Solved How often do you maintain your computers?

Dav · Mar 20, 2022

Every morning I do the following:

Check for windows, HP, and Intel updates

Clean with two 3rd party apps

Scan for viruses and malware

Use Microsoft Clear-All-Logs.cmd

Use two 3rd party Cleaners

Review with SystemRestoreExplorer.exe and Delete Restore Points and Create a New RestorePoint

Once per week I clear thumbnails:

[@echo off

echo.

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

timeout 4 /nobreak>nul

echo.

DEL /F /S /Q /A %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db

timeout 4 /nobreak>nul

start explorer.exe]

Once a month I use a 3rd party Registry Cleaner

Once a week I use Sfc /scannow and Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /

All image backups go to the internal D drive and then are copied to two external usb drives

Friday’s, I perform a Full Image Backup

Saturday through Thursday I perform Incremental or Differential Image Backups

I keep the past week backups plus the current week.

Every day after the image backup I use a synchronizer to copy the desktop and Documents folder to the D drive and then two external usb drives.

I use a VPN for security and also whenever I am not using or going to use the computer soon, I disconnect the VPN and the Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. I created shortcuts to accomplish what I just mentioned regarding the internet connections.

badrobot · Mar 20, 2022

Dav said:
Every morning I do the following:

Check for windows, HP, and Intel updates

Clean with two 3rd party apps

Scan for viruses and malware

Use Microsoft Clear-All-Logs.cmd

Use two 3rd party Cleaners

Review with SystemRestoreExplorer.exe and Delete Restore Points and Create a New RestorePoint

Once per week I clear thumbnails:

[@echo off

echo.

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

timeout 4 /nobreak>nul

echo.

DEL /F /S /Q /A %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db

timeout 4 /nobreak>nul

start explorer.exe]

Once a month I use a 3rd party Registry Cleaner

Once a week I use Sfc /scannow and Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /

All image backups go to the internal D drive and then are copied to two external usb drives

Friday’s, I perform a Full Image Backup

Saturday through Thursday I perform Incremental or Differential Image Backups

I keep the past week backups plus the current week.

Every day after the image backup I use a synchronizer to copy the desktop and Documents folder to the D drive and then two external usb drives.

I use a VPN for security and also whenever I am not using or going to use the computer soon, I disconnect the VPN and the Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. I created shortcuts to accomplish what I just mentioned regarding the internet connections.

Quite a chore...

RD Mercer · Mar 21, 2022

Obviously Dav, you're not a gamer, or you would have no time to game.

badrobot · Mar 21, 2022

RD Mercer said:
Obviously Dav, you're not a gamer, or you would have no time to game.

Yeah, that's a lot of work. And computers are supposed to make our life easy.

OldMX · Mar 21, 2022

I use ccleaner everytime the computers are going to be turned off or rebooted.
Image them with Macrium on every patch day.
Dust them every 3 months.

Bree · Mar 21, 2022

OldMX said:
I use ccleaner everytime the computers are going to be turned off or rebooted.
Image them with Macrium on every patch day.

That sounds a bit too much like hard work :wink:

I only bother to run my full clean up once a month (Disk Clean-up/CCLeaner/ Dism's Cleanup-Image) I do it after the Patch Tuesday CU so I can then make a nice clean and compact image.

cereberus · Mar 21, 2022

Haydon said:
Me: weekly for my main work computer, doing at least manual malware scans, manual backups, and restore functionality testing (merely deleting some unimportant files and doing the restore) plus whatever needs to be done. Chores done an as needed basis for the other computers (not on a calendar schedule)

BTW, it is at times like this when I wished I could RDP my computers from my phone but no worry, it will come, it's just a matter of time :)

Anyway, I'd like to compare notes on how others keep their horses running, thanks!

You can RDP computers from phone (except Home, and even that is possible with rdp wrapper) but only advisable over LAN.
You can use tools like Anydesk, Teamviewer as well.

Haydon · Mar 21, 2022

cereberus said:
You can RDP computers from phone (except Home, and even that is possible with rdp wrapper) but only advisable over LAN.
You can use tools like Anydesk, Teamviewer as well.

LOL, there are 3 people now pointing out that I can RDP my computer from my phone. So, I edited that bit out of my OP.

Anyway, I was on the verge of making work of it, when I read about RDP puncturing further holes in the Windows firewall which could be an issue on the WAN/Internet. Further, RDP requires device discovery on the LAN which I generally disable to make it as difficult as possible for malware to propagate on my LAN.

I like the convenience, but dislike the issues, so I am still thinking about it ... (yeah, I am a bit paranoid, LOL)

badrobot · Mar 21, 2022

Haydon said:
LOL, there are 3 people now pointing out that I can RDP my computer from my phone. So, I edited that bit out of my OP.

Anyway, I was on the verge of making work of it, when I read about RDP puncturing further holes in the Windows firewall which could be an issue on the WAN/Internet. Further, RDP requires device discovery on the LAN which I generally disable to make it as difficult as possible for malware to propagate on my LAN.

I like the convenience, but dislike the issues, so I am still thinking about it ... (yeah, I am a bit paranoid, LOL)

The way you talk about security is like you are inviting hackers to check you out.

Haydon · Mar 21, 2022

badrobot said:
The way you talk about security is like you are inviting hackers to check you out.

Hah, don't you dare

Seriously, though, security forums are full of people who for example, lock down each app, each folder, each file type, each file, each process so that they can barely boot. If they want to work on their computer to accomplish a certain task, they have to unlock each app, each folder, each file type, each file, each process that they need for that particular task

And after the task is accomplished, they again lock down each app, each folder, each file type, each file, each process. That's what they call safe computing

Edit: No, I am not like that

MiguelAngel11 · Mar 21, 2022

Me twice a month (Backup, malware scanning, cleaning junk files)

Dav · Mar 21, 2022

Thanks, I don't consider it work and I have created shortcuts to some files I created to make it easy and fast. Every morning and evening it literally only takes a few minutes to accomplish. I do it on two of three laptops. :)

tinmar49 · Mar 21, 2022

I do nearly every day full WD scans, weekly offline scans and the free Malwarebytes scan a couple of times per week. I also check for any updates from MS. Don't forget checking and removing dust from desktops is worth doing occasionally. My laptop doesn't get used enough to build up dust,(I hope).

dbartenstein · Mar 21, 2022

Macrium Image scheduled weekly with daily incrementals for internal drives.
Disc cleanup after Patch Tuesday updates.
SFC and DISM every couple weeks.

Network Shares get a quarterly Macrium image with weekly incrementals.