PC Maintenance – DIY Tweaks

I have a computing background so I like to think that I normally take pretty good care of my machine. Of course, there is always room for neglect, improvement, and quick and dirty “trade secrets.” Regrettably, the only secret I learned from applying the recommendations in “PC Secrets” was that I’m as gullible as ever. Not only did I not take the time to verify the information, I didn’t even test the results immediately after going through the motions.

I don’t mean to slam the author as single-handedly trying to wreak havoc amongst computer users at-large … I don’t believe for a minute that there was malicious intent involved. All I’m saying is that whenever anyone recommends that you perform specific computer maintenance tasks, the responsible thing to do is explain why. Of course, it should also be the responsibility of the gullible user is to ask why.

Maybe … gullible gets what gullible does (or doesn’t do, in this case).

At any rate, I encourage anyone who bought this book to think twice before performing some of the recommendations mentioned because, as any computer nerd worth their salt knows, every machine / environment / application is different, and requires individual attention. The only way to ensure successful results is to know what maintenance to perform and why it will work for your machine.

To help paint the picture of where I’m coming from in this review, all you need to know is that my computer experienced irreversible damage from performing the maintenance tasks recommended in this ebook. I never was able to trace the exact cause but I since I had performed no other maintenance, it stands to reason that the PC Secret tasks were responsible.

I ended up having to restore my system to an earlier checkpoint before the maintenance. It was my own fault for doing it, but I want to relate the experience to emphasize the importance of performing due diligence before taking written advice at face value.

ORIGINAL CONTENT EDITED

As you can see from the first comment to this post, I have been asked to remove any literal reference to the contents of this ebook from my post. Since the only literal mention I ever used was a “fair use” quotation of the book’s disclaimer, I’ll paraphrase the disclaimer to avoid further accusations.

The ebook includes two sentences that attempt to reassure users that no harm will come of their computer, or computer files, by performing the tasks mention in the ebook. And that no files will be deleted.

I took/take exception to this comment because it becomes evident later in the ebook that some of the recommended tasks involve the deliberate deletion of files in specific folders and the disabling of other files. Clearly not what the disclaimer claimed.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST…

The following maintenance steps are found in this ebook - as well as other online tutorials and forums. As is the nature of any “recommendation,” these steps should be considered as suggestions only.

1) Clean up and compress your files

Windows has built-in cleaning, compression and defrag utilities. If you’re not comfortable downloading and installing 3^rd-party software, you can access Windows’ apps from …

Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleaner (compression option here)

Alternatively, PC Secrets recommends downloading a freeware utility, ccleaner

“CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!” – ccleaner.com

Typically, I like to run the built-in defrag utility after every cleanup. PC Secrets gets around to this in Step-12. No biggie.

Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmentor

2) Disable visual effects and Windows Indexing Service

Regarding visual effects
“Windows provides several options to set the visual effects of your computer. For example, you can choose to show shadows under menus, giving them a 3-D look. You can tell Windows to display the entire contents of a window while you move it on your screen. To make large text more readable, you can choose to display the smooth edges of screen fonts. You can also enable the Web view in your folders, which will display a list of hyperlinked tasks and information on the left side of the folder window. Windows provides options for enabling all of the settings (for best appearance), or none of the settings (for best computer performance). You can also restore the original default settings.” – Windows Product Documentation

Honestly, I don’t notice visual effects consume enough juice to warrant the inconvenience of disabling them. This is a moot point for me.

Regarding Windows Indexing Service
If you don’t know what this utility does, you’re obviously not using it and are probably ok to de-activate it. BUT, read on a little before you do.

Right-click on Dive C: | Properties | General tab | uncheck Allow Indexing Service To Index This Disk For Fast File Searching

I experienced the odd error messages telling me that access was denied for certain files (including my Visitor profile) and wonder if this would have occurred had I performed this task as an administrator. No worries though, Ignoring these messages completed the task which took roughly 3 long minutes.

BEFORE you do this however, here’s where all you power-users should do a bit of soul searching and ask yourself how you want to get the most out of your personal computing experience. If you don’t know what this utility does (I didn’t either), you may just want to take a look - it’s pretty slick.

