Your computer worked great when it was brand new, but over time has it become sluggish and finicky? It probably just needs some cleanup and maintenance to perform its best again. In this course, you'll learn how you can perk up your Windows XP computer by performing some basic file and application maintenance procedures, including virus detection, backup, error correction, and defragmenting. You'll also find out how to make problems less common in the future by avoiding internet-based scams that download performance-degrading software to your computer.

What Does Computer Maintenance Entail?

Computer maintenance consists not only of avoiding system problems, but also preparing for the possibility of problems happening anyway.

There are a few hardware-based things you can do to avoid problems, but these are mostly common sense like not putting your computer on a rickety table and not leaving a notebook computer unguarded in a crowded airport. This course focuses mainly on computer maintenance from a software perspective. You'll learn how to protect and improve your computer through a variety of utility applications.

Prerequisites

This course is designed for people who already have a basic knowledge of Windows XP and are interested in going to the next step. People taking this course should be comfortable running programs and managing files in Microsoft Windows (move, copy, delete, and so on).

If that describes you -- great! If not, consider taking a basic Windows XP course first or studying on your own with a book. There are many good ones; ask on the Message Board for a recommendation from your instructor and fellow classmates.

Windows XP Versions

One of the most common questions users have is, "Which version of Windows XP do I need for this class?" The answer: it doesn't matter. Any version is okay. A few of the utilities explained in this course are available only in Windows XP Professional, but you can work around them. There's no need to go out and buy an upgrade just to take this course.

This often begs the next question, "What's the difference between the versions?" Microsoft has a good article on its website called " Which Edition Is Right for You?" that explains the differences, but it's summarized here for your convenience. They're basically identical except that Windows XP Professional has some extra utilities and features. Most of these extras have to do with security and large-scale networking. Here are a few things you get with Professional only:

• Remote Desktop Connection: Allows you to connect to your Windows XP Professional computer from another computer on your network or on the internet.
• Microsoft Backup: Allows you to back up your computer.
• EFS (Encrypting File System): Allows you to encrypt files on an NTFS (NT file system) file system drive to keep other people from snooping.
• Connection to an Active Directory Network: Allows you to connect to a large-scale corporate network that uses Windows Active Directory.

This first lesson focuses on safety. If the worst happened -- which on a computer usually means losing everything on the hard disk -- would you be able to recover everything you needed? In this lesson, you find out how to make sure you can recover your information.

There are three ways to make a backup:

• Copy files to another disk: This is the simplest method. Drag-and-drop the files to another disk, such as a floppy, a Zip disk, a writeable CD, another hard disk, or even a network drive. If you ever need them again, drag-and-drop them back again.
• Use a backup program: Backup programs work with ordinary drives or with tape drives; they back up a whole list of files at once from different locations, and they compress them to save space. When you need a backed-up file, you must run the same backup program again to restore.
• Mirror the drive: You can make an exact copy of the entire hard drive onto a same-size-or-larger hard drive. This requires a utility such as Norton Ghost or Drive Image, neither of which comes with Windows.

Some people consider it overkill to mirror the drive. You don't need to back up program files because you should have the CDs for them and can reinstall them if needed. In addition, if it's a program you downloaded, you can download it again.

Microsoft Backup is very good, and very complete in backing up not only data files, but also settings such as Favorites, desktop icons, and cookies.

Microsoft Backup

If you have Windows XP Professional, Backup is installed by default. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Accessories >System Tools > Backup.

If you have Home Edition, you must first do the following to install Microsoft Backup:

1. Insert your Windows XP Home Edition CD in your drive.
2. Navigate to the \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP folder on the CD.
3. Double-click Ntbackup.msi.

Microsoft Backup runs in Wizard mode by default; you simply follow the prompts to back up or restore. There are advanced modes where you can select exactly which files to back up, but this course covers only the simple method.

Depending on the contents of your My Documents folder, you may need a lot of disk space for backing it up. Backup can split the backup file between multiple removable disks if needed, so you can use removable disks with less capacity per disk than you need for the total backup job.

