How to clean your computer

Question: Now that winter is over, I was thinking about spring-cleaning my computer (after I recover from the garage cleanup). I’m running Windows 95 on a Pentium 133Mhz. Any tips?

– P.C.

Answer: There are a dozen things you can do to tidy up clutter in your computer.

Let’s face it, there’s probably a winter’s worth of Christmas clip art, temp files and digital refuse that needs to be taken to the virtual curb. There’s also real dirt to take care of—if it looks arable, it probably needs cleaning.

Most of the tips here apply to your machine, but I also throwing a few pointers for the non-Windows 95 set.

Here they are:

1. Before you take the Fuller brush to the digital world, take care of external smears, smudges and those stains that look like a melted orange popsicle took up residence on your case. Wipe down any surface areas with a damp cloth, being careful not to get any excess water between the keys, switches or plug receptacles. Of course, it’s a good idea to turn your computer off before you do this, but leave it plugged into your power bar. A grounded computer is a safe computer.

2. While the computer is still off and grounded, open the case. Before you touch anything, be sure to ground yourself. Touch a metal object not connected to your computer to diffuse any static electricity. Dust accumulates inside your computer at an amazing rate. The cheap method of disposing of excess dirt is to put a stocking over your vacuum cleaner hose and gently remove dust components, suggests Mathew Fiszer, a senior technican at the west EdmontonCompuSmart store. He also suggests buying some canned air to efficiently blow the dirt away. You can pick one up at any electronic store for around $20. Be sure to clean the fan on your chip, if you have one. Also check the fan in the power source. If you’re not confident about working inside your computer, your local computer jockey can do the workfor about $25.

3. Clean your mouse. Wipe the surface of it as in item one. Also, unlock the mechanism that holds the little roller ball in place and remove it. You’ll see three rollers inside. Gunge likes to cling to them, so use a cotton swab with a little alcohol to send it packing. Also wipe down the ball and trade in your dirty mousepad for a new one or wipe it down.

4. As I said in a recent column, it’s a good idea to install the Windows 95 service pack. It updates some quirks of theoriginal release of Windows 95 as well as some new system administration tools and drivers for Windows 95. After installing the update, your System properties will report version 4.00.950a. Also available is Service Pack 5 for Windows NT 3.51 and Service Pack 2 for NT 4.0 (ServicePack 3.0 is impending). Windows 95 and NT users can get more information at www.microsoft.com.

Mac owners with Mac OS version 7.5.3 can update to 7.5.5. Those with version 7.6 can update to 7.6.1. Specific quirks and details are at www.info.apple.com.

5. There are further updates to the Windows 95 platform that you might consider. “There are several bugs introduced by the Windows 95 Service Pack,” explained reader Hal Hoover. “If you install it, you may need to install some of the subsequent patches.” They can be found at www.microsoft.com.

6. Of the several patches available in item five, consider installing two mail patches: Microsoft Exchange Update for Windows 95 and Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 Update. They not only improve mail upload speed, but also fix the handling of attachments.

7. Kernel32 Update for Windows 95 fixes the very heart of Windows 95. Without it you might find your machine crashing after a prolonged TCP/IP connection. In lay terms, it means being connected to the Internet. It resolves a memory leak, which is a mismanagement of memory that occurs when a program doesn’t clean up after itself effectively.

8. You should regularly defragment your hard disk—the equivalent of reorganizing the hidden filing cabinet that is your hard drive. In Windows 95, click START/Programs/Accessories/System Tools. In the same place you’ll find Scandisk, which is a utility that scans and repairs disk and file errors. It’s a good idea to run both of these utilities every couple of weeks (and not just in thespring). Norton Utilities offers upscale versions of these programs in their stand-alone package for Windows and Macintosh platforms. Mac users might also consider using the tools in the utilities folder on the Mac OS 7.6 CD. It includes Disk First Aid, a hard-drive repair and maintenance software, and various other handy utilities, says my pal Dale Port, a Mac columnist in these pages. Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.0 users can run “defrag” and “chkdsk”. Chkdskauto-fixes problems if you run it at the DOS prompt as follows: “chkdsk /f.”

9. My favourite Windows platform cleanup software is Cleansweep 95. It provides a myriad of utilities to clean up unwanted, long-forgotten and useless files. If you’re looking for a way to reclaim more hard-drive space without compression software, Cleansweep 95 does the trick. Versions are available for NT, 95 and 3.1 users. A trial version is available at www.quarterdeck.com.

10. It may be worth while running an anti-virus check on your system to clean out any unwanted bugs. I like PC-Cillin95 by Touchstone Software www.checkit.com, but a reader recently suggested Dr. Solomon’s Anti-VirusToolkit. Check out a downloadable trial version at www.drsolomon.com. Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee Scan also get good reviews.

11. You should also consider doing a back-up of your data. Unless you have a tape back-up or a large medium storage device like a ZIP disk drive, a back-up to floppies is going to require some time. The various flavours of Windows come with built-in back-up utilities, then again, so do tape back-up accessories. I like the idea of backing up to a second internal hard drive. No fuss, no muss.