The local telephone service has been less than reliable over the last
few days; lots of crackles and some disconnects.

It was particularly flaky this afternoon and I got *broadband speed
checker* to do a test. 500k rather than the usual 5 meg.

While I was there I downloaded *PC speed check* on the basis that Norton
said it was OK and it claimed to be free!

The check is free however, to activate the program of improvements you
have to cough up some money £19?

The report gave high importance to 17 unidentified items on system
startup. As it is a desktop PC and runs permanently I don't see this is
an issue.

It was happy with background applications, unnecessary services and disc
defragmentation.

System and network settings, 102 items, were said to be of medium
importance.

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?
--
Tim Lamb

On 14/06/2013 21:50, Tim Lamb wrote:
The local telephone service has been less than reliable over the last
few days; lots of crackles and some disconnects.

It was particularly flaky this afternoon and I got *broadband speed
checker* to do a test. 500k rather than the usual 5 meg.

While I was there I downloaded *PC speed check* on the basis that Norton
said it was OK and it claimed to be free!

The check is free however, to activate the program of improvements you
have to cough up some money £19?

The report gave high importance to 17 unidentified items on system
startup. As it is a desktop PC and runs permanently I don't see this is
an issue.

It was happy with background applications, unnecessary services and disc
defragmentation.

System and network settings, 102 items, were said to be of medium
importance.

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 14/06/2013 21:50, Tim Lamb wrote:
The local telephone service has been less than reliable over the last
few days; lots of crackles and some disconnects.

It was particularly flaky this afternoon and I got *broadband speed
checker* to do a test. 500k rather than the usual 5 meg.

While I was there I downloaded *PC speed check* on the basis that Norton
said it was OK and it claimed to be free!

The check is free however, to activate the program of improvements you
have to cough up some money £19?

The report gave high importance to 17 unidentified items on system
startup. As it is a desktop PC and runs permanently I don't see this is
an issue.

It was happy with background applications, unnecessary services and disc
defragmentation.

System and network settings, 102 items, were said to be of medium
importance.

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

I used it yesterday. Supposedly got rid of a lot of duplicates and broken
short cuts.

In article ,
newshound writes

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

I can sympathise with that view but wouldn't recommend a switch to Avast
at the mo, currently buggier than a Turkish kebab shop with several
machines I look after crippled by recent updates requiring intensive
care to recover.
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

On Saturday 15 June 2013 18:27 fred wrote in uk.d-i-y:

In article ,
newshound writes

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

I can sympathise with that view but wouldn't recommend a switch to Avast
at the mo, currently buggier than a Turkish kebab shop with several
machines I look after crippled by recent updates requiring intensive
care to recover.

Been using Avira which seems not bad - as in it does not knacker the
machine.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://squiddy.blog.dionic.net/

http://www.sensorly.com/ Crowd mapping of 2G/3G/4G mobile signal coverage

Reading this on the web? See:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

On 15/06/2013 19:39, Tim Watts wrote:


Been using Avira which seems not bad - as in it does not knacker the
machine.


I too now use Avira as a backup having ditched Avast a couple of years
back when they bloated out the application.

Why is it that software houses think they are required to redesign the
interface and architecture for a product that already works well? Some
of the virus checkers are almost becoming a virus in themselves.

I think it was Avast that with a new version they inserted a file in
every folder on the computer and then bloated out the registry. An
un-install of the program left behind all its droppings and I had to
spend a couple of hours removing all traces.

My current favoured checker is Malwarebytes and their Anti Rookit utility
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/other_tools/



--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On 15/06/2013 18:27, fred wrote:
In article ,
newshound writes

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

I can sympathise with that view but wouldn't recommend a switch to Avast
at the mo, currently buggier than a Turkish kebab shop with several
machines I look after crippled by recent updates requiring intensive
care to recover.

Been using Avast for years without any problems, currently on version 8.
Also have it on my Android phone.

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

In article , Old Codger
writes
On 15/06/2013 18:27, fred wrote:
In article ,
newshound writes

AVG are promoting a "Speedup" toolkit which does and claims similar
things. Almost enough to make me jump ship to Avast or Avira

I can sympathise with that view but wouldn't recommend a switch to Avast
at the mo, currently buggier than a Turkish kebab shop with several
machines I look after crippled by recent updates requiring intensive
care to recover.

Been using Avast for years without any problems, currently on version 8.
Also have it on my Android phone.

My problems with them started about 6mths ago.

The most consistent issue I have found is with unexplained stopping of
the web protection service resulting in an inability to access the
internet. This is more likely if protection has been turned off for a
period using the Shields Control feature[1] but I have had sites
unavailable only to find access available again if shields are turned
off.

The other issue was on older hardware (AMD Sempron 2800+ era) where 4
machines of identical build lost internet access as they received a
certain update. No easy fix, only recoverable with forced uninstall
using their removal tool and reinstall of the latest program version.
Various program versions, 6 to 8, all running XP SP2 or 3. Latest fail
was on prog v8.0.1483.

Given these problems I wont be using them for a while.

[1] Handy to speed up large file transfers or to speed up a long
processing task.
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files. There are many dupe locators out there.


NT

On Friday 14 June 2013 22:05 wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files. There are many dupe locators out
there.

And upgrade service packs and hotfixes, plus the rollback files - I found
this can amount to a very large number of files and quite a lot of disk
space.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://squiddy.blog.dionic.net/

http://www.sensorly.com/ Crowd mapping of 2G/3G/4G mobile signal coverage

Reading this on the web? See:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

On 14/06/2013 22:15, Tim Watts wrote:
On Friday 14 June 2013 22:05 wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files. There are many dupe locators out
there.