Use the following steps to back up your documents and settings:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard runs. Click Next to begin.
2. Click Back up files and settings, and then click Next.
3. Click My documents and settings, and then click Next.
4. In the Choose a place to save your backup box, enter the path to the desired location. (You can click Browse to locate it if desired.) If you're backing up to a drive, type the drive letter here.
5. In the Type a name for this backup box, type a name for the backup file set, and then click Next.
6. Click Finish, and then wait for the backup to complete. The Backup Progress dialog box appears as the backup is occurring, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Backup Progress dialog box.

7. When the Backup Progress box reports Backup is complete, click Close.

If you ever need to restore your backup, you first want to bring the computer up to an operational state if something is wrong with it. That may mean reloading Windows. When everything seems to be working okay, use these steps to restore your backup:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard runs. Click Next.
2. Click Restore files and settings, and then click Next.
3. Double-click an item on the left to see its contents, mark the checkbox for the folder or drive you want to restore, and then click Next.
4. Click Finish. The restore process begins.
5. When the restore is complete, click Close.

Pretty simple stuff, huh? This method is the simple one; there are also advanced options and settings that give you more control. Experiment with these on your own if desired. For example, you can select which files to back up, which is useful if you store your data files in some other location than My Documents.

As you use Windows, the way it operates is governed by a group of settings that are collectively known as the system state. These settings include the Registry and the files needed for system startup. The system state can be backed up.

The Registry is the configuration file set that controls every aspect of Windows, from which display resolution is chosen, to which programs are installed, to which hardware drivers are enabled. The Registry is absolutely critical -- Windows will not run without it. When you make any changes in Windows, such as installing or removing software or changing settings in the Control Panel, those settings are stored in the Registry.

It's important to understand that the system state doesn't contain any data. Data backup is a separate activity. Some people do not bother with backing up the system state, because they figure they can always reinstall Windows later if needed.

There are several ways to back up the system state. You can:

• Save a backup copy of the Registry through the Regedit (Registry Editor) utility.
• Save a backup copy of the Registry through System Restore.
• Save the system state (including the Registry) through the Backup utility.

These methods are covered briefly in the following sections.

Backing Up the Registry with Regedit

It's a good idea not to make any changes in Regedit because it edits the Registry directly, and this can be a dangerous proposition. One false move and Windows will be disabled entirely. However, in this case, you're not making any changes -- just a backup.

Here's how to back up the Registry with Regedit:

1. Select Start > Run. Type regedit, and then click OK. The Registry Editor window appears.
2. Select File > Export. The Export Registry File dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2: Export Registry File dialog box.

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3. In the Export Range area, select the All option button.
4. Select a save location. If you have a remote location available, such as a network drive, save it there; it won't do you much good to save a backup on your same hard disk as Windows is installed.
5. Type a name for the backup file. (It's good to use a date in the name, such as Registry0604 for a backup created in June, 2004.)
6. Click OK. The Registry is backed up.
7. Close the Registry Editor window.

You might need to restore this backup if something happens that corrupts your Registry file, such as installing bad software or making changes to the Registry that result in Windows not working correctly. To restore a backup, you simply open the Registry Editor and select File > Import, and then select the saved backup in the dialog box that appears.

When you go back to a previous configuration, you don't lose any data files, but Windows loses its recollection of any programs that were installed since that backup. Suppose, for example, you make a backup of the Registry in the morning, and then you install Microsoft Word and create a Word document. After that, you install a game that causes problems, so you decide to restore your Registry backup. After doing so, Word no longer works because it's no longer installed (that is, its entries are no longer in the Registry), but the Word document you created is still there on your hard disk. You now need to reinstall Word.

The Regedit method in the preceding section works great if you need to back up the Registry to some other location than your local hard disk. Doing so helps you reconstruct your system if the entire hard disk goes bad.

However, you're much more likely to have Registry problems caused by something other than a complete hard disk failure. For example, a beginner changing entries in the Registry Editor can cause problems, and a poorly written application can make bad changes to the Registry when it installs. In cases like that, it's not critical that the backup of the Registry be stored in some remote location; it can be right there on your hard disk (and in fact is more convenient that way).

