Archive for January, 2009:
Using the Empty Temp Folders Utility
Another way to look for temporary data is to use a third party application designed for the task. One such product is Empty Temp Folders. You can download this freeware product from
http:// www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp/ . The download is about 650KB, so it doesn’t take long even with a dial-up connection. Don’t assume that because this application is freeware that it isn’t
feature packed. Empty Temp Folders provides a great way to snoop around your hard drive looking for data that shouldn’t be there.
When you first open Empty Temp Folders, you won’t see much. You have to configure the application to match your system. Fortunately, the configuration process doesn’t take long. Simply
select the Options Add Predefined Folders command to display the Add Predefined Folders dialog box. Click Select All and then Apply to add these predefined folders to your list of places to check for files. Click Close to close the dialog box. Figure 4.7 shows typical results.
Simply clearing the D:\Documents and Settings\John.DataCon\Local Settings\Temp folder on this system would clear up 17MB of hard drive space. When you want to view the files before deleting them (normally a good idea), select the File Open Folder in Explorer command to see it. The resulting window lets you delete files individually when desired.
You can also use this utility to perform tasks such as clearing the cookies from your system and looking for temporary files that reside outside the normal temporary folders. In short, using this utility
lets you find the files that a Setup application leaves behind quite quickly.
However, one of the most interesting uses for Empty Temp Folders is locating broken links (LNK files) on your system. Each broken link represents a potential resource waster and performance inhibitor.
Every time Windows tries to locate a broken link, it searches the drive for a related link and suggests that link to you in place of the one that is broken. When Windows turns up empty (after searching the whole drive), it asks whether you want to browse for the resource pointed to by the link. The problem is that this search takes time and sometimes takes place in the background. Other Windows elements also rely on links and you won’t even see this time wasting activity taking place.
To use this feature of Empty Temp Folders, select the Clipboard and Shortcuts tab. Click Check All Drives (the drive icon with the magnifying glass). The check does take about 5 minutes, so be patient. After searching the drive and validating the links it contains, Empty Temp Folders displays the results. The text system had an astounding 438 broken links, as shown in Figure 4.8.
Figure 4.7
The Empty Temp Folders utility shows you the status of all the temporary folders and files on your machine.
Figure 4.8
Broken links waste drive space and consume both time and resources.
Cleaning up these LNK files only frees around 1.7MB of disk space. However, the biggest benefit of cleaning up the broken links is the perceptible performance increase in many activities. For example,
you’ll find that Windows Explorer works better after and that it’s faster to do things such as open files with an application.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Removing Temporary Data
Once you install an application and configure it, you might think the work is done, but it’s really just beginning. Very few installations are clean—most leave some kind of temporary data for you to
delete. It’s important to get rid of this temporary data as soon as possible to ensure you get the cleanest possible application environment.
Standard Ways to Look for Temporary Data
The first place to look is in the root directory of your hard drive. Microsoft and other vendors often create temporary directories for the installation and fail to remove it afterward. In some cases, the
temporary directory is hidden, so it’s important to use a copy of Windows Explorer with all of the features enabled or use the
Dir command with the /ah command line switch. Once you find the temporary folder, highlight it in Windows Explorer, verify that it doesn’t contain anything useful, and use Shift+Del to remove it.
Sometimes the vendor places the temporary data in the Windows temporary folder or another folder that you designate to hold temporary data. You can remove these files as part of your normal
disk maintenance. The “Using Disk Cleanup” section of Chapter 8 describes how to automate this task in more detail.
Another place to look for temporary setup data is in the application folder. Sometimes a vendor will place the data there so all of the mess is in one location. The “Scrapping Temporary Files” section of Chapter 3 tells you what to do in this case.
No matter what kind of temporary files the Setup application creates, it’s likely that Setup will alsocreate LOG files. These files tell you how the installation proceeded and help you understand any
problems Setup might have encountered. Unfortunately, these files remain behind until you manually delete them because the vendor is hoping that you’ll verify any problems by reading them. The
“Looking for LOG Files” section of Chapter 3 tells you how to recognize and remove LOG files.
