Author: W.P. Flinn
Description:
Computers running the Windows XP operating
system are fairly stable but still need routine “tune ups” to keep them running
efficiently. Over time, data on hard disks get fragmented and the hard drive
fills up with various temporary files. These temporary files are not needed,
but when they accumulate they tend to make the system slow down as the operating
system has to search through unneeded data to find what it is looking for. It
is also important to perform periodic checks of hard disk media to ensure that
cross-linked file entries are corrected, sectors that are going bad are marked,
and data moved to safe locations.
Performing tune ups on only a few
computers is not a difficult or time consuming task. In a large corporate
environment, however, performing preventive maintenance tasks involves visiting
and “touching” each and every computer. This can add up to having to visit
hundreds of computers. In a large corporate environment with many remote users,
such as those with sales people and other “field” users, getting to all of them
is difficult because they are not always at the home office or even at a
location with IT support.
There are a number of
third party software packages out there that can do much of this
maintenance for you, but Windows XP has them built in, and they
are free, so why not take advantage of them. Many of these
built-in, free preventive maintenance tasks for the
Windows XP operating systems can be automated by using the Scheduled Tasks
feature, also free, and built into Windows. The Scheduled Tasks feature allows
you to schedule several tasks to run automatically, without a need to
visit and "touch" every machine, and without the requirement for the end user to know how to
run complicated tasks.
The following
instructions are an excerpt from a lab exercise I wrote for the
computer servicing class at Southeast Technical Institute.
It was mainly geared toward showing students how to automate
tasks in a large corporate computing environment, but I have
re-worded it so that it can just
as easily be set up for a home or small office environment.
You can use these instructions to set up your own maintenance
routine and learn more about using Windows XP maintenance
utilities and Scheduled Task functionality.
Note: Be
sure to read all cautions and warnings contained in these
instructions before proceeding!
Download:
Automated
Maintenance Routine Instructions
Download:
CHKDSK.BAT File
Link: M.S. Article on Running Defrag
Link: M.S. Article on Running Disk Cleanup
