how frequently do i need to do the following?

Question

disk cleanup, anti-virus complete scan, defragmentation, removal of cookies/history/temporary files, etc... mine is a home computer. we are four in our family and everyone uses this pc for internet and other things. iam asking in a hope that my pc would be safe throughout use. we bought it only recently anyway. any particular schedules for above tasks? please specify.

Answer 1

My antivirus runs automatically twice a week, during the night. Similarly I defrag once a month (the 4th day of each month, at 2:15 am, to be precise). I clear cache/cookies/temp every time I finish browsing the internet, but that's excessive. Once a week is fine.

Don't forget anti-spy/ad ware scans once every 2 weeks, and a complete re-installation of windows at least once a year.

Follow that schedual, and your PC will stay in near out-of-the-box condition for at least 3-5 years.

Answer 2

Disk cleanup = never. Windows disk cleanup is pretty worthless.
Virus scan = once a week. Update virus protection files once a day or have it do it automatically.
Defrag = once every couple months, or never. You really don't need to defrag unless you install/uninstall lots of programs or add/delete a lot of files regularly. Even then the benefits you get from defragging are miniscule.
Removal of cookies & junk = Occasionally. All that stuff does is take up space. If you have a large hard drive, you have nothing to worry about except people looking at where you've been browsing.
FRESH INSTALL = once every 6/mo to 1/yr. Highly recommended if you want your computer to always perform well.

Answer 3

disk cleanup - I find it pretty useless, since it picks files on date of access rather than importance.

anti-virus - I use a "realtime" scanner that checks ALL incoming and outgoing. I do a "manual" full-scan monthly. My anti-virus updates AT LEAST once daily, automatically.

Removal of cookies - my browser (NOT IE) is set to remove cookies on closing

History - I set mine to hold 50 and/or 30 days, and don't bother deleting

Temporary internet files - remove at least weekly; OTHER temp files - about monthly, JUST BEFORE the defrag before I MAKE MY SYSTEM BACKUP!!

Defrag - ONLY as needed, (like if the computer seems to be slowing down to much during use), and before backing up the system.

Operations NOTE: ALL users should have their OWN "limited" account for "doing their thing".
The Admin account should be used ONLY for maintainence tasks. (This somewhat limits the danger of hackers or viruses, or other "malware" since they will not "automatically" have admin access if nobody is logged in to that account.)

For backups: I do a "full" system backup monthly, (excepting recycle bin and backups file), and a "differential" backup weekly. EXCEPTION - I do a "full" system backup, as above, before loading any NEW application or program and/or updates, (which on my systems I do "manually" as needed, based on my experience.)

(I currently have 9 different systems, 7 on my LAN, and 2 "isolated")

Answer 4

disc clean once a week. antivirus once a week. defrag once every 2 months. Spyware scan once a week.

If you set some internet options, you wont have to do these as much. Make sure you security settings for ie are medium to high, and make sure the amount of data stored by the internet on your pc is less than 250kb. To get there go to tools and internet
options.



PLEASE DONT DEFRAG ONCE A WEEK! Thats a very good way to wear out your hardrive

Answer 5

At least once a week. Good ananlogy,

Would you expect to walk down a really dark unknown alley, protected or otherwise and not get into danger or pick up germs?

Your computer is the same, every internet run is a semi unknown journey, go with protection. Always clean up the germs and viruses you picked up on the way. Always clean up your mind (defrag) as these journeys mess things up even when you think they don't. Nothing is totally secure, but these tools are given to us for free, use them, often!

Answer 6

defrag i do evertime i install or unistall programs reason for this to keep all parts together so the computer doesnt spend time looking for clusters, giving u a faster loading time, the rest i do once a month, virus updates are on auto which are done daily for, virus scan done a 2weekly basis

Answer 7

Once a week for everything

Answer 8

you can not go wrong with the answer that is above this it is the best answer and it is correct as he has given you exactly what i have just been taught at college

Answer 9

you should probably do all of them once a week because then you won't have to remember when to do what.....

Answer 10

Do it all once a week.