My computer has been getting slower every week. I was reading about temporary internet files, so I decided to look at my system for the first time. I was amazed at all the folders and files that get loaded onto my system. I saw hundreds, if not thousands of files and folders under the Temp/Local Settings:


There are hundreds of floders that begin with "vgaxxx...) Below the "Temp" folder - I looked through some of them but there are no files inside them. I doubt that they are taking up much space, but I am wondering why they are theyr and if I should get rid of them
In the Content.IES folder under "Temporary Internet" folder there dozens of folders and hundreds, if not thousands of files, many of which I don't even recognize the extensions
In the "Temporary Internet Files" under the "Local Settings" floder, again, there are what appears to be thousands of files.What, if anything should I do with these and other files and folders in this directory?

I delete my Temp Files and Cache once a week, those things fill up quick with junk. Also run Webroot spyblocker and Ad-Aware along with Norton, just trying to stay ahead of the creeps out there.

I have DSl so I'm not hurting for speed.
I use Mozilla Fire fox and have it automatically dump all the BS.
I manually dump em all all the time when I use IE7.
I dont save passwords or any other data so it's ok for me to dump it all.
And like click says,
l also run Webroot spyblocker and Ad-Aware along with Norton Anti Virus.:thumbsup:

OK- thanks. My friend also told me that I need to get rid of all the files in my computer that say ".exe" at the end of it. I did a search... man there's a lot of them :( so I'm just going to do it from the search screen and delete them all from there. I'll get rid of all the files in the temporary file structure, then dump all those other files. Thanks for the help.

Go to firefox/ mozilla for internet you will like it much better than IE!!!!! and its more secure and faster!

OK- thanks. My friend also told me that I need to get rid of all the files in my computer that say ".exe" at the end of it. I did a search... man there's a lot of them :( so I'm just going to do it from the search screen and delete them all from there. I'll get rid of all the files in the temporary file structure, then dump all those other files. Thanks for the help.

You don't want to get rid of all the files that say .exe or you'll have a useless computer. Those are executable files that your computer needs to run programs and such. If there in your temp file, thats fine, but don't do a search and get rid of them that way. Hope it not too late...

OK- thanks. My friend also told me that I need to get rid of all the files in my computer that say ".exe" at the end of it. I did a search... man there's a lot of them :( so I'm just going to do it from the search screen and delete them all from there. I'll get rid of all the files in the temporary file structure, then dump all those other files. Thanks for the help.

dreamweaver,
an easy way to get rid of these files without doing a search:
start all programs system tools disc cleanup

check the radio buttons of all you want to get rid of.
run this cleanup after norton's clean up

Dreamweaver,

Start,Search,All Files and Folders then type in .tmp and let it find them. You can highlight and delete them and empty the recycle bin. Also in system tools run Scandisk then Defrag.

Kev

Sorry for the delay in getting back... had to go get another computer....














Just kidding :)


Great tips all... thanks!


Do I need to close my browser and / or other programs before I do this cleanup?
Windows XP / Home is the platform --- Whe I do this (I am in the "Admin" group when logged on as myself) will it wipre the temp files in the other profiles as well? If not, can I do it all from the Admin Account, or do I need to log into each profile and repeat the process?

you should at least close your browser. if not, you will be taking in temp files as you clean. it would be best to have everything closed but thats not mandatory.
as the admin, you will clean out all of the temp files.
you should be running cleanup plus "optimization" (defrag) at least once a week. also schedule a checkdisc scan once per month.
you can also reduce the amount of garbage files received by not accepting third party cookies. :waving:

.....as the admin, you will clean out all of the temp files.

So, do I need to log on the admin account, or will my being logged on to my regular profile, because I am part of the admin group, suffice?

.....you should be running cleanup plus "optimization" (defrag) at least once a week.

Do I have to do this manually or can I schedule it to happen automatically?


.....also schedule a checkdisc scan once per month.

How?
Thanks again,
Steve

Since you have all been so helpful to me i thought I'd share this bit of IT humor with you... I got it off of Craigslist's "Best of" section. I cleaned it up because the original was kinda "rough", if you know what I mean... enjoy:

A Friendly Reminder from your IT Department



I think it might be time for those of you who work in the corporate environment to get a bit of a refresher on your IT departments unspoken rules. It seems a few of you have forgotten what it’s all about. This should provide as a reminder as to the inner workings of the corporate IT world.

1.They are all my computers; I am only letting you borrow them. People constantly laugh at me when I say this, with no idea that I am absolutely serious. I have been given the responsibility of every computer in the office; they are all under my auspices, bar none. if I am gracious enough to give you access to one of my computers, then be nice to it. Talk to it kindly, call it a nice computer, and occasionally pat the monitor. Your computer – and your IT guy – will thank you for it. Also, this applies to printers, the network connection to the outside world, the videoconference system, and the phone system. Mine. All mine. Get it? Good.