What is the Indexing Service?
Windows indexing service allows instant searching of PCs and corporate networks. It’s an OS-level service that maintains an index of most of the files on a computer and updates them without user interventions. - Wikipedia

“Indexing Service is a base service for Microsoft® Windows® 2000 or later that extracts content from files and constructs an indexed catalog to facilitate efficient and rapid searching.

“Indexing Service can extract both text and property information from files on the local host and on remote, networked hosts. The files can be simply members of a selected file system or part of a virtual Web hosted by, for example, Internet Information Services (IIS).

“Indexing Service extracts the content by filtering—using filter components that understand a file’s format.

“Indexing Service then merges the extracted information into catalogs of indexes for efficient searches. Indexing is the overall process of filtering, creating index entries, and merging them into catalogs.”— Microsoft

“What they don’t say is that this service tends to run amok, indexing far more than necessary and starting without warning. For the benefit it provides, the resource usage is far from an equal trade-off. However, in all fairness, if you have a reasonably powered machine you might as well leave Indexing Service on. It can speed things up a bit and most of the systems capable of running XP efficiently shouldn’t be bogged down by having this service running. If it does take a noticeable performance hit it’s really time to consider upgrading.” – TheElderGeek

Windows Indexing Service - Pros
Windows indexing service allows instant searching of PCs and networks. It’s an OS-level service that maintains a cataloged index of most of your files on your computer, updating them regularly. In most cases, it will speed up your searching queries.

Most systems already running an efficient XP operating system (OS) shouldn’t be bogged down by using it. If they are, it’s probably time to upgrade anyway.

My advice? If you have a reasonably current computer and you use your computer for heavy business activity, you might want to leave it enabled, patch it, and figure out how to use it (keep reading).

Windows Indexing Service - Cons
What Microsoft doesn’t publicize is how the service has a tendency to index more than what’s necessary and without warning. Also, there is the small matter of a serious vulnerability in the Indexing Service that should be addressed:

“A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Indexing Service because of the way that it handles query validation. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by constructing a malicious query that could potentially allow remote code execution on an affected system. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. While remote code execution is possible, an attack would most likely result in a denial of service condition.” - Microsoft

That’s enough reason right there for me to want to deactivate it. But like I said, in the right hands, it’s a handy tool if you know how to use it.

So for the power users, I recommend reading Brien M. Posey’s article, Working with Windows Server 2K3 Indexing Service and, Making Windows’ Server 2K3 Indexing Service Useful. I’d love to hear from anyone who is an IS power-user.

Indexing Service Vulnerability* A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Indexing Service because of the way that it handles query validation. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by constructing a malicious query that could potentially allow remote code execution on an affected system. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. While remote code execution is possible, an attack would most likely result in a denial of service condition.” – Microsoft

* For anyone interested in learning the real benefits of Windows’ Indexing System, I recommend reading Brien M. Posey’s article, Working with Windows Server 2K3 Indexing Service and, Making Windows’ Server 2K3 Indexing Service Useful. This will put power users on the right track for teching out their machine, while giving them the comfort that if it’s not something that’s going to be used to this extent, your conscience is clear to deactivate it.

3) Clean up unused programs

Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs

4) Update Windows

You may already have this utility scheduled to run automatically but it’s a good idea in this case to check for updates at the beginning of a major overhaul like this. If you’re like me and have removed the icon from your Start menu, you can access the updates from,

Start | Help & Support | Windows Updates

OR

Control Panel | Security Center | Automatic Updates

This step is important to help keep your browser and Operating System updated in the ongoing attempt to combat vulnerabilities to the ever-increasing onslaught of malware and viruses.

5) Validate your OS (only if have original CDs)

Not sure of the necessity for this. Guess I don’t think about it because I don’t have my original CDs (who does?). Consider this step as you feel led.

