1. Click start and go to our document folder.. My, my my... How much extra disk space do you have..Bad! Bad! Bad!  Want to start cleaning house?  Good:-) click on start->settings-taskbar & Start menu-> Start Menu Programs.. Now on the bottom click on the Clear button to clear your document folder.

2. Click Start->Settings->Control panel->Internet Options->General tab.. Now, lets get rid of all those temp files from surfing the net:Under the Temporary Internet Files, click DELETE FILES.. a box comes up to ask if you want to delete the OFFLINE content.. just click ok.. Also, while you are on the GENERAL TAB, click on the CLEAR history and you should have 3-5 days selected to store history.Isn't this FUN? LOL And you thought  you would be bored :-)

3.Right click start->Find and where it says NAMED: type in *.*tmp  where it says LOOK IN: select MY COMPUTER, click find Now.. Now look at all that unnecessary space...Bad, Bad, Bad:-) Highlight just one of them, go to EDIT/SELECT ALL... Now ALL of them should be highlighted..Click on FILE/DELETE..

4. Go to your desktop and click on the Recycle Bin... Be sure there is nothing in there that over the past few decades you have deleted accidentally, then if there is none, click on FILE/EMPTY RECYCLE BIN.

5. When was the last time you defragged/scanned your disk?  I thought so :-)  OK, here's whatcha do....Start->Programs->Accessories->SYSTEM TOOLS->Defrag. (your computer may be set up a little different but if so, right click start/find/and type in defrag and click find now and you will find it)  First do Defrag. then do scan disk.  Want to know a secret? I do the Defrag and the scan disk for errors while I sleep :-) I s do each one a couple times a week. So manybe Monday, I start the defrag, turn off the Monitor, go to bed. Tuesday, I do the scan disk. Seriously, you really should do this at least once every two weeks. Make sure Nothing is running in the background..including Screen Savers.

In addition,,, I have learned a tip that is very helpful in helping me to keep my Outlook Express running well... In case you don't know,,, even though you delete mail in your Outlook Express  they are stored as "mbx" and "idx" folders on your hard drive ( if you use OE4.0 versions) and dbx files if you use OE 5.0 versions,,, Here is a way to permanently get rid of that mail...

1.  Make sure that you have deleted anything that you don't want in Outlook Express. Then close out..  2. Right click "Start" go to "Find" , Named: dbx... Look in "C: .. Click "Find Now.. You will see all the dbx files in your OE . Right click on"deleted.dbx" and select "Delete". Wa La..They are history. Don't delete the other'.dbx files" these contain the e-mail in your folders. Now this part is important because you don't want to delete folders that you are saving important stuff in.. Outlook will rebuild these files once you open it back up for use...  If you don't delete these files,, your Outlook Express will slow way down and eventually will crash...

Hold on, we aren't finished yet:-)

Click on Start\Find\Files & Folders....Where it says 'Named:', put in *.* (asterik dot asterik) and then where it says 'Look in', hit the 'Browse' button, navigate to C:\Windows/Temporary Internet Files, highlight it, click ok, then make sure you have "Include Subfolders" checked under the Look In box. Hit 'find now'. A lot of files will show up...don't delete the yellow subfolders themselves, or any of the desktop.ini or the index.dat files. All others you can delete right from that window (highlight a group, right click, hold down shift button and click delete). Holding down the shift button keeps them from all going to your recycle bin. They're just temperory internet files that were never deleted.

Do a find for *.tmp and *.gid and delete those files too. But don't delete Windows/Temp folder...that's needed. The .tmp files are sometimes created when a program opens up. When it closes it's supposed to close the .tmp files too, but it doesn't always. The .gid files are opened every time you open a help file in any program. They are always recreated so they're safe to delete.

Who Loves Ya?
Me do!

Jeanie