How best to maintain several health 24/7 computer?
September 9, 2006 9:37 PM Subscribe
My supervisor has asked that I provide some regular maintenance on their computers at work.
Several HP & Compaq machines running XP home/pro.
The problem is that some of these machines are constantly on 24/7 annnd some of them have been on for several months now.
In preparation for my upcoing task, I'm looking for apps to install on my USB stick (512MB), I've already downloaded and installed the following portable apps to my stick:
1. "SIW - System Information for Windows." http://www.gtopala.com/
2. "ClamWin Portable" http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable Clamwin may be un-necessary, as they don't have internet access on these PCs.
If I am granted administrative access, I plan to install:
3. "CCleaner v1.32.345" http://www.ccleaner.com/download/
4. "Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4" http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Aside from running defrag and disk cleanup, what other apps , portable-apps and/or procedures are recommended?
In preparation for my upcoing task, I'm looking for apps to install on my USB stick (512MB), I've already downloaded and installed the following portable apps to my stick:
1. "SIW - System Information for Windows." http://www.gtopala.com/
2. "ClamWin Portable" http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable Clamwin may be un-necessary, as they don't have internet access on these PCs.
If I am granted administrative access, I plan to install:
3. "CCleaner v1.32.345" http://www.ccleaner.com/download/
4. "Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4" http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Aside from running defrag and disk cleanup, what other apps , portable-apps and/or procedures are recommended?
I'm a little fuzzy about the extent of your responsibilities. The most basic form of regular maintenance is capturing backups, usually including e-mail. Second to that, for desktop machines in an office environment, is license management; software that's not work-related or not covered by licenses should be removed. I don't know if that's included in your boss's definition of "maintenance."
Likewise, there's regular physical maintenance, such as opening the case and blowing out the dust to help the machine run cooler.
And here I'm assuming that these are desktop boxes. If these are servers running 24/7, then you need a written maintenance schedule that considers the care and feeding of whatever applications you have running on the servers. Database backups, periodic administration, the works.
posted by SPrintF at 10:01 PM on September 9, 2006
Likewise, there's regular physical maintenance, such as opening the case and blowing out the dust to help the machine run cooler.
And here I'm assuming that these are desktop boxes. If these are servers running 24/7, then you need a written maintenance schedule that considers the care and feeding of whatever applications you have running on the servers. Database backups, periodic administration, the works.
posted by SPrintF at 10:01 PM on September 9, 2006
Jamjammo, this post is a huge improvement over your previous version. And, of course, it's in the right section. I'm glad you were a good sport about the pile-on in the blue. Hope you get some helpful answers. (I don't happen to have any.)
posted by thinman at 10:07 PM on September 9, 2006
posted by thinman at 10:07 PM on September 9, 2006
Step 1: Get rid of XP Home and use XP Pro everywhere. This will cut down on your defrag and rebooting needs.
If they're not connected to the internet, then it'll just be a matter of educating users not to fill the disks up. But then again, where would they get things to fill it up from?
posted by rhizome at 10:22 PM on September 9, 2006
If they're not connected to the internet, then it'll just be a matter of educating users not to fill the disks up. But then again, where would they get things to fill it up from?
posted by rhizome at 10:22 PM on September 9, 2006
24/7 operation for Windows XP machines isn't a problem, itself. Millions of corporate machines run constantly. If your machines have individual UPS systems, you should check the batteries for reasonable run time as a first step in maintenance, or recommend properly sized UPS units with intelligent auto shutdown capability, for any machines that will be left running all the time unattended. Keeping the machine's internals clean helps cooling, but if they are earlier business class P4 machines (Northwood chips) with older AGP or on-board video, there is far less air circulation required, and not much heat being generated, if you can at least vacuum out the power supply fans.
Without Internet access, Windows Updates probably haven't been run in a coon's age, and perhaps you don't even have everyone patched to SP2. Patching to current standards would be highly recommended.
Disk defragmentation is overrated as a regular "maintenance" technique for machines that don't create lots of new files. Unless a modern hard disk is getting full, and is more than 25% fragmented, the on board cache prefetch algorithms in the disk controller pretty much mask any underlying sector fragmentation; in fact, that's pretty much the whole point of a modern controller's disk cache, and it's a very, very good strategy for 90% of disks which are used in normal random read/write service. Defrag if it makes you feel good, or if you are doing heavy random video or audio editing, but for most situations, the wear and tear you create by regular defragmentation isn't nearly recovered by any appreciable performance improvement. Even less so, if you are already letting Windows XP optimize file placement for faster boot and application launch.