And upgrade service packs and hotfixes, plus the rollback files - I found
this can amount to a very large number of files and quite a lot of disk
space.


I run cCleaner periodically, which seems to work without swamping you
with ads and follow up stuff.

On 14/06/2013 22:31, newshound wrote:
On 14/06/2013 22:15, Tim Watts wrote:
On Friday 14 June 2013 22:05 wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files. There are many dupe
locators out
there.

And upgrade service packs and hotfixes, plus the rollback files - I found
this can amount to a very large number of files and quite a lot of disk
space.


I run cCleaner periodically, which seems to work without swamping you
with ads and follow up stuff.

Useful program, see: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

In message , Old Codger
writes
On 14/06/2013 22:31, newshound wrote:
On 14/06/2013 22:15, Tim Watts wrote:
On Friday 14 June 2013 22:05 wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files. There are many dupe
locators out
there.

And upgrade service packs and hotfixes, plus the rollback files - I found
this can amount to a very large number of files and quite a lot of disk
space.


I run cCleaner periodically, which seems to work without swamping you
with ads and follow up stuff.

Useful program, see: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Hello! What are you doing in here?

I have a vague idea I tried cCleaner once before and was presented with
a list of files requiring a decision to delete or not.

Fear won so I abandoned the effort:-(

How does a normal *user* discriminate between junk and useful?

--
Tim Lamb

wrote in message
...
On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Tim Lamb wrote:

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!
What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

Probably duplicate, temp & deleted files.

probably the majority of which are Temporary Internet Files which can be
easily deleted with two clicks from within your browser. Same for cookies.

It's always a good idea to delete these files *before* you run a malware or
anti-virus scan, it halves the time needed.

I'd take what these say with a very large pinch of salt myself.
Often some files are used by the operating system and windows forgets to
let go of them, this can end up looking very messy, but in practice getting
rid of them might not help as windows just puts new ones there. That has
been my experience.
Cclean is a good bit of software in its free state and seems to do all you
would need. Be careful about its extra bits though, don't bother with
toolbars or other google crap.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
The local telephone service has been less than reliable over the last few
days; lots of crackles and some disconnects.

It was particularly flaky this afternoon and I got *broadband speed
checker* to do a test. 500k rather than the usual 5 meg.

While I was there I downloaded *PC speed check* on the basis that Norton
said it was OK and it claimed to be free!

The check is free however, to activate the program of improvements you
have to cough up some money £19?

The report gave high importance to 17 unidentified items on system
startup. As it is a desktop PC and runs permanently I don't see this is an
issue.

It was happy with background applications, unnecessary services and disc
defragmentation.

System and network settings, 102 items, were said to be of medium
importance.

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?
--
Tim Lamb

Tim Lamb wrote:

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?


Junk Files – is a very common term that describes any files that is
orphaned or has no real values to the user of said computer. Junk Files
are also commonly refereed to as “ghost files“ or “phantom files” for
the main reason they don’t scream I am a junk file and you don’t need
me. Junk files can be have pretty much any file extension such .tmp ,
..exe. But what they all have in common is that they are created from
regular use of your computer or Internet and will after awhile will
take up memory and slow down your computer and or clutter up your
registry.

In Windows use Disk Cleanup. It removes temporary files, empties the
Recycle Bin, and removes a variety of system files and other items that
you no longer need.


Third party:-

Free solution:- On Windows I use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE)
with Spybot and Malwarebytes (free edition), ran now and again to
detect and clean up . Use both as one will detect 90% of baddies and
the other will detect 90% of baddies but not the same 90%. If really
paranoid a third "scanner" can be used such as Ad-Aware.

Ccleaner or Glary utilities will clean up the registry (have never had
problems letting either have free rein in the registry but if totally
ham-fisted it is best to leave the registry alone).


Paid for solution:- I have heard nothing but good things about
Malwarebytes paid for edition (lifetime subscription).

On Linux I use the "security by obscurity" method. ;o)

On 14/06/2013 21:50, Tim Lamb wrote:
The local telephone service has been less than reliable over the last
few days; lots of crackles and some disconnects.

It was particularly flaky this afternoon and I got *broadband speed
checker* to do a test. 500k rather than the usual 5 meg.

While I was there I downloaded *PC speed check* on the basis that Norton
said it was OK and it claimed to be free!

The check is free however, to activate the program of improvements you
have to cough up some money £19?

Probably not worth it. These tuners can often do more harm than good. I
don't really trust Norton to do a good job any more - I have seen the
damage that it can do trying to recover JPEG image files.

The report gave high importance to 17 unidentified items on system
startup. As it is a desktop PC and runs permanently I don't see this is
an issue.

You can get the OS to show you these startup programs manually and
decide for yourself if you need them or not. Create a restore point
first in case you later regret your decisions and stop something you
shouuldn't have done!

It was happy with background applications, unnecessary services and disc
defragmentation.

System and network settings, 102 items, were said to be of medium
importance.

Probably nothing much there to write home about.

High importance was given to 17876 *junk files*!

What does it all mean? What is a junk file and why can't I get rid by
other means?

You can if you navigate to the holding area where Windows keeps its
"temporary" files. You will be amazed at how many prehistoric orphaned
files can lurk there on a machine that has been in use for a while.

It is worth purging the accumulated dross once in a while but only
essential these days with such huge disks if you are in danger of
running out of disk space (which is now quite a rare event).

Remember it is in their interest to make what is found sound as bad and
frightening as possible. There is also a fair amount of similar dodgy
ransomware out there using more or less the same sort of modus operandi!


--
Regards,
Martin Brown