Cleaning the Cr@p from your Computer (Windows XP) - seminar

Seminar - Click to read or download the Seminar handout (in Adobe pdf format). If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader already installed on your computer, download and install Adobe reader from Adobe.

Demos: There are 11 Videos available (see below) that clearly demonstrate how to implement each of the ten steps of this seminar. There is also a video of the slides used in a previous seminar, that includes information on installing and using "Sandboxie" - see item 11 in the Seminar handout.

Freeware: All the "freeware" programs used in the seminar, plus some additional anti-spyware and anti-virus tools are available as downloads from these Web links. Also included are some help files and links to other freeware tools.

Video Demo Links:

There are two links for each Video. One - "View now" starts the video in a new browser window. You need to be connected to the internet to view these. The other link - "Download" allows you to download the video to your computer (probably to the Desktop of your Computer). It can then be watched any time, by just double-clicking the downloaded file.

  1. Create a Restore point - View now or Download
  2. Adjust the Restore and Recycle Bin settings - View now or Download
  3. Tweaks to improve Windows XP Performance - View now or Download
  4. Remove Unused/Un-needed programs - View now or Download
  5. Perform a Disk Check (Windows utility) - View now or Download
  6. CCleaner
    1. Downloading and Installing CCleaner (freeware) - View now or Download
    2. Remove Temporary files, Cookies and MRU’s using CCleaner - View now or Download
  7. Clean the Registry using CCleaner - View now or Download
  8. Defragment hard drives - View now or Download
  9. Automate the cleanup and defrag - View now or Download
  10. Remove unneeded Autostart programs using WinPatrol - View now or Download
  11. From a previous seminar this is a video of the slides that includes installing and using Sandboxie - View now or Download

Web links (must be connected to the internet for these to work):

CCleaner: www.ccleaner.com and download: http://www.ccleaner.com/download/downloading
WinPatrol: http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html
Avira free Anti-virus: http://www.free-av.com
AVG free Anti-virus: http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition
SuperAntiSpyware: http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
Spybot: www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
F-Secure Backlight rootkit tool: http://www.f-secure.com/security_center/  then scroll down to the Downloads and click on the Blacklight link.
Online Armor Personal Firewall: about: http://www.tallemu.com/product_overview.html   
download: http://www.download.com/Online-Armor-Personal-Firewall/3000-10435_4-10426782.html?tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10989958 
Sunbelt Personal Firewall: http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Start Up programs: www.sysinfo.org and www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
A source for many good Spyware, Antivirus and Firewall products: www.thefreecountry.com/security/
Secunia on line scanner: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/
Sandboxie, availabe from www.sandboxie.com
Flash cleanup/uninstaller tool, available from http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157