What does it mean that my disk is heavily defragmented?

• When files are stored on your hard drive often the file is separated (example: FILE1FILE2FILE1) or there is unnecessary space in between the files so the computer requires more time to find the specific files.

Benefits of running the Disk Defragmenter:

• First and foremost, defragmenting your hard drive will result in faster load times and faster performance (not greatly, but small improvements).

• Because the files are sorted, the hard drive doesn’t have to work as hard to read all the necessary files. This protects the hard drive from potentially overworking itself and doing serious damage to your machine.
• Believe it or not, you may find that after defragmenting your machine that you have more room on your hard drive than your computer originally thought.

How do I run the Disk Defragmenter?

• Select “Start” or the “Windows Logo” in bottom left
• Go to “All Programs”
• Go to “Accessories”
• Go to “System Tools”
• Click on “Disk Defragmenter“ (See below)
• Select your hard drive (Usually C:)
• Select “Defragment”

Conclusion:

• This process isn’t going to provide great noticeable speed improvements, but will slightly increase file access speed and overall increased performance.

Operating System: Windows XP

Anti-Virus Protection: AVG Free 2011

I have been doing some research as these both (AVG / MalwareBytes) are popular software which shouldn’t have any problems running together.  What I found is that there are steps you need to take within AVG prior to the install of MalwareBytes.

Exclude Files and Folders:

To exclude Malwarebytes’ from AVG (2011) Free:
Note: If not AVG, whatever your resident antivirus software is

• Open AVG and click on Tools and select Advanced Settings
• Click on Resident Shield
• Click on Exceptions then click Add Path
• Exclude the following directories:
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
  Note: For 64 bit systems it would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
  
  
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes
  Note: For Vista and 7 users it would be C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes

  Click on Add List then copy and paste the text inside the CODE box exactly as written into the AVG window. Select the entries appropriate to your version of Windows:

• Windows XP:

C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\zlib.dll
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.dll
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamext.dll
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\rules.ref
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys

• Windows Vista and Windows 7

C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\zlib.dll
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.dll
C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbamext.dll
C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\rules.ref
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys

Try that and let me know via email if that helps your situation, computersolutionco@gmail.com.

How to Automatically delete browsing history in IE8

1. Open Internet Explorer browser.
2. Goto Tools > Internet Options.
3. Click to check option “Delete browsing history on exit”.
4. Then click Apply, OK.

Done!  Now each time you close Internet Explorer your cached history will be removed!

- Improved Social Networking security.

Keeps you and your friends safe on social networks by checking all links exchanged in real time. It runs automatically as soon as you install AVG Internet Security 2011.

- The AVG Toolbar now uses Google as opposed to Yahoo

Just a personal preference but I prefer to search via Google than Yahoo.

- AVG Introduced what they call “Smart Scanning Technology

The new smart scanning technology uses minimal resources when you’re at your PC, concentrating solely on real potential risks, and then conducting heavier, secondary maintenance when you’ve stepped away.  This is the greatest new feature I have seen through all the improvements, it doesn’t slow your computer down as much when you first start a Virus Scan.

If you are currently running AVG Free 9.0, it is still supported, but you might want to start thinking about upgrading to the newer AVG.

My Overall Review: Great improvements and I still would recommended AVG Free to anyone.

1. Press all three buttons together (“ctrl” + “alt” + “del“) or right click on the start bar on the bottom of the screen and select ” Start Task Manager“.  For Windows 7 or Vista, after pressing “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “Del” you will have to select “Start Task Manager“.

2.  Now you will see the “Task Manager” screen.

3. Click on the tab that says “Processes“.  You will see many columns and the two that are most important for this purpose are “CPU” and “MEMORY“.  (see image below)

4. If you click on either of the tabs (RAM, CPU) it will sort lowest to highest and vice versa.  Order from highest to lowest and see which programs are requiring a lot of resources as their might be an issue with this program.

Note: “System Idle Process” is good, and under the CPU column, System Idle Process should be above 90%.  (That means that 90% is available for any tasks needed.  If it is much lower than that you have too many processes running.

If you plan to keep old emails what I would recommend is backing up your emails files every few months and then cleaning the files out within Outlook, so you have a record if needed but Outlook continues to run smoothly (or as smooth as possible).

There is an add-on from Microsoft for Outlook, click here for download information, that can make backing up your mail files a breeze.

After you download and install you simply:

1. Open Outlook

2. Select the “File” menu

3. Click “Backup”

4. Select the Folders you want to back up, the location to save them (preferably an external drive), and click “ok“.

5. Once the process has finished verify you have the back up files where you selected to back them up to, then delete the files in Outlook that are not needed.

6.  Right click on “Deleted items” in Outlook and “Empty Deleted Items” to permanently delete these messages and free up space and hopefully eradicate some Outlook errors.

Hopefully that helps you clean up some errors and reduce your overall mailbox (.pst file) size.

Regularly defragmenting your drive is a good idea to make slight improvements in hard drive open space as well as operating time.

To run a defrag:

1. Click Start then go to All Programs then Accessories then System Tools then Disk Defragmenter.

2. Select your hard drive (usually C:) then click “Defragment disk”.

3.  Let run and your finished.  Repeat on usual basis.

Below is what the Disk Defragmenter looks like:

1. Click Start then go to All Programs then Accessories then System Tools then Disk Cleanup.

Your computer will analyze how much space you will gain by deleting temporary files.

shown below

2.  After Disk Cleanup loads and lists all data that you are able to get rid of, you are able to select which items to remove.  I would recommend checking each item listed.

3. Click OK then all of this data will be removed and you will gain lots of disk space depending on how much data is being purged.

Now you have gained storage space on your hard drive and this tool can be used on a regular basis to keep from storing lots of unused installation data, temporary internet files, and deleted items.