6) Secure Windows – Antivirus, Spyware & Adware, Firewall

Antivirus

If you do enough research on Norton Anti-Virus, you’ll take a step bake, wipe the sleep out of your eyes, and seriously reconsider what you feed your computer. Norton has a known history of “reacting” with some resident applications that can drive a user buggy. And getting rid of it is a task in itself! (Talk about protection from viruses…!)

There is a reason that Grisoft’s award-winning AVG is ranked as the #1 free solution for home users. I use AVG and for my virus protection and love it. It takes roughly 30 seconds to update its library of known viruses every time I log on and I never hear from it again.

The only thing that drives me around the bend is the inability to configure the free version to prevent scanning of every document I open. This means that any large document (eg. Word) can take about 1 minute to open. Of course, I could upgrade but that would defeat the air of pride I get from using Open Source.

Spyware & Adware (privacy software)

Spyware can take many forms and enjoy varying levels of threatening behavior, but mostly, it’s main detriment is how it bogs down your productivity with useless files and utilities that constantly run in the background.

Originally, spyware limited itself to varying levels of surveillance of your computing activities and reporting this information back to … advertisers, hackers, who knows who. Today, spyware has evolved into adware (annoying popups), cookies, and utilities that are actually capable of manipulating your programming and computer settings. Basically, anything that is capable of attaching itself to your computer and leaving a two-way footprint is considered spyware.

Unfortunately, firewalls are created for specific security applications and are limited in their prevention of spyware, thus necessitating the need for supplemental protection. But used in conjunction with a decent firewall, you can effectively keep your computer clean from most malware threats.

Lavasoft’s AdAware is the #1 ranked software app in this category and is rightly recommend by PC Secrets.

“Ad-Aware 2007 Free remains the most popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week. Our free anti-spyware version provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identity theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers..” – Lavasoft

Other popular freeware considerations:

Spybot Search and Destroy and PC Tool’s top choice, Spyware Terminator.

Firewall

No system should be connected to the Internet without a firewall. This is your front-line protection against phishing attacks, worms, key toggers, and identity.

Although Windows XP provides a basic firewall and Vista employs a more sophisticated one, this is only a starting point. You always want to either fine tune your Windows firewall or install a 3^rd-party app.

I like Comodo. Here’s “a global leader in Identity and Trust Assurance Management solutions for the Internet, and named to Info Security Product Guide’s “Hot Companies” for 2006. Specializing in security certificates used by the International banking community, I’m pretty happy to think that this same technology is keeping my personal machine safe.

Another leading choice for personal freeware firewalls is PC Tools Firewall Plus. I don’t think you can go wrong with anything recommended by PC Tools. Just my $0.02.

PC Secrets recommends CheckPoint’s ZoneAlarm, which offers a 15-day trial run only. No freeware here.

Note: Something to know about firewalls is that you can’t have 2 of them running simultaneously or your system will experience conflicts.

7) System tweaks - RAM (buy more)

This is one of those areas that can be extremely confusing to uneducated users and should be accompanied with at least some documentation before “jumping straight to the tweaks.” It goes without saying that installing more RAM will increase responsiveness but, random tweaking is just asking for trouble from the technically-challenged.

I defer to Microsoft’s Product Documentation on managing computer memory.

8. Tweaking folder settings

I can live with not doing this because it doesn’t seem significant enough to me to affect caching productivity.

9) Disable Sounds

Again, what is more important to me – hearing the warning beep that my battery needs recharging or saving 1 milliseconds of response time?

Cumulatively, some of these utilities may represent an entire second, but personally, I don’t notice a substantial enough lag time to warrant disabling them. After all, they’re part of my overall computing experience. Does that make me an old dog resistant to change?

10) Delete unneeded files (here’s where the controversy begins)

The following list of files are considered “unneeded” by PC Secrets and it’s recommended to delete all of them. The only explanation given is that they are “files and folders used to initially install Windows and folders that collect junk.”

