Maintenance Doesn’t Require Any Reinstalling
QI have an HP computer with Windows 98. I try to faithfully do monthly maintenance: Scandisk, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup. As months go by it is taking my PC longer and longer to finish the first two jobs. It took Scandisk seven hours, and with Defrag it doesn’t even want to move beyond 1%.
I have GoBack hidden someplace. I also have automatic McAfee Virus Scan. Could these be the culprits? If so, do I have to undo/reinstall these every time I do maintenance?
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AThe good news is you don’t have to uninstall anything. The bad news is you have to make sure that stuff isn’t running in the background. Any program that writes to the computer’s hard drive will cause Scandisk to start over.
The most common source of this problem is the screen saver. To turn it off, click the right mouse button on the computer desktop and then hit the Properties menu. Click the Screen Saver tab and set it to None, then hit the OK button.
You also can temporarily disable items running in the background by hitting these three keys simultaneously just once: Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Don’t hit them twice or your box will reboot. Shut down everything you see in the box except Explorer and Systray, the only bits your box needs to perform minimal functions. Doing this may disable some features, such as access to the Zip drive, but they’ll come back once you’re done scanning and reboot.
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QSome people advise going to Start and then eliminating everything but Explorer to speed up a sluggish computer. What about the anti-virus program? And what about the mouse, scanner and CD-RW? When I eliminated these things, they would not work.
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AOur reader is talking about the System Configuration Utility built in to recent versions of Windows, which lets users keep programs from launching on start-up. To get to the utility, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and, finally, System Information. Then click the Tools menu and open the utility. From there, hit the Start-up tab and uncheck programs you don’t want to start next time Windows starts.
The downside of this procedure, as you’ve noted, is that many devices, such as Zip drives, rely on software running in the background. Turn that software off, and the device won’t work. So you can disable devices you don’t need at the moment and reactivate them later when you do. But the only item your computer absolutely needs is Explorer.
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Q: I’m using Windows and a dial-up modem connection. For some reason, the “Save Password” check box is grayed out for the dial-up connection. I’d rather not have to type in my password every time. How can I fix this?
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A: The problem is probably that you don’t have the Microsoft Networks Client installed, or it’s been installed incorrectly. To fix this, you’ll probably need a copy of your Windows CD.
Hit Start, then go to Settings and Control Panel. Double click the Network icon, which should bring up the Network dialogue box.
Click the Add button, hit Client and then click Add. Look for manufacturer, choose Microsoft--like any of us really have a choice--and look for Client for Microsoft Networks under Network Clients. Hit OK and restart the computer if it asks you to.
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Dave Wilson is The Times’ personal technology columnist. Submit questions to Tech Q&A; at techtimes@latimes.com. Please be specific about your computer and operating system and include a daytime phone number.
