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[chrissie]

Hi

I hope this is in the right place but hopefully someone will move if not 

Am trying to put some details together for sis in law that I can post off to her on how to do "housekeeping" on the computer to help stop it running so slowly but she knows nothing about computers at all so it's got to be readable and able to follow. 

She has Win XP and uses Google Chrome, I don't know which version.  She also has Nortons AV (don't know which version).  Personally I only know about IE (how to do certain things on there) so are there any comprehensive instructions that deals with Chrome that I can pass on please? Things like deleting browsing history, dealing with temp internet files and history settings and anything else on that browser that would help the computer?  She doesn't even know how to "defrazzle" as she calls it lol... or delete temp files which she didn't know existed! So it's all the things that someone needs to know how to do to keep the PC running better if poss.  I'm hoping I can help her out with some written instructions that she can follow....any help would be appreciated in advising me what instructions to give especially about Chrome.  Many thanks in advance.

Chrissie

[kitz]

Hi chrissie,

The official chrome instructions for clearing cache can be found here
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95582

If you click on the link on that page "Details about the data that gets deleted" it gives you specific information on what gets deleted when you do what.

However I notice that you say you dont use chrome, so I'll include a screen cap at the bottom of this post so that you can see for yourself where it can be found, and the box which gives you the options of what to delete.

I use chrome and like it a lot, its more lightweight than IE and is faster to respond.  If you like you can install it as a second browser so you yourself can see what it looks like and it wont interfere with your own IE settings (as long as you say No to making it your default browser when it asks).

-----
If you want a program which helps clean out all the rubbish on your PC, then ccleaner is probably one of the favourites.

It can be downloaded for free from here, and I'd recommend reading one of the detailed guides such as this one

[oldfogy]

I don't know if it's still fair to blame Norton for the slowness of computers as I believe over the last few years they have improved quite a lot, but on older spec PC's it was almost a fate worst than death to install Norton program/s.

So, maybe consider changing to something like AVG or Avast, which are also free programs and still very good, actually I would even go so far as to say as good as Norton.

As for general housekeeping you can't go far wrong with 'CCleaner' and just leave all the settings as they are (the default) when being used.

Plus as Kitz has mentioned a defrag probably once a month (or even every two months).
As your relation is not PC literate then instead of installing 3rd party defrag programs then why not just use Windows defrag, yes we know it's not very fast, but as far as I know it still does a reasonable job.

[chrissie]

Thanks Kitz and OF.  Will look into the chrome help and sort that out for them to give them the info and the link.  I don't think they will be up to doing the CC cleaner but may suggest it just in case.  Will have a look at chrome for me too on the lappy as sometimes have probs with IE jamming up on certain sites.

Thanks again info will come in useful.

Chrissie

[kitz]

@ OF


>>> I don't know if it's still fair to blame Norton for the slowness of computers as I believe over the last few years they have improved quite a lot.

yes it is supposed to be better these days than it was... I think they had to pull their finger out and do something about it as they were loosing too many users.


>> maybe consider changing to something like AVG or Avast,

Just FYI  Avast is definitely out of favour with me atm.  I got rid of it because of the number of false positives on my PC, but recently its been totally stopping access to a lot of valid sites, 

Im not alone in this.  Luckily I was able to contact them and they admitted that it was a mistake and put it right.   But Im not best pleased that stuff such as this starts appearing elsewhere.  If someone hadnt alerted me of the problem the same day, then the site would have been totally inaccessible to anyone using AVG.   It doesnt always tell you why either.. just totally blocks the site, as if it didnt exist.

Im currently using Microsoft Security Essentials, it seems pretty good and of all the free ones Ive tried over the years I like it the best so far.

[oldfogy]

>> Im currently using Microsoft Security Essentials, it seems pretty good and of all the free ones Ive tried over the years I like it the best so far.

Likewise, although on this occasion up until now I did not mention the fact that a few months ago I also moved over to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) for similar reasons, plus even if you want to, you can't TOTALLY disable Avast, which on occasions I did need to disable because of the false positives but it was still running in the background even though ALL Avast startup items had been disabled (as also mentioned in previous thread).

As for MSE, the only nag I get is even though it is set for a automatic scan on a Sunday, towards the middle/end of the week I still get a nag (icon showing red instead of green) telling me I need to scan my PC.
I also find the 'ignore' files (false positives) works well.

Sorry for going off topic.

.edit
MIS changed to MSE

[Browni]

@OF, CCleaner can delete a file which confuses MSE so that it thinks it hasn't done a recent scan.

See post #3 here

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/148452-MS-Essentials?p=866443&highlight=ccleaner+%2Bmse#post866443

[oldfogy]

Thanks for that, obviously any explanation is better than none at all and if Ccleaner is the culprit then I don't mind, annoying but can live with it.

That probably also explains why it only does it every so often with no set pattern.

I'll have to go ant try Ccleaner again and see if I can find and hopefully set the MSE logfile to be ignored on a permanent basis.


****************
EDIT: 1
Ok, Under the "Windows" tab I removed the check mark from the "System" Windows Log Files.
so will just have to wait and see what happens.
I will try turning off the PC and see if that prompts the check and get back "if or when" the message comes back.

EDIT: 2= Removed

Edit: 3
I think I might give up and just put up with it "unless anyone knows which setting to disable"

I have tried disabling the following so-far and none of them seem to be the one to disable.

Windows Log Files
IIS Log Files
Windows Update Logs*