Steve................"The Old Sea Dog".................(retired)
Windows 98

 

Basic Housekeeping...Part 1

None of us like to do it.  But do it we must.  

So instead of dusting the outside of your computer

and polishing your monitor screen.

What needs to be done within its software??

Before we start.
A WARNING.

Here I assume that you are not using

the Temporary Internet Files folder

or the Cookies folder to store any of your own stuff within.

 

If you are,

 remove it and store it in another suitable folder on your C drive.

Or D drive if you have one.

 

In future do not store anything in the Temporary Internet Files

or Cookies Folder.

 

These folders must be left to store computer generated junk.

Nothing more

 

Computers are stupid..They like to copy things..

Just in case  they forget.

 

Computers generate trash faster than any human.

 

Then along comes that particular stupid operating system called windows

 

Bill Gates is too quick to chase his next million..

He does not care that the windows you operate is forgetful

and particularly lazy. 

When you re-boot windows is supposed to take out the trash.

 

But just like the man watching the ball game on TV

cannot be bothered to do it some of the time

 

Until it becomes that it cannot remember where it stored the trash.

So it never gets cleared away.

There are many free programs that you

can download to do this for you

 

I have never found one that I would trust.

Some are poor at what they are supposed to do,

leaving some trash behind.

 

Others are too smart for their own good

and will encourage you to delete files

that you did not know you needed

until the next time you re-boot and it will not start.

So then you are halfway to a reformat.

OK..There are many ways to do this.

This may not be the best way.

and it certainly is not the only way.

 

But this is my way and it works without risk.

So give it a wee try

Initially you might find these instructions complex.

But once you have done it a few times

it becomes second nature

and you will find you will be able to do them whilst asleep

My natural state remember.

 

First Right click on INTERNET EXPLORER icon

 

 

 

  And Select PROPERTIES

 

  Hit the DELETE FILES... button

And this other screen opens...

Leave the "Delete all offline content" box unchecked...

And  hit OK...

Now it will take time clearing out a lot of temporary internet files

And one area is swept away.

What could be easier.

 

You can see another button on the picture above CLEAR HISTORY

I also hit this and some more junk is thrown away

 

 

 

Access your "TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folder.

I do this so often that I keep a shortcut to this folder on my desktop

 

Oh! dear some files still remain

These are cookies. And totally useless.

Select EDIT and then SELECT All

 

 

 

This highlights all the cookies as seen in this picture

Then select FILE and then DELETE...

 

Cookies do not like to go easily ..So up pops another screen

Do not let this screen throw you.

It is pretending that cookies are important.

Sure they are to IBM...Microsoft and other corporations.

But not to us.  So hit YES.  And they will be removed

Now your temporary Internet Files Folder is empty

Deleting the cookies in this way has also deleted

them from your Cookies folder.

 

If you had tried to delete them first from the cookies folder

the Index.DAT file would get in the way

 

And if you deleted them one at a time from your cookies folder

They would still remain in your temporary internet files folder

 

This is the easy way to do it

 

Now check your cookies folder and you will find this

 

The index.DAT file always remains and should be there. 

There is no need to continue to access

the Cookies folder after the first time...

 

This was a one off just to explain what is happening

So here ends the first part of Basic housekeeping

I personally carry out this procedure

every time I have come off the net work
Just before I shut the computer down each day.

 

It is only like taking out the smelly trash
from your Kitchen before you go to sleep.

 

I do not wish to smell it in the morning

Link to Basic Housekeeping Part 2

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Steve................"The Old Sea Dog".................(retired)