The System Restore utility in Windows XP is a fast, easy way to create a Registry backup, called a snapshot, or restore point, and storing it on your local hard disk. You can easily restore a saved snapshot to fix any Registry problems. Windows automatically saves a new snapshot every day, and keeps them for about two weeks, so you can take your system's settings back to an earlier time whenever something happens to cause problems. You can also create your own snapshots (for example, right before you install some questionable software).

Creating a Restore Point

To create a System Restore snapshot, follow these steps

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
2. In the Welcome box that appears, click Create a restore point, and then click Next.
3. Type a description for the restore point, as shown in Figure 1-3. This can be anything that will help jog your memory. For example, if you're creating a restore point as a precaution before you install a certain new program, you might call it Before Install. Click Create.

Figure 1-3: Create a restore point in System Restore.

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4. Click Close to close the utility.

Restoring a Previous Windows State

If your system is starting to have problems, such as error messages, inability to start normally, or lockups, and you just installed some new program or changed a system setting, you're probably wishing you had never done it! System Restore can help you go back in time, restoring the Registry to the condition it was in before the unfortunate incident.

As mentioned earlier, System Restore saves a system checkpoint every day automatically, so even if you haven't manually created a configuration snapshot (see the previous section), you should still be able to back up the previous day's configuration, at a minimum.

To restore from System Restore, follow these steps:

1. Close all open programs, and then select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
2. Leave Restore my computer to an earlier time selected, and then click Next.
3. On the calendar that appears, click the date of the restore point you want to use. Dates containing restore points appear in boldface. Some dates have more than one restore point, as shown in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4: Multiple restore points.

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4. On the list to the right of the calendar, click the restore point you want, and then click Next.
5. A confirmation appears. Click Next.
6. Your computer restarts itself. When Windows comes back up, a confirmation box appears. Click OK to close it.

Your system is now restored to the chosen configuration. If that solved your problem, great. If it introduced even more problems, you can always reverse the System Restore process. To do so, restart System Restore, and then select Undo my last restoration.

Let's look at one more backup possibility for the system state. You can use the Backup utility. Remember from earlier in the lesson that the Backup utility is primarily for data backup; however, it also has an option for backing up the system state. You can save the system state backup to any location (which makes it more flexible than System Restore), and there's no danger of introducing Registry errors with this method (which makes it safer than the Registry Editor).

To back up the system state with Backup, follow these steps:

1. Start the Backup utility. The Backup or Restore Wizard runs.
2. Click the Advanced Mode hyperlink on the Welcome screen. The Backup Utility window appears.
3. Click the Backup tab. A list of drives appears in the left pane, like a folder tree in a file management window.

This Backup tab is also where you go to back up specific files with the Backup utility.

4. Check the System State checkbox in the left pane.
5. In the Backup media or file name box (at the bottom), enter a path and file name to back up to, as shown in Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5: Backup Utility Backup tab.

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6. Click Start Backup. A Backup Job Information dialog box appears.
7. (Optional) Edit the text in the Backup Description box to mention that this is a system state backup.
8. Click Start Backup, and then wait for the backup to complete.
9. When the message appears that the backup is complete, click Close.

You restore a system state backup the same way you restore a data backup with the Backup utility.

When most people think about backing up data, they think only of the data files in business applications such as Word, Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks, and so on. But they're neglecting one very important source of stored data: their email.

You probably have an email address book that you would hate to lose, right? And you might have some email messages you've received that should be preserved as well. The Backup or Restore Wizard does not back up your email, so you need to back it up yourself.

Backing Up Microsoft Outlook Data

If you use Outlook as your primary email application, the easiest way to back up your data is to make a copy of the Outlook.pst file, and then save it somewhere safe. Different versions of Outlook store the Outlook.pst file in different places, but in the latest version of Outlook you'll find it here:

Documents and Settings\{your name}\Local Settings
\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst

You can also back up individual parts of the Outlook data file, if you don't want everything.

For example, to back up only your Contacts list (where email addresses and other contact information is stored), do the following in Outlook 2003 (other versions are similar but the steps may be slightly different):

1. Select File > Import and Export.
2. Select Export to a File, and then click Next.
3. Select the format in which you want to back up, and then click Next.

