No School like Old School

[Miggy]

My computer had been acting a bit weird lately and four days ago I had a message saying my hard drive was almost full. I went WHAT? How come? I have a 35 gig drive and I know I dont have but barely 10 gigs used...... Try a defrag but I am told nope... it needs at least 10% of free space to defrag properly. OK, time to delete crap so I uninstall stuff that I have but never use but still not enough. OK Buddy, this is war, I try to see the C: directory itself but starts reading, goes for a long while and freezes. AGHHHH!!
AdAware detects a couple of things, deletes them but still no joy. I download various sharewares/freewares that promise the world and nothing but one called Easy Cleaner which does some work but still nothing to call home about. One good thing is that I see a TMP folder in C: but I can't access it or even shows on Search so I dust the webs of my memory and go Old School: DOS.

Lo and Behold! This stupid TEMP folder holds 21 GIGAS of temporary files. Where did they come from beats the hell out of me. I manage to delete the suckers and my hard drive is back to normal!
There is still an issue with the booting being a tad slow, but I'll eventually figure it out. Right now my eyes need some rest after 4 days of pounding the keyboard!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Intentional Flincher]

Check this out, I've found it to be superior to adaware.

http://www.spybot.info/

[zero]

Every so often delete temporary internet files. Makes them run better. It is amazing how much stuff builds up.

[JD]

Did you do a defrag after deleting the files in DOS? That in theory should help the boot time.

[Redneck Repairs]

Miggy I will assume you use IE for a browser . First off go to the menu on top , select tools , then select internet options , that should bring up a pop up menu with the general tab showing , then click the settings button under temporary internet files . there you can set the amount of disk space used by IE . you might also reset the # of days in the history section presented @ the tools , internet options , general tab .

[dr_cmg]

For antispyware use Hitmanpro. It runs 5 or 6 of the best freeware antispyware programs.

[retsupt99]

Some helpful info here...I'm gonna' go clean my computer...

Thanks...

ret

[Miggy]

RR, the first ones to go before going into DOS were the Internet Temps even though I had them set at 20 Megs max before dumping. JD, I am gonna leave the machine run the defrag before going to sleep and gonna try all the Spyware stuff reccomended by DR and IF tomorrow...OK maybe day after...LOL

[dr_cmg]

RR, the first ones to go before going into DOS were the Internet Temps even though I had them set at 20 Megs max before dumping. JD, I am gonna leave the machine run the defrag before going to sleep and gonna try all the Spyware stuff reccomended by DR and IF tomorrow...OK maybe day after...LOL

Miggy, Hitmanpro will automatically download and install TrendMicro CWShredder, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spybot Search & Destroy (the one that IF recommended), Webroot Spy Sweeper, Ewido AntiSpyware Micro Scanner, PC Tools Spyware Doctor, Sunbelt CounterSpy, Spyware Blaster, and its own antispyware software or any combination of them that you choose. When you run Hitmanpro it first updates everything and then runs them one after the other. At the end it gives you a report. It is a great piece of software.

[one eyed fatman]

For antispyware use Hitmanpro. It runs 5 or 6 of the best freeware antispyware programs.

This is nothing other than a sales gimmick. There going to put more crap on your computer than you can figure out how to get off. They will bombard you with Buy me! Buy me! Buy me! crap. Now excuse me while I spend the next few weeks getting rid of this crap.

[QKShooter]

http://www.ccleaner.com/ (Crap Cleaner)
I used the filehippo download

I have been using this for months now. I run it every day.

This is the one I use. CCleaner. It takes care of everything on my box & it's free. They ask for a Paypal donation but, I never made one.
It's great & whatever it finds you can get rid of.
Plus it clears the temp files - memory dumps - recently typed URLs - cookies - History - index dat files - last download location - recycle bin - clipboard - Windows log files - unused file frags. - and it will scan for registry issues and overwrite. It's great.
I just click delete to whatever it dredges up.

It gives you the warning - this will permanently delete files from your system. Do you wish to continue?...I give it the go ahead & then run it once more to overwrite everything to Dept. Of Defense specs - 3 passes.

[Sig229]

Damn, its been so long. I dont think I even remember how to get to teh DOS prompt!

Good work though.

[Andy W.]

AVG has a good spyware program as well as their antivirus software. It works great & is free for personal use.

[dr_cmg]

This is nothing other than a sales gimmick. There going to put more crap on your computer than you can figure out how to get off. They will bombard you with Buy me! Buy me! Buy me! crap. Now excuse me while I spend the next few weeks getting rid of this crap.

Excuse me, but you are speaking from ignorance. I have been using and recommending this software for over two years. It has installed nothing except what I chose and has not in any single instance asked me to buy anything. You do not know me and are obviously not aware of my over 20 years experience in the computer and IT fields, but I take great pride in only recommending items that I have not only checked out, but that I personally use. I will also appreciate it if in the future you refrain from making comments that are inflammatory in general or derogatory toward me.

[one eyed fatman]

Excuse me, but you are speaking from ignorance. I have been using and recommending this software for over two years. It has installed nothing except what I chose and has not in any single instance asked me to buy anything. You do not know me and are obviously not aware of my over 20 years experience in the computer and IT fields, but I take great pride in only recommending items that I have not only checked out, but that I personally use. I will also appreciate it if in the future you refrain from making comments that are inflammatory in general or derogatory toward me.

Sir, I started working with computers when dos was the operating system (black and white screen) (you wouldn't know about that). Did you ever operate an Apple Two Plus or an IBM with a 30 day warranty on the hard drive that puked out after 29 days. Truth is these days everyones a computer expert but most of them can't prove it. I tried to cancel one of the items it wanted to install, it installed it anyway. People are still to stupid to believe Microsoft installs spyware in their operating system. So go ahead and tell me what an expert you are like everyone else does.