NOTE
Some applications, such as SQL Server and Internet Information Server (IIS) produce large quantities of log files. The application will use a log file for a specific timeframe, such as a day, close that log file, and create a new one for the next day. After you review the old log files, you can normally archive them or simply delete them from the system. You won’t be able to delete the current log file because the application keeps this file locked—Windows displays an error message telling you that the file is in use. Review the vendor documentation and the application settings to determine how often the application changes log files. When you find the log files are getting too large, you can change the update interval to something that works better, such as from once a week to once a day.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Discovering Setup Files (3)
Unfortunately, sometimes you’ll open the Properties dialog and find the Target field grayed out with some text in it. This means the vendor is using a special setup to create the entries in the folder.
The time required to locate and kill this registration file sometimes exceeds the benefit, even in longterm disk storage. The best approach, in this case, is to look in the application folder. If you find a registration application, double-click it to verify it. Exit the registration application and delete only this file. After you remove the registration application, you can also delete the shortcut that starts it.
This technique works with other kinds of application add-ons as well. For example, you might find that the vendor has included quirky links to a Web site that won’t serve any purpose in your case. The
Setup program normally doesn’t include any means of removing these excess files, so removing them manually is perfectly acceptable.
Getting Rid of Other Product Demonstration Files
A final category of setup file that you should delete immediately is the demonstrations of other products the vendor provides. I have to admit that this particular category used to cost me a big chunk of
my hard drive. The vendor places these files on your hard drive and includes links to them in the Start menu with the idea of increasing sales. What really happens is that most people are so busy that they
keep thinking about running the demo, but never do it, so the files remain on disk consuming resources and not really accomplishing much. It’s nothing to find 20 or 30 such files on a user’s hard
drive—all of which demonstrate cool looking products that most users are never going to try because there simply isn’t time to do it.
You might not think that demonstration programs, even 20 or 30 of them, are such a big deal. However, vendor demonstration programs have become increasingly larger over the years. At one time, it was odd to find a demonstration program that exceeded 1MB, now it’s odd to find one that’s less. Recently, I downloaded a 17MB demonstration program for a quick check of an application that
looked useful and I understand that some demonstration programs are far larger. Can you really afford to lose the disk space taken by 20 or 30 demonstration programs that exceed 1MB?
Normally, I try to set aside enough installation time for an application now that I can try out the demonstration programs when they look interesting. Immediately after I run the demonstration, I make notes (when appropriate) and delete the demonstration program using the same technique found in the “Deleting Registration and Other Short-Term Files” section of the chapter. If the installation day ends and I still haven’t run those demonstration programs, I realize that I probably won’t ever run them, so I delete them and recover the space.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Discovering Setup Files (2)
Most of these setup files appear in an easy-to-see location on your hard drive. For example, Microsoft Office 2003 users will find an
MSOCache folder on their systems that contain these setup
files. The Microsoft Office 2003 setup program will read from this folder, but it can just as easily read the data from the CD, so there is no reason to keep the folder. This folder is a minimum of 7.8MB of
wasted space. It keeps growing as you work with Office until the
MSOCache folder can actually exceed the size of your installation, depending on how you set up the application. To get rid of this file, simply highlight it in Windows Explorer and press Shift+Del.
A few vendors hide the setup files within the application folder. Because the developers that work for the vendor want to make life easy for themselves, you’ll normally find these setup files in a
Setup or other appropriately named folder. In this case, I usually move the folder to some other location on my hard drive, such as my
Temp folder, and use the application for a few days. When the application continues to work as expected, I delete the Setup folder.
In a few select cases, the vendor mixes in Setup files with the other application files, making it difficult to determine which files the application uses for a particular purpose. Unless you’re adept at
ferreting this kind of information out, I’d suggest leaving the Setup files in place and letting the vendor know your opinion of using this option.
