[Tweak Master]

GUIDE TO WINDOWS PROBLEM PREVENTION

Overview

Everyone now and then has had problems with Windows acting up or even flat out crashing and failing completely. While even the best prevention isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never have problems, you can substantially reduce the chances of problems and also keep your PC running in tip top shape.

Below are some general tips on preventing Windows problems. It focuses on the software side of things. If you need some tips on hardware maintenance and prevention.

* Don't close a program or application before is has completed its startup

If you open a program by accident, don't shut it down immediately, because this could cause a memory leak.

Normally, when you close a program, the memory it was using is freed up by Windows. If you close a program before it has started up completely, some code could remain resident in memory. This lost memory is called a memory leak, and when you start up another program, Windows could allocate a memory space to the newly started program that is taken up by resident code.

This would result in an error because the thing with memory leaks is that Windows doesn't know that that particular space in memory is now occupied. The error message will probably not tell you that there is a memory leak. It will give you an invalid page fault, general protection fault, or other type of error.

To get rid of the leak, you'd have to shut down and restart Windows. Windows NT and 2000 aren’t prone to this type of problem because it runs a separate memory threads for each application. It still however can reduce the amount of available memory you have currently.

Sometimes Windows will also act as if the prematurely closed down program is still in memory. Not an actual memory leak, but used up memory nonetheless. If you suspect that this is the case, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and go over the task list that will appear. If you see any programs that you are not actually working with, select them and click End Task. The task list sums up the executable programs that are in use, and probably not all will seem familiar. So be careful that you don't shut down any programs that you want to be running.

The minimum you need running is generally systray, explorer, and the point32 mouse driver if you have it. Rnaapp would be for your Dial-up Internet connection.


* Don't install new applications on an unstable system

Try and solve whatever problems you have before installing new applications. If you don’t, it can worsen the situation. A system is at its most vulnerable during the setup procedure of a new program. Just ask anyone who has installed a lot of service packs for Windows.

Most applications install system files. Many of them alter system files, and almost all of them make changes to your Registry. If you really want to install and had errors during a session, shut down and restart Windows with a clean session before starting the setup procedure.

* Clean Install Programs and Drivers

This is not only true for applications and drivers, but also for Windows itself. Upgrading Windows is usually somewhat easier than a clean install because you don't have to reinstall all your applications. But there are a lot more problems with upgraded systems. Always clean install Windows over upgrading if at all possible.

Upgraded applications and even drivers also can sometimes cause conflicts, or can corrupt your Registry because old Registry keys will not be deleted or not always overwritten. So to play safe, you should uninstall the application or driver first whenever possible.

Don't upgrade over a beta version product or driver either. Uninstall the driver or application before installing a new one.

Whenever installing a new video driver, uninstall the old driver and set the display to standard VGA. This may prevent potential video lockups and problems. Especially with Beta drivers if you're installing, or uninstalling them.

* Shut down programs that run in the background before installing anything

Shutting down all extra programs before installing new applications and drivers is the best way to go. The safest option is to click Ctrl-Alt-Del and end all tasks in the task list leaving only Systray,Explorer, and point32 if you have it. This includes shutting down crash protect programs and especially virus scanners. They often can interfere with proper installations of drivers and applications.

It is also a good idea to always restart your computer after installing a new program even if the installation program doesn't prompt you to do that. Installing multiple programs in one session can cause some major headaches if a problem comes up. Even if you don’t do this normally, I Highly recommend you do this with Service Pack upgrades, Internet Explorer updates, or Any other type of major update.


* Keep your Hard Drive maintained

Three things you should do regularly and keep track of are running scandisk, defragging, and keeping the swap file optimized.

- Run Scandisk regularly to keep track of potential bad files and other problems. Installing new applications on a bad plot of hard drive real estate will cause problems with that particular application. All applications can be affected if the swap file has some data corruption or rests on a bad cluster on your hard drive.

Once a month, even run a surface scan on your hard drive. It takes forever, but it may help avoid some terrifying headache problems later on.

- After a scandisk, it’s always good to check if the hard drive needs defragmented. As with applications, make sure all extra programs are shut down before you defrag. This will help prevent Windows defrag from stopping and restarting frequently. Also, disable the screensaver if it is set to activiate after so much time.

- It’s important you keep plenty of free hard drive space. Dipping too low in hard drive space can not only cause a major slowdown, it can cause all sorts of applications to fail and also windows problems.

* Keep System Resources From Getting Low

Most of us are used to running at least 3 or 4 applications at a time. This is a piece of cake anymore with today’s computers. Especially with high memory systems. However, if you attempt to run too many programs, or resource hungry programs such as background virus scanners, you’re asking for trouble.

You can check available system resources by right clicking on “My computer” and selecting “properties”. Click the performance Tab. Try to keep your resources above 70% for best results. You can also use the system resource meter found under system tools.

Intensive background applications are also resource hogs and I think they do more harm than good in some cases.

An example would be virus scanners which run in the background. Unless you have highly sensitive documents or other important work, I recommend you keep the background virus scanner off. I think the best use of it is to run weekly scans with nothing else running. And also scanning all attached files in E mail and all files that you download before opening them.

Crash programs are also a big pain. I recommend you don’t use these as well unless you’re working on sensitive material as above. If you’re experiencing a lot of system crashes, your best bet is to track down the problem and fix it. That’s really only the true way of preventing system problems.


* Always Remove Applications Using Add/Remove Programs

This is something you should always do whenever you uninstall something. Manually deleting applications and related files may not only cause file problems with applications that share files, but also manually deleting applications will most likely leave a bunch of clutter in your system registry.

This may not only slow performance, but it also may cause problems with future installs or updates of that product.


* Final Notes

Even with all these tips, it's still possible to get problems. For this reason, it's always good to backup regularly, and also backup before installing new applications. Especially at least the registry.