Environmental Health & Safety

Don't Install Software that you wont use

• When you install new programs on your computer, they place files in your Windows directory that can slow down your computer's performance. If you don't use a particular program then uninstall it, or don't install it in the first place. Most programs are equipped with Uninstall utilities, but may also be uninstalled using the Add/Remove Programs tool in the Windows Control Panel.
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  Never delete a program or a program folder to remove them from your system. Doing so may cause irreparable damage to Windows. Always Uninstall programs; never Delete them.

Install ALL programs in "Program Files"

• Many programs, when installed on your computer, will ask you to choose the location to install the new software. Often, the installer will offer a suggestion or a default location such as, "C:\NeoTrace" or "C:\Program Files\NeoTrace". When given this prompt you should ALWAYS chose to install the program within the "C:\Program Files" directory. If this option is not the default, just type in "Program Files" preceding the default directory, e.g. "C:\Program Files\NeoTrace". This will help keep your programs organized and improve your computer performance.
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Use your system tools

• Windows includes many programs designed to help keep your computer in peak performance. RegClean (dowload) will examine your Windows Registry for errors and correct them to prevent system error messages and crashes. DiskCleanup (Win98 ONLY) will examine your hard drive to find and delete extra system files that may be slowing down your computer. Defragment will reorganize the data packets on your hard drive to reduce the time it takes your computer to find files and start programs.

  All of these utilities can be found in the System Tools menu in the Start Button under the "Program Files>Accessories" menus.

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• Use RegClean after you install or uninstall any programs, or about once every week. RegClean takes less than a minute to run, and creates a dated UNDO file in the directory "C:\Program Files\RegClean" which can be double-clicked to reverse the actions of RegClean. Use the UNDO files if you suspect RegClean is the cause of a system malfunction.

• Use DiskCleanup (Win98 ONLY) as often as you like to eliminate extra files. DiskCleanup (Win98 ONLY) takes only a few minutes to identify files that can be deleted. It will then ask you which files you want to delete.

• Use Defragment about once every 3 months, or after large amounts of data have been added or deleted from your computer. Defragment will inform you of how badly fragmented your hard drive is and recommend the need for using Defragment at that time. Defragment can take many hours to complete depending on the size of your hard drive. You may wish to run Defragment after you have finished using your computer for the day. Close all programs running on your computer by pressing and holding "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" and ending each task one at a time, except the Explorer and the Systray

Keep the Start Button and the Desktop clean

• You may have noticed that your Start Button or Desktop is getting crowded with shortcuts to programs and files. You can change the names of shortcuts in your Start Button, or create new folders and move them, or delete unused shortcuts. You can also move shortcuts on your Desktop into the Start Button to help organize them better and reduce clutter on the Desktop.

  If you want to edit your Start Button, just right-click on the Start Button and select "explore" from the pop-up menu. A window will open displaying all of the shortcuts that make up your Start Button, which you can edit as you chose.

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  A well organized Start Button and Desktop will help you easily find the files and programs you need by categorizing them to your own preference.

Reduce your Start-Up time

• When you turn on your computer and Windows starts, you may notice that some programs begin to run automatically. Some of these programs you may want to start automatically for your convenience. However, many of these programs may start automatically when you don't want them to.

  Sometimes the options or preferences for a program are set to make the program start automatically when Windows starts. You may be able to disable these options with a little time spent exploring the option or preference menus of these programs.

  Some programs start automatically because a shortcut for the program is in the "start up" group under the "Programs" folder in your Start Button. Any program listed in the "start up" group will start with Windows. You can edit this list using the same method described previously for editing the Start Button, by deleting or adding shortcuts to programs.

Last Resort: REFORMAT

• If your computer's performance continues to lag even after following all of the tips and suggestions provided in this document, your last resort option may be to have your computer professional reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of your other software. This procedure should only be used when no other method has helped your computer performance reach normal speeds. Reformatting involves saving all of your personal and work documents (e.g. Word documents, Databases, Pictures) to a remote location such as a network, erasing ALL data on your hard drive, and reinstalling every program you need on your computer. The entire procedure may take an entire workday for your computer professional to complete.

  IMPORTANT! THIS PROCEDURE SHOULD ONLY BE ATTEMPTED BY A COMPUTER PROFFESIONAL. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS YOURSELF. YOU MAY PERMANENTLY DELETE OR DAMAGE IMPORTANT AND IRREPLACEABLE FILES.

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