20GB drive, Don't worry about it, just make sure theres alteast 20% free space on the drive and continue.

On vista this is all you have todo its set and done, just let it roll.

On windows Xp though its a little more complex.

Here you can see what the Xp defragmenter looks like

As you can see its alot more complex compairing to the Vista One Click Defragmentation.

In windows Xp as you see above, You need to select the drive which you want to defragment and then either analyze it to see the status, the more red you see the worse shape the files are in, If you only see Blue / green / white and 1 or 2 red lines, it means your hard drive is very 'clean' everything is in order and the defragment won't have much of a effect. But if you have alot red then your drive is all messed up, no one has cleaned the house in few months and defragmentation will have a very positive effect on the performance, just make sure you have enough room to perform the defragmentation, 15% or more. Click Defragment when you want to defragment the disk. It may take from 5 minutes to hours debending on the shape. You can only defragment one drive at a time in windows xp. So you will need todo this for all the drives if you see more than one there.

Leave the defragmentation runing on the back ground and continue:

That covers the defragmentation part of the series, next is Spyware removeal and immunisation, for this task we will need a 3rd party program from http://www.safer-networking.org So Open up the link next to this text here. Right now the website doesn't seem to be working so I can't give you step by step instructions on how to download the software. 

Heres a direct download to the software use this link instead of the official website isn't working, the newest version is allways available on the official website so thats the best place to download but for now this will do just fine.

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-amp-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html

Ones you have downloaded the software, run the program and install it into the computer, you will mainly only need to press next. 

On The Select Components page, you can UNCHECK - Skins to change appearance, and Additional Languages also. If you want to use the program in any other language than English leave it installed. Ok, and continue with the setup. 

After a few pages in the setup there are a few options you may want to remove. 

Permanent protetion; SDHelper and TeaTimer, Uncheck these two boxes if you don't want to see technical pop up notifications when you install programs in the future, it will most likely confuse most of the home users out there so its better to leave it unchecked, it will avoid some headache in wondering or calling people, now what is this pop up here.. 

The software will perform a automatic update during the setup,  if the update fails or if you get a error, click cancel, the website is down currently and will probably function again later. If the update fails you may have to Go back in the setup, so press Back Back Back untill you see the Select Components Page again, now uncheck download updates immediately. Now continue forward and install the software.

Now that the software is finaly installed, it will ask you if you wish to delete temporary files, click yes.

The program itself starts up, Click OK on the warning. The Wizard will open in your monitor, in the top left corner.

First Create a registry backup, click on the button it will take a moment ones its complete click next.

Next the program will ask you to update, if you updated during the setup automatically you can skip this part, also if the update failed during the setup it will most likely fail again, so just click next again.

Now Immunize the system simply click on the button, it will automatically immunize your system for many known spyware programs and files. You may need to close your browser while it does this so, it might be a good idea to print this page or to come back here ones its done.

Ones that is done, click next on the wizard and then Start using the program. The wizard is complete at this point.

Next we will scan and remove spyware from the computer, click on the Search & Destroy button on the left side of the program

Click 1

Then Click 2 and the scan will begin. If you are asked to download updates go to the update page on the left side of the program and try to update the software, if it fails try again in a hour or two or at a later date the website is having issues right now.

If you need help with the updates you can drop me a comment and I'll write that part of the tutorial when the service is working right now it isn't.

Ones the updates are installed perform the scan above it will take a while, ones it is complete select all the issues on the list if not selected automatically, on the right side you can click it open to get more information on each problem, finaly click on fix seleted problems. 

Well if you had any spyware it should be removed now.

And this ends our part 3, stay tuned for part 4 and if you have any questions or comments drop them in the box below.

Thank you,

Ekse