2. If you are going to use my stuff, then use it properly. This means LEARN ABOUT FREEKING SPYWARE. If you absolutely HAVE to go to some site during work hours (and we’ll talk about this in a minute), then make sure, when the popups start showing up, you click the little black X in the upper right hand corner. Don’t click the big flashing “OK” in the middle. Don’t. Whatever it is you think you should do – if it’s not that little grey X in the uppermost right corner, don’t do it. Don’t. Just. Freeking. Don’t.

3. We know. Yeah, that’s right, we know. Every little site you’ve gone to. All the email that passes through your computers. All the instant message chats you have. We know. All of them. So the next time you decide you just HAVE to visit some idiotic website with a movie of two guys doing a chicken, the next time you HAVE to spam emails to all your friends about the cute guy you hooked up with the other night and he gave you chlamydia, the next time you HAVE to talk to your ex-girlfriend about hooking up one more time behind your fiancée’s back, think twice about who might be reading that stuff, and if you’ve pissed your IT guys off. Because we know.

4. Do not take advantage of us, or our toys. It’s awful nice of us to provide you with a boatload of network storage space for your own private use. Oh, and incidentally, that network storage space at work? IT’S FOR WORK PURPOSES. That means take the seventeen gigabytes of mp3s from some hip-hop artist that you got from some peer-to-peer and GET THEM OFF MY FREEKING NETWORK. I won’t ask nicely again. And listen to some real music – hip-hop sucks.

5. Learn to share. Look, I realize that the computer came with Windows XP. I don’t like it any more than you do. But really – that T1 we’ve got? It’s for everyone, so you can’t hog all our bandwidth by downloading the entire Fedora Core 3. Do it from home. If you want to bring it in to work and dual-boot your drive, I really don’t have a problem with it. But go back to kindergarten first and realize that hoarding is a bad thing, ok? Thanks.

6. The computer I let you use is for your use alone. This is somewhat malleable, where if someone at work needs your machine for a minute, you can let them use it. When your fourteen year old son comes to the office with you on Saturday and you let him use one of MY computers, then bitch to me about spyware, well, I’m just gonna tell you to lick the crack of my a$$ and spit in a cup. Sure, I’ll fix your machine, but after that you’re gonna have two icons on your desktop; “Go To Work” and “Go Home”, and “Go Home” won’t work until 5:30. Think I can’t do it? Try me.

7. Are you a Program Manager? Then keep your freeking hands off of my freeking computers. This is non-negotiable. You people could screw up a free lunch. Get the hell away from them or I will stab you in the neck with a pencil.

8. Are you in sales? Please see #7. You people are worse than Program Managers. Drink bleach.

9. Are you in Engineering? I realize that most of you have forgotten more about hardware than I will ever know. This doesn’t really give you the right to attempt to overclock the PC I’ve let you use to Ludicrious Speed. Please use discretion. Attempting to eke out a few hundred more hertz is fine; requisitioning a Freon Cooling Unit because 3.06G just isn’t fast enough is a little overkill. Trust me.

10. Oh, so you have a laptop of your own? Keep it… Off... My... Network! If I catch an unknown machine anywhere on my net (please see #3), I will screw that machine up so badly your high-school TI calculator will be a Beowulf Cluster compared to your new paperweight. Also, I don't fix home computers. Tough cookies. I hope you get herpes.

11. If you want something from your IT Department, email is your friend. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, but still – if you need something from me, email it to me. Don’t blindly call me, don’t magically materialize next to my desk and sit there while I’m working on something, waiting for me to pay attention to you – email it to me. I’m not doing stuff for you until I have a paper trail originating from you about it. You can follow up with a phone call, that’s fine; you can come over and say, “I just shot you an email, can we discuss?” – that’s fine too. If you just come over and leer at me while I’m in the middle of something, I will ignore you, and mentally give you cancer with my mind.

12. Anti-virus software. Look, people, it’s there for a freeking reason. Don’t try to shut it off, please? Can we at least agree on that? We spent a lot of money on that software so that it would be up and running all the time, and it’s not really my fault if you have fifty applications open and “the anti-virus software is slowing my machine down!!” So I’ll make a deal with you; if you don’t shut my anti-virus software on my computers off, I won’t shove an abacus straight up you’re a$$. Ok? Good.


Following these 12 simple steps will make for a far more pleasing work environment. I guarantee it.

Cute post ^^^^.

Did you ever figure out how to dump the temp files and run the defrag and checkdisc features ??

I think this is a great tool:

WWW.CCLEANER.COM (http://www.CCLEANER.COM)

It's easy to use and it doesn't take up too much space. I run mine daily. Check for updated versions often.

I have DSl so I'm not hurting for speed.
I use Mozilla Fire fox and have it automatically dump all the BS.
I manually dump em all all the time when I use IE7.
I dont save passwords or any other data so it's ok for me to dump it all.

Same here... when I close my browser, everything is automatically deleted. I don't cache anything anyway, so whatever garbage is collected while surfing is trashed when I exit.


I think this is a great tool:
WWW.CCLEANER.COM (http://www.ccleaner.com/)
It's easy to use and it doesn't take up too much space. I run mine daily. Check for updated versions often.

