siliconman01
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Tips- Speed Up Scanning & Enhance Security
« on: Mar 29th, 2006, 12:02pm » |
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This TIP offers some suggestions for how to speed up the scanning process for all security scanners on a user's system and enhance security at the same time.
By eliminating unneeded files and folders as part of a routine maintenance schedule, security is also enhanced because it eliminates some of the hiding places for malicious elements.
The TIPS provided herein are described for Windows XP systems with Microsoft Internet Explorer V6.0; however, most of them translate to all Windows Operating Systems.
Before performing a security program scan and as part of a scheduled maintenance process, the user can/should:
Tip 1: Clean out Temporary Internet Files
Temporary Internet Files will accumulate as Internet Explorer is used. In a matter of hours of surfing, these temporary files can consume tens of megabytes of disk space.
To clean out the temporary Internet files:
- Use START-SETTINGS-CONTROL PANEL-INTERNET OPTIONS-GENERAL tab to delete the temporary Internet files.
OR
- Use a cleaning program such as CCleaner or Window Washer to clean out the temporary Internet files plus other temporary files.
Tip 2: Clean out other temporary files.
As programs are executed on the system, many temporary files are created and scattered throughout various folders on the user's hard drive. The files generally have an file extension of .tmp. Over time, the number of .tmp type files can number in the thousands. Any file with a file extension of .tmp can be safely deleted.
- Using Windows Explorer or the START-SEARCH utility, execute a search for temporary folders. Use the word Temp as the search key. Any files in these system TEMP folders can be safely deleted. If a .tmp file is currently in use, Windows will not permit deletion of the .tmp file; this is okay, just bypass this specific .tmp file. DO NOT delete the Folder named TEMP, only the files inside the folder.
- Using Windows Explorer or the START-SEARCH utility, execute a search for files that have the extension .tmp. The search key *.tmp will locate all remaining files with the .tmp extension. Delete these .tmp files.
OR
- Use a cleaning program such as CCleaner or Window Washer to clean out the .tmp files and the TEMP folders.
Tip 3: Off-load unneeded or infrequently used files that have been downloaded from the Internet.
Users will accummulate many rarely used files through Internet downloads. An example of rarely used files is downloaded setup files for installing programs and program updates/upgrades. It is good practice to store these files in a dedicated folder on the hard drive- such as a user created folder named DwnloadPgmSetupsUpdates. When downloading this type of file, save them to this dedicated folder.
- On a routine basis, clean out outdated files from this folder.
- On a routine basis, off-load these files to a secure CD or other removeable media.
Tip 4: Remove unneeded Microsoft Hotfix and Service Pack upgrade/update files.
When the user receives a hotfix or service pack upgrade through the Microsoft Windows Update web site, the installer for the patch/upgrade creates a special directory on the hard drive. This special directory permits the user to UNINSTALL the hotfix or upgrade.
After confirming that a newly installed hotfix or service pack upgrade functions properly, the user can safely remove these special UNINSTALL directories. (Typically, if the computer system performs satisfactorily for a period of, say, one(1) week following the installation of a hotfix, it would seem improbable that the hotfix will ever need to be uninstalled.)
- An easy method of removing Microsoft HotFix Uninstall directories is to use program CCleaner. In the Advanced options of this program is a "hotfix Uninstallers" option. Using this option removes all of the hotfix UNINSTALL directories. This free program can be downloaded from www.ccleaner.com.
- Below is a web site that describes how users of Windows XP-SP2 may be able to reclaim 100s of megabytes of hard drive space which was "confiscated by Microsoft" during the upgrade to XP-SP2.
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=906989
Tip 5: Defragment the hard drives.
Over time, the hard drive(s) becomes fragmented. The degree of fragmentation depends on what the user has been updating/installing/removing/surfing, etc. Fragmentation slows down information retrieval because the drive heads must move to various sections of the disk to obtain components of fragmented files. A severely fragmented hard drive will result in thousands of drive read/write head movements per minute- over and above that of a defragmented hard drive. This increases the seek time, thereby slowing down the loading of programs and information into computer RAM memory.
- On a routine schedule, defragment the hard drive(s). It is good practice to defragment if the degree of fragmentation is more than 5%-10%.
NOTE:
This information TIP is provided as "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK". Mischel Internet Security is not accountable for any adverse consequences or results, regardless of how severe, that may result from a user implementing or performing actions provided within this TIP procedure.
It is good practice to routinely maintain system backups of all critical information (personal and system level).
Applies to all versions of TrojanHunter.
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