For the most part, the advice is either half true, used to be true, or relatively harmless and a matter of preference. Some of the advice floating around out there, however, is at best harmful to your computer's performance, and at worst, can actually damage your computer's hardware.
Deleting Cookies, Browser History, Temporary Internet files, etc.
The Theory: Cookies, browser history, and temporary Internet files will slow down your computer and / or give away personal information to other people on the Internet.
The Truth: These files are put in your computer to speed up your internet experience. Unless you have a very small hard drive or do not want someone else that physically uses your computer to know what you have been doing on it, the files are harmless and removing them will actually slow down your browsing experience.
More Info: The misconceptions about these files are that if they are left on your computer, outside sources will be able to track your internet usage and / or steal your personal information.
- Browser History - In truth, only a person that physically uses the same computer that your history is saved on has any access to your history. The files are not accessible from legitimate 3rd party programs. If you have spyware or other malware infecting your computer, on the other hand, this may change. The solution is not to get rid of the browsing history, but rather to get rid of the malicious software accessing it.
- Temporary Internet Files - these files are ones that your browser downloads to your computer such as images or sounds that are used in displaying the website. Most browsers automatically delete these files after a preset time if they are not used again or take up more than a preset amount of space. Users that play any form of browser game; such as Facebook games, Runescape, online poker, etc. will actually cause their games to load and run slower by deleting these files.
- Cookies - Oh the dreaded cookie... the bane of Internet users since the dawn of time (or early 90's, whatever). Ever since people discovered that websites stored cookies on computers there have been horror stories and conspiracy theories about the evils of the deliciously-innocent sounding file and what they are doing to your computer. But what are cookies if not demonic mini-viruses hell bent on destroying your happiness? They are text files. Plain text files.
The anti-cookie campaign sprung up about the same time as Windows 98, which came with Internet Explorer pre-installed. Users found that these tiny files were saving information about your visit to the website and all kinds of big-brother theories exploded into life. It is all part of the anti Microsoft / anti Internet Explorer rhetoric we still hear about today. So what does a cookie actually contain?
Here is the actual cookie that this blog puts on my computer when I log in. What you can tell from reading this cookie is:
- It is for this blog.
- I was on Facebook before I cane here. (for website statistic purposes)
- My username and password for the site is stored in an encrypted file on my computer, and my browser should retrieve it if not over the expiration time for the cookie.
Registry Errors and Broken Shortcuts
The Theory: You need to scan for and fix Registry Errors and Broken Shortcuts regularly and if you have them often, there is something wrong with my computer.
The Truth: Registry Errors and Broken Shortcuts CAN slow down your computer over time, but are perfectly normal.
More Info: Programs that scan for and "fix" registry errors are a bit misleading. What they actually do is read the registry entries and make sure all of the files they refer to actually exist. The program has no idea if the values in your registry are as they should be, it only knows if an entry refers to a file that is no longer there. The same is true with the broken shortcuts, only the name is slightly less misleading; the shortcuts are not broken (and thus not fixed) they simply refer to a file that is no longer there and are removed. Most broken shortcuts occur in "recent files" lists after a file has been deleted.
These errors are perfectly normal and occur almost any time any file is moved or deleted. In extreme cases, the registry entries may slow down your computer's start-up or the launching of a program because the registry refers to a file that is no longer there, so your computer takes a few milliseconds to look for it before moving on. In the days of Windows 95, 98, and even some in XP (pre Service Pack 2), a missing file in a registry entry could make the computer come to a halt altogether. With newer OS's, the computer is smart enough to just skip that entry and move on after a few milliseconds... but they can add up. This is the registry errors after about 8 hours of active use on my computer since the last cleaning:
Bottom line, registry repair programs do help, but are not miracle cures. Finding errors (even hundreds at once) does not mean there is something wrong with your computer. It's like tossing a bunch of stuff into a drawer; when you see something that is not useful, you toss it to the side and keep looking... registry repair programs remove the useless stuff from the drawer so you can find the useful stuff faster.
Disk Defragmentation
The Theory: Disk fragmentation can slow a computer down to a crawl. Complete defragmentation should be performed on a regular basis and as a preventative measure.
The Truth: Disk fragmentation CAN slow down your computer any time it seeks information off the hard drive. How much? Well that depends, but excessive defragmentation can be FAR more harmful to your computer than you may think.
More Info: If you use an older computer like Windows 95 or 98 that uses the FAT32 file system the decrease in performance can be very significant. Windows XP introduced the NTFS (NT File System) to home users and its indexes are much more capable of handling moderate fragmentation without as much performance loss making defragmentation somewhat less important.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 automatically defragment in the background dynamically as it is needed (during down time such as whenever the screensaver is on) and virtually eliminate the need for users to run Disk Defrag.
How could defragmentation possibly be harmful to your computer? Defragmentation puts more stress on the hard drive than any other operation you could possibly perform. The heat and wear incurred on the drive during the process make it paramount that you only defragment when absolutely necessary.
I had a customer that came to me complaining about how his hard drives kept dying on him, like about every 6-months to a year. He was pissed off and assuming it was Windows' fault (even threatened to switch to a Mac "because they don't need defragmented" *False statement, but not going to get into it on this post*). After talking with him a bit, he told me that he defragmented his hard drive EVERY DAY. There is no wonder his drives died out fast, that is more use put on a drive in a week than most users put on a drive in a year! He was even running Windows 7 which straight out tells him...look man, you don't need to defragment this drive... but if you REALLY want to... I guess I will. His reason for doing it is because some "computer guru" told him to. The only real-world parallel I can think of is if you drove your car everywhere with the emergency break partially on so that you stop faster... then wonder why your brakes wear out fast.
One more piece of advice on Disk defragmentation: If you use a 3rd-party defragmentation program, use the same one ALL THE TIME. Defragmentation programs differ in what they consider to be fragmentation, as well as what levels are acceptable. While writing this, I used two programs to analyze my drives and see if they needed defragmented. The first, was Windows 7's built in Disk Defragmenter (Top) and the other is TuneUp Drive Defrag (Bottom).
See the difference in the supposed fragmentation between each program? If I were to run one, then the other back and forth for eternity, they would never agree.
In part two of this series I will be discussing the need for 3rd party firewalls and WiFi Encryption plus whatever else I think of by then. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments; please post them below or on my Facebook page!