Deleting Registration and Other Short-Term Files
Sometimes an application has a legitimate short-term use for a particular file. For example, most applications include a separate registration program. You use the registration to tell the vendor about your use of the application. Generally, filling out the form means that you discover program updates faster and learn about patches directly from the vendor. Of course, the vendor will also swamp you with offers from any of a number of sources for additional products. The point is that once you complete the registration (if you do), the application is useless and you can easily get rid of it without causing problems. One point to think about here is to try to remove the excess files using the Setup program before you try the manual approach discussed in this section.
WARNING
Don’t confuse registration applications with authentication application. Products such as Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 come with an authentication application that unlocks the application by sending information about the application to the vendor. It’s risky to tamper with the authentication feature of an application—you could end up with an unusable application.
The easiest way to locate the registration application is to right-click its entry in the Start menu and choose Properties from the context menu. You’ll see a list of application specifications, such as those shown in Figure 4.6 for an American Power Conversion (APC) registration program.
The Target field of the Properties dialog box tells you the name of the application and shows where it appears on your hard drive. Make sure that the registration program isn’t tied in with any of the
application programs (normally it isn’t). In this case, it turned out that the registration program also included a number of ancillary files, so the cost savings was 2.4MB on my hard drive. Make sure you
remember to right-click the icon in the Start menu and select Delete from the context menu after you remove the registration program so you don’t try to click that entry later.
Figure 4.6
Location registration programs through the shortcut provided in
the Start menu.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Discovering Setup Files (1)
Almost every application you use requires some type of setup because you need to provide an executable file storage location, data file information, and other configuration settings to use the
application. Setup files include a number of elements including:
?Setup application executable files
?Setup application configuration files
?Registration and other optional setup features
?Extra setup files, most of which are compressed
?Compressed application executable files
?Compressed application data files (including help files)
?Demonstration and sample files, most of which are compressed
?Slideshow and other training files
?Demonstration files for other applications sold by the vendor
Removing the Excess Setup Files
Many vendors are beginning to leave setup files behind because they feel this addition makes it easy for you to change your configuration later. It’s true that keeping the files can make updates faster and
even speed some types of repairs. The only problem with this strategy is that you generally need the installation CD anyway, so the files are always available on the CD. Storing the files on the hard drive represents a waste of resources you can use for other tasks. In addition, because many of these files are compressed, placing them on the hard drive thwarts any hard drive compression you have in place—those files use up all of the space they normally need on any drive. An 80MB setup file isn’t compressed—it really does require 80MB of hard drive space.
WARNING
Some vendors have engaged in a dubious practice of preloading your machine with software and not offering you a copy of Windows or the applications on a CD. This means that you can’t easily add and remove applications as desired. The actual copy of Windows resides in CAB (cabinet) files somewhere on the hard drive along with any applications the vendor provides. This practice will cost you money at some point because you’ll eventually end up buying a copy of Windows on CD anyway (your hard drive fails or the CAB file is accidentally erased). Always make sure that you get a bona fide copy of Windows and all supplied applications on a CD so you can optimize and repair your system as needed.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Removing Application Installation Crumbs
Installing an application means decompressing files, saving configuration settings, and performing a number of other tasks to prepare the application for use. All of this work generates extra files on your hard drive and consumes other resources such as memory and processing cycles. The memory and processing cycle use are temporary, but the hard drive additions can be long term. Some applications are good citizens and remove all of the extra installation files they create, including temporary files that you probably won’t need for any other purpose. However, other applications simply assume that you have an unending supply of hard drive space and retain all kinds of files that you’ll never need.
The following sections describe two kinds of installation leftovers. The first type is the setup files that some applications leave behind. Finding these files is usually easy, but some vendors hide them deep in the application hierarchy. The second type is temporary files. Generally, vendors know to place these files in your Windows temporary folder, but again, the files can end up anywhere. Sometimes the vendor even makes it hard to locate the temporary files for reasons that only the vendor knows.