I can agree with everything until the last folder – system32\dllcache\. This folder houses essential utilities that may or may not be recoverable (see notes on that specific folder). Delete these only if you are into re-installing your operating system

C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\Cookies\index.dat
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\UserData\index.dat
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\LocalSettings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\LocalSettings\Temporary
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\UserData
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name_here\.limewire\.NetworkShare\Incomplete
C:\Program Files\LimeWire\.NetworkShare
C:\Program Files\CachemanXP\Backups – only if you use this utility
C:\WINDOWS\Offline Web Pages
C:\WINDOWS\Temp
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Cookies
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download – ok to delete the items in the Download folder, but NOT the download folder itself
C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\ - I don’t advise deleting these. These are Windows File Protection (WFP) files and exist to protect OS system files. Although for the most part, deleted files in this folder are replaced at the next reboot, there is some risk of that not happening. If you remove these files, you may NOT be able to uninstall any updates (including driver rollbacks, restoring defaults, you get the picture). Since in theory, they are copied to this same location anyway, it seems defeatist to me to go to the trouble of deleting them in the first place. (cf. Microsoft Product Documentation)

While we’re on the subject of controversial deletions, it came to my attention during my research from this post of another sensitive directory of files that you may want to leave alone. This is strictly FYI.

c:\windows\$Uninstall—-$

Windows Updates places Uninstall libraries (folders) here that tell your computer how to uninstall a Windows update or “hotfix.” These files tell your computer how to uninstall the Windows update(s). Some of these files are also related to what Microsoft refers to as “hotfixes” and they can be removed if you aren’t planning on rolling back from a hotfix, though it’s not entirely obvious which update is which.

Over time, these folders accumulate to occupy a significant amount of disk space but, they should be removed ONLY if you aren’t planning on rolling back your updates or hotfixes.

For instance, I have a nice collection of over 3GB of NtUninstall folders! The only problem is, how in the world do I know which folder belongs to what utility?! I don’t know about you but I have better things to do than keep installing my OS every time I muck around with something unfamiliar and can’t find a restore point to undo it.

Thankfully, Dave Taylor recommends a nifty little utility written by Doug Knox to do just this. It’s called, XP Remove Hotfix Backup of all things. This utility doesn’t remove all the files in your NtUninstall folder, but it does let you easily remove the ones related to hotfixes.

If anyone has any documented input into how else to clean up these folders, I’d love to hear about it.

11) Tweak pagefile by adjusting virtual memory

Again, I defer to Microsoft’s Product Documentation on managing computer memory. If you’re interested in having a go, here’s where to look:

Control Panel | System | Advanced tab | Performance Settings | Advanced tab | highlight drive C: | change value of Initial Size to match the value for Maximum Size (eg. 2880) | Set | OK

12) Tweak start-up with /prefetch:1

Right-click on a program | Properties | Shortcut tab | add to end of Target, “/prefetch:1″ (without the quotes and leaving a [space] before adding it.)

13) Deactivate non-essential Windows Services (risky)

This is another controversial move. Again, there is no documentation offered here to assist users in knowing which services perform which functions. Yes, there is a brief description box in the Services window, but that often isn’t enough for me – let alone the blind (I mean that figuratively, of course).

To see what I mean, highlight the service-in-question and read the info in the upper left corner of the display window to help determine your need. Note that it’s not enough to simply click on the Stop link – you need to double-click on the utility and select Disable from the Startup Type dropdown box.

Right-click My Computer | Manage | Services & Applications | Services

PC Secrets recommends disabling the following services (list may vary according to programs loaded on your personal computer):

Alerter – already disabled
Application Management – already disabled; obviously don’t need it
Clipbook
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting
Help and Support
Indexing Service – read Step-2 before doing this
IPSEC Services – anything security-related, I leave alone. Enabled.
Machine Debug Manager
Messenger – already disabled; used in conjunction with Alerter
Photoshop Elements Device Connect – prevents the annoying Organizer from automatically launching
Portable Media Serial Number – already disabled
Remote Registry Service – n/a on my comp
Routing and Remote Access – routing services to local and WANs
SSDP Discovery Service – another security feature that I prefer to leave as-is
Secondary Logon – (eg. fingerprint logon)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet – n/a on my comp
Upload Manager – n/a on my comp
Windows Time – doesn’t affect Outlook appointments, so ok
WMI Performance Adapter

14) Installing maintenance apps

Personally, I’m only familiar with one of these applications, Diskeeper Lite, and I don’t find it any more useful than Microsoft’s built-in defragmentor program.

