www.thpc.info TweakHomePC www.thpc.infoDual-booting, and speed tweaks for home PC users with Windows |
| Dual-Boot Speed Tweaks How do I ... Updates Utilities Downloads PC Safety Site Map Link Contact |
Temp files, and othersReviewed:A few more safety tips • Some temporary (TMP) files may be necessary. Delete the rest. • Don't create problems. Shut down correctly. • You can eliminate most starting problems. • There are many partition advantages. • Use Ctrl-Alt-Del. But don't abuse it. TMP FILES [1]Temp filesWindows 95/98 creates temporary files very frequently. They are also created when installing software.What, and When, to delete safely Never delete the TEMP Folder. Windows 95/98 is creating .tmpfiles all the time (and some very large ones!). Your applications use the TEMP folder to store temporary information, and won't function properly if you try to remove them. Windows 95/98 is supposed to empty this folder whenever you shut down your computer. If it does not shut down properly, or there are other than " .tmp " files or folders in there, then they will not be removed. These files also take up much needed hard disk space. [top of page] TMP FILES [2]You should never delete any files from this directory, unless the dates of the files are earlier than the previous time you booted up. Lets face facts. Windows 95/98 is basically unreliable, unstable, and crashes regularly even under expert supervision - keep the more recent .tmp files when reclaiming hard disk space.Leave deleted .tmp files in the Recycle Bin for a little while - in case you need to Restore any. Some say that emptying the \Windows\Temp folder of all its contents and then running Scandisk and Defrag can cure a lot of intermittent and annoying problems, and also speed up your system response. It is certainly true that Windows 95/98 will work faster if it does not have to trawl through a host of Temp files. Totally removing TMP files does give considerable speed improvement on some systems. However if you see such advise on the WWW (including using a convenient batch file from Autoexec.bat) you are advised to ignore it - keep those more recent files for a wee while! [top of page] SHUTTING DOWNShut down normallyTo operate at top speed, Windows 95/98 keeps a lot of information in memory instead of on your hard drive. When shutting down your computer, it's always best to left-click the Start button and select Shut Down so your PC gets a chance to save all that information.This simple procedure allows the operating system to save important cache information to your hard drive and to update any Registry changes. Failure to do so may result in an 'event' the next time you use your computer - it can be very difficult to locate the problem! [top of page] STARTING PROBLEMSIf Windows 95/98 does not start correctly, it may not be a fault in the Registry, so check the entries in msdos.sys (in the root directory).Look in msdos.sys Under Windows 95/98 the entries in MSDOS.SYS are used to control Startup options, set the pathway for system files, and load certain drivers automatically. Please Note: 1. MSDOS.SYS is a system file so it has a Hidden attribute by default. To access it you must open Windows Explorer • View • Folder Options • View, and in Hidden Files select Show all files and click OK. It will now show in Windows Explorer and you can View, Edit and Save it in Notepad. You should return the attribute to 'Hidden' when finished. 2. You should NOT edit out any X's you see there. It is necessary for msdos.sys to be greater than 1,024 byte in size. [top of page] PARTITIONSPartition GainsIf you have, or will have, a partitioned hard disk then consider allocating all the C:\ drive for Windows 95/98 only. This produces many gains.• You can place all your important material on other partitions - backups, caches, Virtual Memory, programs, etc. Now when something serious occurs, you can just Format drive C:\, reinstall Windows 95/98, copy across your Registry backup, and all is well after you reboot. • You can be selective in choosing the drive to Defragment, a huge time-saving benefit. • You can keep copies of some Windows 95/98 profiles on another partition for easy replacement. • You can put Virtual Memory on a small partition, preventing it from fragmenting the C:\ drive. • Basically you can totally trash the Windows 95/98 partition, clean that partition, reinstall Windows 95/98, and very quickly be back to your original setup - and it should be clean. [top of page] CTRL-ALT-DEL [1]Ctrl-Alt-Del under Windows 95/98Many will remember that, in Windows 3.x, Ctrl-Alt-Delete was used to reboot the computer when a lockup occurred; and current data was lost.Under Windows 95/98 it opens a Close Program dialog box, and allows you to save current data, close a specific application that has encountered problems, and only then will it close Windows 95/98 (well, maybe). Should it not close, it is usually worthwhile restarting your system at that point anyway - after you have saved your data. Should the problem recur then use Scandisk in the hope of fault correction. An offending program will say not responding after its name. To close it, just select it in the list and click the End Task button. In theory Windows 95/98 should now shut the program down and return you to the desktop. [top of page] CTRL-ALT-DEL [2]Unfortunately you may have to go the full way and do a full reboot by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del again - and maybe even a cold start with the On/Off switch! (wait about ten seconds before the restart).You can use Ctrl-Alt-Del to see what programs you have running on your computer. However you should not close any program in the Close Program dialog box unless it is marked not responding. You will also see some programs loaded automatically during Windows 95/98 Startup; you should not close these from here - your system's functionality may depend on them. Tip: If Windows 95/98 'hangs' and Ctrl+Alt+Del fails to bring up the Close Program dialog, try hitting Ctrl+Esc. The Start menu may come up, allowing you to exit more normally and give you a safe reboot. [top of page] PC Safety Centre [top of page] * ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST * ALWAYS RECORD SETTINGS * ALWAYS MAKE ONE CHANGE AT A TIME TweakHomePC is at: www.thpc.info Copyright © LarryM 1998-2006 thpc@mail.com |
Advertisement: LinksToYou