Let’s start with those of you that have Windows 98.  Click on the Start button, Programs,  Accessories,  System Tools, and then Maintenance Wizard.  This will start the scheduler that comes with Windows 98 that will make your computer life a longer and much happier one.  Let’s assume that you are like most of us and leave your computer on all the time.  Stick with the Express Setup and the Maintenance Wizard will run the housekeeping in the middle of the night while you’re tucked away.  If you shut your computer down at night, then you need to change to the Custom Setup. Specify a time that you will not be using your computer but it will be on.  The Maintenance Wizard will run a program called Disk Cleanup to get rid of some unneeded files.  Then Scandisk will run to check the integrity of the file system. Finally Disk Defragmenter will run to reorganize your files to allow Windows to access them more efficiently. 

For those with Windows 95, right click on the Recycle Bin and left click on Empty Recycle Bin.  Click on yes and the Recycle Bin will be empty.  Make a habit of checking this item on a regular basis.  Be certain you really meant to get rid of these files and then clean up. 

Now let’s move on to a program called Scandisk.  There are a number of ways to get to the shortcut. One of the easiest is to double click your mouse on the My Computer icon (or whatever name you have changed it to.)  Didn’t know you could change the name?  We will get to that some other time.  Back to the task at hand.  You should have a window open with a number of icons in it.  One of them will be your hard drive or C drive.  Hold the alt key down and double click on the C drive.  This will bring up the properties window for the C drive.  Here you can view a lot of information about the disk drive.  Click on the tab at the top of the window that reads Tools.  From this tab you will be able to run your computer maid service.  This is also the tab that will let us know how long it has been since you tried to help yourself stay out of trouble with regards to your computer. 

The top button on this tab will scan your hard drive for errors.  Click on the top button.  If you have more than one hard drive, then hold the control key down and click on the rest of the drive letters so that they are all highlighted.   We don’t want to leave anyone out.  There are some other options that you can change but for now let’s just let it run with the defaults in place.  Make sure the box is checked to fix errors automatically.  Click on Start and go get a snack, with these new larger hard drives this could take a while.  When it is finished there will be a box that pops up letting you know what is happening on your drives.  The main thing you want to look at is the second line down that tells you about the data in bad sector.  If there is a number in this box it is time to have this drive checked by a professional.  Problems could be on their way to see you, and if Murphy has anything to say about it…. You know when that drive will die and your boss will be very close when it happens.   Close the Scandisk program and we can move on. 

The next chore will be to run Disk Defragmenter.  That will be the bottom button on the properties window that should still be open.  Click on the bottom button to start the program.  The program will start by checking your hard drive for errors but since we already did this, it won’t find any, right?  Now you should be at the window that tells you how much your drive is fragmented.  Don’t worry if it has been a while and the number is up to double digits or if you have been good and it is 1 or 2 percent fragmented.  Click on the Start button and let the cleanup begin.  When the cleanup is complete you can simply close the program or if you have more than one drive you can move on to the next drive.  After a few times you will learn to stop the process and click on the select drives button.  There you will be able to hold the control key down to select all of the drives and then start the program so it will run through all the drives uninterrupted without any input from you. 

If you will take the time to run both of these programs once a week you will have a much better chance of having a happy experience with your computer.  Like we said earlier, make a point to take care of your computer and it will take care of you.