TIP
All setup (installation) programs have two things in common—the vendor generally defaults setup options in the vendor’s favor and every setup program is generic. You can always do better than the setup program can at optimizing an application installation to meet your particular needs. Remember, you don’t need to meet someone else’s needs; you need to meet your needs. Someone else might view your installation as the worst conglomeration of application features they’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t matter. An optimized setup works best for the person who’s using the application.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Cleaning Up Windows Components
To display the list of Windows features on your machine, click Add/Remove Windows Components (on the lower left side of the Add or Remove Programs dialog box). You’ll see the Windows Components
Wizard dialog box shown in Figure 4.4.
Notice that some of the entries in Figure 4.4 have no name. I purposely removed the Hide entry from all of the components in the
Sysoc.INF file to show how the Windows Component Wizard
would appear. These two mystery entries are features that Windows needs to run. You can try to clear the check in order to uninstall them, but you can’t. In some cases, you also can’t remove named
entries. For example, your system uses COM+ for a number of purposes, including the event log, so you can’t remove the check from it.
Next to each of the Component entries, you’ll see an entry that describes the amount of hard drivespace the component requires. This number is the uncompressed size of the component. However,
the entry usually tells you about just the component, not any subcomponents that the Windows Component Wizard removes, so the size savings can be larger than shown. To remove a component from your system, simply clear the check next to its entry.
Figure 4.4
Remove Windows features, at least from view, using the Windows Components Wizard.
Sometimes a component will include a number of subcomponents. For example, the Accessories and Utilities component has a wealth of subcomponents. To see these subcomponents, select the component
and click Details. You’ll see a list of subcomponents such as the one for Accessories and Utilities shown in Figure 4.5.
In some cases, subcomponents have additional subcomponents you can remove. Again, just click Details when enabled, as shown in Figure 4.5. When you select just part of a component, Windows
Component Wizard grays its check box instead of displaying it as cleared or having a standard checkmark. For example, I’ve selected only some of the Games component, so its entry appears grayed, as
shown in Figure 4.5. When you finish removing features from Windows, click Next. The Windows Component Wizard will display a progress bar and finally a completion dialog box. Click Finish to
complete the process.
Unfortunately, unlike third party applications, removing a Windows component doesn’t mean it’s actually gone. When you remove a game, Windows Component Wizard actually does remove it.
However, when you remove a feature such as Internet Explorer, Windows Component Wizard only hides the application from view. Microsoft claims that some of these components aren’t removable
because Windows needs them to perform tasks.
Figure 4.5
Subcomponents let you remove part of a Windows component.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Removing Unneeded Applications (2)
The Size field is also correct. It tells you the uncompressed size of the application. Generally, when you remove the application from your hard drive, you free up that much hard drive space for
another use.
NOTE
Windows Explorer doesn’t always report an increase in hard drive space when you uninstall an application. Sometimes it won’t even report the increase when you close the existing copy of Windows Explorer and open a new one. Windows Explorer always reports the value correctly after a reboot.
The Used field is frequently incorrect. The problem appears to happen when you open an application as the result of double-clicking on a data file, rather than opening the application directly. In
short, while you could use this field as a sort of guide, don’t depend on it to make decisions on which applications to remove.
TIP
Notice the Click Here for Support Information link in Figure 4.3. Click this link to display a dialog box containing support information, including where to obtain updates for your application. In some cases, the application update information appears here, rather than as part of the application. Keeping your applications up-to-date reduces data-destroying bugs as well as helping to keep viruses at bay.
All of the entries will include a Remove button. Click Remove to uninstall the application. Some entries will also include a Change button you can use to remove application features or perform update tasks. Some entries will also include a Repair button you can use to correct application errors.
Each time you click Remove, the application will display the uninstall application. Sometimes you’ll need to provide additional information. For example, sometimes the uninstall program wants to know whether it should remove a shared DLL from the system. Generally, when the application asks about this DLL, it means that no other application is actually using it so you can click Yes. However,
you can record the name of the DLL on paper so you can reinstall it later if necessary (see the “Restoring DLLs and Other Executables” section of Chapter 12 for details on this process). In addition, some applications will ask that you restart the system so they can remove application-specific files that the system loads when it starts. When the uninstall is complete, the application will display a completion dialog box.