If you're backing up so you can reimport into Outlook if you lose your data, select Personal Folder File (.pst). This is the Outlook data format.

4. In the Export Personal Folders dialog box, select the Contacts folder, and then click Next.
5. In the Save exported file as box, enter the path and file name to back up to (or Browse for it).
6. Click Finish.
7. If you chose to back up in Personal Folder File format, an additional box appears; click OK to accept the defaults.

Restoring Data to Outlook

If you copied the entire Outlook.pst file, do the following to restore it:

1. If needed, install Outlook on the computer where the data file should be restored. It must be the same version or later as the one from which you backed up.
2. Start Outlook to allow it to create a new, blank Outlook.pst file, and then exit.
3. In a file management window, overwrite the new copy's Outlook.pst file with your backed up one.
4. Restart Outlook. All your original data will appear there.

If you exported only certain data from Outlook, as in the preceding section, restore it like this:

1. In Outlook, select File > Import and Export.
2. Select Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
3. Select the file type, and then click Next.
4. Select the file to import (use Browse if needed), and then click Next.
5. If you're importing from a Personal Folder File, an additional box appears where you can select the folder(s). Do so.
6. Click Finish.

Backing Up Outlook Express Addresses

You can export addresses from Outlook Express to either a Microsoft Exchange Personal Address Book or to a text file. If you back up to a personal address book format, the exported addresses will work with other programs that use Exchange format. If you back up to a text file, you create a comma-separated text file that can be copied to disk and stored as a backup. (That's what you want in this case.)

To export the addresses as a text file, follow these steps:

1. Select File > Export > Address Book. The Address Book Export tool appears.
2. Click Text File, and then click Export.
3. A prompt appears for a file name. Enter the file name and location (or Browse), and then click Next.
4. Leave the default field selections marked, and then click Finish.
5. Click Close.

If something happens to your computer and you have to reload Windows or reinstall Outlook Express, you can retrieve your stored addresses by importing from the file you exported. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select File > Import > Other Address Book.
2. On the list of formats, select Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Import.
3. Click Browse to locate the file containing the addresses, click OK , and then click Next.
4. Leave the default field selections, and then click Import.
5. Wait for the import to finish, click OK, and then click Close.

Another thing that you would hate to lose in the event of a system failure would be your list of favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer. All those bookmarked web pages took you a long time to find.

To back up your favorites in Internet Explorer, simply back up this folder:

Documents and Settings\{your name}\Favorites

You can also edit your Favorites list from that folder too (delete, rename, reorganize, and so on), rather than doing it the traditional way through the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer.

What Else Should I Back Up?

It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to backing up your computer. Here are some other things to make sure you have backed up:

• Dial-up numbers: If you connect to the internet via dial-up modem, make sure you have the phone number written down someplace that your modem calls, along with your user ID and password. Because most people store the password, they tend to forget it.
• Email information: Make sure you have the information needed to set up your e-mail account(s) again if you were to lose your e-mail software. This includes not only the email address and password, but also the incoming and outgoing mail server names.
• Word templates: Word templates are not stored in the same place as regular documents. You can change where templates are stored via Word (Tools > Options), but the default storage location is Documents and Settings\ {your name} \Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. Make sure you back up that folder if it contains any template you need to preserve.
• Networking configuration: If you connect to a network using a fixed IP address, or with your computer having a specific name on the network, make sure you write these down somewhere so you can set up your network again. (If you work for a company that has an IT staff, you probably don't have to worry about this.)
• Data files for other applications: Some applications do not store their data files in My Documents. Instead they store them in the same folders as the applications themselves. Some versions of QuickBooks and Quicken are like that, for example. If that's the case for you, make sure you back up those data files. Or even better, place the data files in My Documents, and then open them from there. That way all the data files are backed up in one location.

Moving On

In this lesson, you learned the importance of backing up, and you found out how to back up not only data, but also system settings and other important information. This should give you some peace of mind as you move into the upcoming lessons, where you'll start doing some things with your computer that perhaps you've never done before. Before you move on to Lesson 2, do the assignment and quiz for this lesson. Also, check in on the Message Board to see what your fellow students are up to.

In Lesson 2, you'll learn about how to find and remove background applications.