If you're caught up from Part #1 and Part #2 we'll continue on our quest to make your computer a lean, mean, computing machine! Last issue I assigned homework. Did you do yours? Hopefully you did and found a few additional programs you could prevent from automatically starting when your computer boots. As always, have a current backup or disk image handy in case you have any problems!
TweakUI
TweakUI is a free program by Microsoft that allows you to change settings not easily available in Windows. If you've already downloaded the program from last issue you're ready to proceed. If not you can download it here. Double click the downloaded file and install it. Once installed you should find it in Start>Programs. Click the link and start the program. I'm not going to cover every possible change that can be made with TweakUI, so feel free to poke around and change anything you think you would like to be different.
The first thing I always change is in "Common Dialogs". Windows has a feature called "Places Bar" that appears when you attempt to save documents. The Places Bar has a window on the left with shortcuts to various locations you can save your document. I like to customise these and this is where you do it. By choosing "custom places bar" you can select which shortcuts you want to appear and in what order.
When you open the Start menu there is a list of programs that appear on the left column. This list is generated by Windows based on the number of times you run the program and some other factors. I hope that you can see I'm doing a lot of work by the programs listed! Windows allows any program to appear here, which is a waste of space in many instances. I have shortcuts in my quicklaunch bar and on my desktop for many programs and it's redundant to have them here. The "XP Start Menu" tab of TweakUI allows you to select which programs will appear and which won't.
The "Desktop" tab allows you to choose which system icons display on the desktop. I hope you've downloaded Firefox, so you can uncheck Internet Explorer! The "First Icon" tab allows you to choose whether My Documents or My Computer appear first (usually upper left corner).
When I open My Computer I want drives. I don't care about shared folders and such. The "My Computer" tab allows you to remove these from My Computer. Another thing I hate is autoplay, which causes any removable media to automatically play when inserted into your computer. The "Drives" tab will let you uncheck the drives you don't want to allow autoplay on.
When you right click on your desktop, as well as files and folders, you get a menu and "New" is an option. An example would be to create a new folder. The problem with this is that many programs you install add an entry to the "New" option. I use this rarely so I always uncheck the unneeded ones on the "Templates" tab. Another choice you may make is to disable the logon screen, which allows windows to boot without you clicking on your profile, or entering your password. This will only work if you have one user account (most do). That's all I recommend for TweakUI. Just a few tweaks to make your PC more user friendly.
Let the housekeeping begin
Windows by default hides the operating system files, hidden files and folders, and known file extenstions. By hiding operating system files and hidden files, Microsoft attempted to "dumb down" Windows. What they have done is essentially made it easier to be infected with viruses, malware, and spyware while making it harder to find and remove. These uninvited guests often install themselves in directories that are hidden by these settings. The hiding of known file extensions means if you name a picture mypic.jpg when you view the file within Windows you will only see mypic. Sounds great! Well what Microsoft didn't take into account is the possibility of a file having two extensions. mypic.jpg.exe will show as mypic.jpg a perfectly safe picture file, when infact it is an executable. This is one of the ways that attackers get you, the user, to run files that can damage your data. Let's fix these.
Click Start>Control Panel>Folder Options and the above window will open. Click on the "View" tab and you will see the settings we need to change. "Display the contents of system folders" and "Show hidden files and folders" need to be checked. "Hide extensions for known filetypes" and "Hide protected operating system files" should be unchecked. Another change I like to make is to change the default view of folders to "Detail". This allows you to see more information without scrolling. It also shows you the date that files were created or modified. This can be very helpful when you have similarly named files or when doing troubleshooting. Open "My Computer" and click Views>Details and then click the "Apply to all folders" button near the top. If there are specific folders you want to display differently all you have to do is change the view of that folder the next time you open it. Once your done click OK and the window will close. You've just increased your safety as a user and made future system maintenance easier.
These settings allow you to open the "windows" folder on your hard drive. If you do not know, or haven't been told, what you are doing do not change anything in this folder. These are the core operating system files and can render your computer inoperable. I'm not saying this to scare you, but you do need to be aware of the seriousness when youare inside this folder. Tread lightly.
If you followed the steps in Part #1 and Part #2 you should have ran Windows Update, installed all programs you want, and uninstalled those that you don't need. Now run Windows Update again. When Windows Update opens I want you to look toward the upper left for "Microsoft Update" and click it. Microsoft Update is the new version of Windows Update and updates all Microsoft programs at once. Once clicked it will ask you to install new software and may ask you to approve an active-x control or two. You should allow both. Once it's finished installing you will notice a new entry at the top of Start>Programs called Microsoft Update. Make sure you run Microsoft Update and install all updates. When we finish we don't want any missed steps.
You are now up to date with fresh, shiny, new car smell patches so let's get back to business! Every update performed with Microsoft Update or Windows Update leaves a folder on your computer. Once the update is installed and you know it didn't cause any problems you can delete these and regain quite a bit of disk space. If you're a cautious type you can leave any that are newer than one month. I usually leave them for one week. Either way if your doing regular backups you should be safe. Open "My Computer", click C:>Windows to open the windows folder.
The "$NTUninstallKBxxxxxx$" files are left over from updates. These can be removed simply by right clicking and selecting "Delete". Be carefull not to change or delete any other files or folders. One important note: If you install any Microsoft Beta software on your computer (most never will) be carefull as you may need the uninstall files later. This is another good reason to view folders in details view, as it shows the date and time.
You are almost there! Continue on with part 4 to finish up the housekeeping.