I like this little utility as well. If you're very careful, you can really clean up. No pun intended. It's not for the uninitiated though.

Here is my checklist to keep my 'puter running in good order:

Weekly:
1. Spybot - Search & Destroy. Good, safe, proven, free program to get rid of spyware. I've used it for years and have never had a problem pushing "Fix All" after it id's problems.
2. Ad Aware - Another good safe, proven, free program to get rid of spyware and adware. Why two programs? They have different search criteria. Usually one finds stuff that the other doesn't...I haven't had any problem with them interfering with one another.
3. MS Defender (Beta)...not very good, but it does have a useful feature I will discuss below.

Every Two or three weeks:
4. Start--> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> "Free up space on your hard disk" This launches the Disk Cleanup utility. (Among others, this will get rid of those .tmp files safely)
5. Start--> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> "Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster". This launches the Disk Defragmenter utility. Press Defrag. This program rearranges programs on the hard disk so that they are closer together and faster/easier to access. Over time, your computer is constantly reading/writing/copying/moving parts of programs physically all over the hard disk. Once in a while it's good to put all the pieces back together with each other. At least that's my definition...

When needed:
6. Start --> Run --> type "msconfig"--> click "Startup" tab. Uncheck items you don't want running when you start the computer. DO NOT go CRAZY here. If you don't know what it is, DO NOT uncheck it just because. What I do if I don't recognize something is take the filename...say "ssmmgr.exe" into google which will bring up several sites that catalog these type of programs which will tell you what it is...in my case, it says ssmmgr is a ink level monitoring program for a printer I no longer have installed...this is safe to uncheck or remove. Once I downloaded Google toolbar and picasa, and I got a ton of stuff in the start menu that was really slowing down computer boot time and using a lot of resources.

There are better programs to do the same type of thing that #6 does above. Window's Defender does the same thing, but does it in a better organized fashion and I prefer that interface. Once installed, it is easily accessed by Start --> Control Panel --> "Other Control Panel Option" on the left panel --> Software Explorers

For the past few years, I have also been using McAfee Security Center (Firewall and Antivirus). I saw it in an add at Best Buy? this weekend for $4.99 w/rebates. It also has a nice interface for doing some of the computer maintenance stuff listed above (cleanup and defrag).

For the general computer user (Internet surfing, word processing, home use not gaming):
Computers slow down generally from fragmentation and spyware/adware which occurs because of Internet surfing and downloading "free" programs. You fix this with the solutions above.
Computers are generally speed limited by amount of memory, hard disk speed/access speed, and internet connection speed. You fix this by buying hardware.

Of course I'm a pilot not an IT guy, so hopefully a real IT guy can correct/improve upon the advice I offer here to the problem you had in your original post.

I just ran Ccleaner that Joe mentioned, WOW it cleaned up junk that my other 3 programs didnt touch. Amazing the crap that gets into these systems.
:thumbsup:

OK - First I ran a virus scan and, after it was done, I set up a maintenence schedule to have it run weekly. I use Norton ... Always on are:

Spyware protection
Internet Worm Protection
Email Scanning
Subscription Service to Virus Definitions


I tried to find "Scandisc" but couldn't find it... Tried typing "scandisc" and "scandisk" in the command prompt, but nothing came up. I looked for it under "System Tools", but it's not there. I did a search on "Scan", and all that came up for executable files is:

Scanost.exe
Scanpst.exe
Savscan.exe
Opscan.exe

Any suggestions?

.....

Start--> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> .....

Can't find it? Is it located somewhere else on "XP-Home"?

disk cleaner and disk defragmenter are both under START Programs, accessories, system tools.

disk cleaner and disk defragmenter are both under START Programs, accessories, system tools.
yup. If you have XP in "Classic view" you have to do it as click describes.
If you go to Start --> Control Panel, the left panel of the window should have text to "Switch to Category view"...then you could do it the way I described...I think...I have professional, I'm not 100% it's the same.
Scott

I found disk cleaner and disk defragmenter, but I could not find:

"Performance and Maintenance --> "Free up space on your hard disk"

and
"Start--> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> "Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster".

Basically, I could not find the "Performance and Maintenence" directory anywhere.... no surprise..... can't seem to get going that on my car project's either :)

steve,

scandisk does not exist anymore, its checkdisk. if you are running norton 2006 systemworks, it can be accessed by opening systemworks....norton utilities...find and fix problems....norton disk doctor. at this point the disk doctor wondow will open. in the lower left hand corner there is a little box that says "fix errors", make sure that that box is checked; then hit diagnose. the program will run for a bit and then another window will open stating that the operating system has exclusive access to this drive...yada, yada, yada...."would you like to schedule a repair?" click yes. disk doctor will run a little bit longer; close all windows that open and a thorough check disk will be run on your next startup. sounds complicated but its not..it is easier then searching for it.

also, you can run and schedule "speed disk" (defrag) from norton utilities....optimize performance. now all i gotta do is figure out where all this good stuff went to in norton '07.

oh yeah, checkdisk...go to the "c" prompt (c:\) and type it in otherwise you'll never find it.