Re: The Extent OF PC Anti Virus Scanscan
Does Firefox also store its temporary file in the Temporary Internet Files folder? I have a feeling
that it doesn't, but I may be wrong.
Jon
"Patrick Keenan" <test@dev.null> wrote in message news:O2EL1JbMJHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
"@optusnet.com.au ." <""jmkell\"@optusnet.com.au ."> wrote in message
news:u%232wyWaMJHA.4724@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Patrick Keenan wrote:
>
>> "@optusnet.com.au ." <""jmkell\"@optusnet.com.au ."> wrote in message
>> news:eaR6NzYMJHA.4724@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> Using XP/PRO ,Zone Alm-Adaware+ AVG anti virus installed. I've
>>>completed a Complete Scan of my PC . Took over 1 hour.To reduce this in
>>>future, What are the Essential Areas to Scan please.I'll do a Complete
>>>scan Again in the future (IE 6 Months time.) jim
>>
>>
>> You'll find that you can dramatically reduce scan times by clearing the
>> Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files (temp) folders before the
>> scan, and emptying the recycle bin.
>>
>> It's very easy to get thousands and thousands of small files in the TIF
>> folders, and regardless of size, each one has to be opened, examined,
>> and closed to be scanned. And these are probably the most critical
>> areas to scan; they are a primary route for malware infections. You
>> should *not* exclude these folders.
>>
>> The built-in Disk Cleanup tools are a good place to start, but the free
>> utility "ccleaner" (www.ccleaner.com) can be much more effective. All
>> of these have to be run for each user account that's been used.
>>
>>
>> HTH
>> -pk
>>
>> Thanks Heaps for your Detailed & Informative reply Patrick.Saved. What
> doe's 'TIF' Stand for please; + Where to locate same {ie if its not too
> complicated to explain.Regards& Thanks again. jim
It's a short form I use for Temporary Interenet Files. It's the Internet
Explorer Browser cache, under
Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temporary Interent Files
Every user account has its own set of these folders, and in them you will
find eventually system/hidden folders called "content.ie5" - regardless of
the IE version - and then a number of hidden folders with cryptic names.
All of them can go.
There are also sets of Temp folders:
Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temp
and their contents should also periodically go.
The very easiest way to clear these out is with ccleaner. Otherwise, you
have to change the Explorer view to show everything and go poring through
the account structures.
The Windows Disk Cleanup utility has an annoying habit of leaving lots of
stuff behind that you'd expect it to remove. . The first time you run
ccleaner, it's not unusual for it to find hundreds of megabytes of files;
I've seen it locate a couple of gig. Note that if you let ccleaner
remove everything, it'll also take a number of things you might have to
re-enter, such as website passwords, depending on where they were stored.
Go to
www.ccleaner.com, look for the "other builds" download page and take
the "slim" build with no toolbar. It's under a meg. Note that if your
system has multiple user accounts, you should log into each account and run
it. You can reinstall it for each account or just add a shortcut in the
All Users Desktop folder.
With temp folders, if you've used web installers for software and cleared
the Temp folders , you can lose the ability to uninstall the software
because it used the temp folder to create the install/uninstall files. In
that case you have to download it again, rerun the install, and immediately
uninstall. I personally think this practice is improper, though it is
widespread.
HTH
-pk