Sometimes an uninstall program will encounter a problem removing all of the files for an application. Generally, this problem occurs when you’ve made changes to the application or have application data stored in the application folder. Make sure you create a list of additional files to remove based on the uninstall report. This could mean archiving data files or performing other tasks. See the “Discovering Application Uninstall Remains” section of the chapter for details.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Removing Unneeded Applications (1)
As previously mentioned, Microsoft assumes you need quite a few more applications than you really want. The argument is that hard drive space is cheap and you should at least try the applications
before removing them from your hard drive (when you can at all). The problem is that many of these applications get installed and are never used, not even once. They simply sit there consuming
resources and never provide the user with one iota of benefit.
The following sections discuss two kinds of application removal. The first type is third party applications that you actually install on your system (or someone installs for you as part of a new computer
setup). This group includes Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Office that aren’t part of the Windows operating system. The second type is Windows components that you didn’t have any choice about installing, even when you install Windows on your machine. Microsoft has removed many of the optional installation features, which means your copy of Windows is full of all kinds of extra features that you’ll never use.
Cleaning Up Third Party Applications
Once you expose all of the application groups you can by editing the
Sysoc.INF file (see the “Modifying the Sysoc.INF File” section for details), you can begin removing applications from your system.
Open the Add or Remove Programs applet located in the Control Panel. You’ll see an Add or Remove Programs dialog box like the one shown in Figure 4.3.
This dialog box contains third party applications and Microsoft applications that aren’t actually part of Windows. Normally, you have to perform an installation process to place these applications
on your system. These application entries provide several important pieces of information—some you can believe and some you can’t. The application name is always correct, but Windows sometimes
loses the application icon, so it’s important to know the full application name to ensure you remove the correct application.
Figure 4.3
Use the Add or Remove Programs dialog box to work with third party
applications.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Modifying the Sysoc.INF
The \WINDOWS\inf folder on your machine contains a number of information or INF files. The INF file has a special purpose in Windows because it provides configuration details. Whenever you install a new piece of hardware, Windows relies on an INF file to tell it the settings and other information for that hardware. Even though Plug and Play detects the hardware, you’d never get it installed correctly without a well-designed INF file.
The Sysoc.INF file is a special kind of information file in that it tells Windows how to treat installed features. This file doesn’t affect third party applications you install, just the Windows features. Some of these features it hides, while others remain in full view for you to remove. By modifying this file, you can change a hidden option to a visible state. Figure 4.1 shows how the Sysoc.INF file might look on your system.
Figure 4.1
Use the Sysoc.INF file to change how Windows treats installation
options.
The entries under the [Components] heading are the ones you want to change. A typical entry looks like this:
Fax=faxocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,faxsetup.inf,hide,7
The five entries tell you about that system component. For example, the first entry defines the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) responsible for this particular feature. You don’t want to modify any of the entries in this list except the one that says “hide.” This special entry tells Windows to hide the entry so the user can’t see it in the Windows Component Wizard. In this case, the entry tells Windows that the user can’t remove Fax support, even if the user doesn’t have a fax installed in the machine. To make the Fax entry visible, simply remove the word hide, so the entry appears like this (don’t remove the extra comma):
Fax=faxocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,faxsetup.inf,,7
After you make the change and save the Sysoc.INF file, open the Windows Component Wizard. You’ll find this feature in the Add/Remove Programs Applet—just click Add/Remove Windows
Components in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box. As shown in Figure 4.2, you can now see the Fax Services entry so you can remove the support when you don’t need it. (Depending on the version of Windows you used and the features you installed, you might not see the Fax Services entry even if you unhide it.)
Figure 4.2
The new entries in the Windows Component Wizard let you tune
Windows better.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization