Windows XP..Maintenance

I want to keep my OS "whistle clean "...What are the things I need to be doing AND how often shd. I do them??
I NEED to be told step by step "how" to do ALL of it...I have run "Defrag" and "disc cleaner" BUT have also read in "Smart Computing" that one or both does NOT do a thorough job....I'd appreciate any thoughts on the best
"Clean-up" software that I can get for these purposes as well as "what" I can do be doing to clean out "stuff" that accumulates frm. surfing the Internet and Downloading..

I have XP..Home edition..Thank-You VERY MUCH

 

XP MAINTENANCE

Hi,In order to keep xp up to scratch you need to run defrag on at least a weekly basis (I run it every time I use my pc).You can also go to start,accessories,disk cleanup and check that out,I use the utility to erase all but the most recent system restore check point this can give you back valuable hard drive space.I also run surf secret to clean out the internet files,this is an excellent free utility which will erase history,cookies and more at a single click.If you are interested I can e-mail you a copy.I also run spybot another free utility that will search out and destroy the spyware you collect from the internet without even realising it.Regards pcfanatic2.

 

PCFANATIC2 - I use and like Spybot. I'd also suggest you run Ad-aware since the two still find things the other will miss.

Ad-aware has a new version available (well, only a few months old) that is hugely faster than the previous one was.