Cacheman v5.5 – optimizes disk cache, memory and prevents frequent paging to the hard disk, resulting in improved performance, system reaction time and stability.
PageDefrag – physically defrags the registry; run as needed
NTRegOpt – compacts registry hives to minimum size possible; run as needed
Diskeeper Lite – defrag utility to optimize productivity
Bootvis * – speeds up system startup
LVLlord Patch – regain lost TCP connections (didn’t work for me without original OS CDs)
SG TCP Optimizer - optimize your Internet connection
Star Download Manager – download programs more efficiently than Windows download manager?
Firetune – speeds up your Firefox browsing experience
FasterFox – also speeds up your Firefox browsing experience

* Researching the Bootvis utility revealed that this is a supplemental programming tool that is, in my mind, irrelevant for personal use and inappropriately recommended here. It’s an analysis tool for Win XP intended to characterize system performance of capture & graphical display, and resume performance during startup. Not meant as a stand-alone utility and I personally experienced no tangible benefit.

15) Disable unnecessary startup apps (risky)

Again, all I can say here is, if you don’t know what these utilities are used for, you have no business disabling them. They’re there for a reason. PC Secrets certainly doesn’t explain their existence. And frankly, I’m not terribly excited about researching the why’s and wherefore’s of their uses at the moment. I just know that if I purchase a piece of furniture from IKEA and it comes with a bag full of screws, I’m prob’ly going to need them all. Same here. Do yourself a favor and leave them alone.

Start | Run| type in “msconfig” | check “Hide All Microsoft” Services
Services tab | uncheck any recognizable applications that you don’t need
Startup tab | uncheck any recognizable applications that you don’t need

16) Remove wallpaper and unused fonts

Personal choice – how much do you enjoy using your computer?

17) Tweak cable/DSL & patch TCP

I don’t know enough about this stuff on a good day. I’m not going to stop what I’m doing to research it now. Suffice it to say that, if I have a problem with my Internet connection, I call my ISP provider. Sorry – no elaborate advice here except to repeat the anthem, “let it be.”

18) Weekly Maintenance

Finally… we’re done. All that’s left is a weekly maintenance schedule to ensure that your computer never runs slow again. This is pretty fundamental really – simply make the effort to update Windows, your Antivirus, Spyware, and Firewall programs, and perform weekly cleaning and defrag functions. Piece o’ cake.

In retrospect, I have two problems with this ebook.

For starters, I understand the author’s capitalistic motives of turning a buck or two from compiling what is otherwise free information (’tis after all, the land of opportunity), but if you’re going to sell … well, anything, go to the trouble of documenting your resources so that I can make a more informed decision about what you’re recommending to me.

Secondly, I know I should’ve done my own homework first but, that doesn’t make an author any less culpable for acting on their recommendations. If something is black & white, no problem. But, if there are shades of grey about the thing that’s recommended to me, make that clear.

I’m not sure which one of these “secret tweaks” contributed to the downfall of my PC but my suspicions point me to a possible combination of installing maintenance apps, disabling “non-essential” Windows services, TCP patch, …. who knows?

I DO know that my computer worked fine before I performed the above tasks. But like any eager beaver, I wanted to push the envelope. I also know that it’s not uncommon for programs to react differently – sometimes in conflict with, other programs for reasons as trivial as being installed in the wrong order. Other reasons involve file sharing properties, outdated library files, … any number of reasons. So know WHAT you’re doing … and WHY.

So why was I so blind? Goodness knows. All in know is that this is an insanely long post and, I have other things to do now that I’ve ranted about my own daftness. Sorry Kris, I can’t recommend your book or your tactics. But keep trying – I think you’re heart is in the right place.

As always, comments are welcome …

Please also read the follow-up to this post:
Copyright Use - In Defense of Fair Use

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