I'd make sure that all the disks on the machines were running NTFS and not FAT32, and convert any that weren't, after verifying the disks for integrity and space.
If I were you, I'd think pretty hard about running SIW right off the bat, unless you are specifically asked to try to recover lost passwords. msinfo32.exe will give you most of what you need to know for administrative purposes, and won't cause people who may be looking over your shoulder to think you've been snooping for their passwords.
Running ClamWin and various scanners isn't inherently a bad idea, but it is no substitute for getting a recognized anti-virus product installed on the machines, and setting up a mechanism for regularly applying patches and virus definition updates to machines that have no Internet connection.
Checking for uniformity of services running as others have mentioned is a worthwhile idea, but keep written notes about any changes you've made, by machine, in case you turn off something that is needed by some application that is run only infrequently. It's a good idea to regularly verify that only needed network protocols are bound and running, and I think it would be highly recommended to come up with a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy for any business machines that store company data. While you are thinking about recovery, it would also be a good idea to check into the location and availability of any re-install media you would need to have handy if you had to replace a disk, or reformat and re-install from scratch.
posted by paulsc at 11:18 PM on September 9, 2006
Without Internet access, Windows Updates probably haven't been run in a coon's age, and perhaps you don't even have everyone patched to SP2. Patching to current standards would be highly recommended.
Disk defragmentation is overrated as a regular "maintenance" technique for machines that don't create lots of new files. Unless a modern hard disk is getting full, and is more than 25% fragmented, the on board cache prefetch algorithms in the disk controller pretty much mask any underlying sector fragmentation; in fact, that's pretty much the whole point of a modern controller's disk cache, and it's a very, very good strategy for 90% of disks which are used in normal random read/write service. Defrag if it makes you feel good, or if you are doing heavy random video or audio editing, but for most situations, the wear and tear you create by regular defragmentation isn't nearly recovered by any appreciable performance improvement. Even less so, if you are already letting Windows XP optimize file placement for faster boot and application launch.
I'd make sure that all the disks on the machines were running NTFS and not FAT32, and convert any that weren't, after verifying the disks for integrity and space.
If I were you, I'd think pretty hard about running SIW right off the bat, unless you are specifically asked to try to recover lost passwords. msinfo32.exe will give you most of what you need to know for administrative purposes, and won't cause people who may be looking over your shoulder to think you've been snooping for their passwords.
Running ClamWin and various scanners isn't inherently a bad idea, but it is no substitute for getting a recognized anti-virus product installed on the machines, and setting up a mechanism for regularly applying patches and virus definition updates to machines that have no Internet connection.
Checking for uniformity of services running as others have mentioned is a worthwhile idea, but keep written notes about any changes you've made, by machine, in case you turn off something that is needed by some application that is run only infrequently. It's a good idea to regularly verify that only needed network protocols are bound and running, and I think it would be highly recommended to come up with a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy for any business machines that store company data. While you are thinking about recovery, it would also be a good idea to check into the location and availability of any re-install media you would need to have handy if you had to replace a disk, or reformat and re-install from scratch.
posted by paulsc at 11:18 PM on September 9, 2006
Very little to add after paulsc - but for general office-use machines that are not connected to the internet there is really very little that needs doing. In the interests of adding an extra level of security you could make sure users are running under a"limited" rather than "administrator" level account if they don't actually need administrator rights. Otherwise it's just mundane stuff like defragging, if it's worth it, deleting temporary files and so on.
Get rid of XP Home and use XP Pro everywhere. This will cut down on your defrag and rebooting needs.
Out of interest - why is this?
posted by ed\26h at 3:40 AM on September 10, 2006
Get rid of XP Home and use XP Pro everywhere. This will cut down on your defrag and rebooting needs.
Out of interest - why is this?
posted by ed\26h at 3:40 AM on September 10, 2006
paulsc writes "24/7 operation for Windows XP machines isn't a problem, itself. "
No memory leaks in services/DLLS/processes loaded by the OS?
posted by orthogonality at 5:05 AM on September 10, 2006
No memory leaks in services/DLLS/processes loaded by the OS?
posted by orthogonality at 5:05 AM on September 10, 2006
No memory leaks . . .
24/7 operation does not have to mean operation without quitting and reloading programs, including the operating system, unless you are running a MAC. They seem to survive for months going 24/7 without a reboot.
posted by caddis at 6:50 AM on September 10, 2006
24/7 operation does not have to mean operation without quitting and reloading programs, including the operating system, unless you are running a MAC. They seem to survive for months going 24/7 without a reboot.
posted by caddis at 6:50 AM on September 10, 2006
Get rid of XP Home and use XP Pro everywhere. This will cut down on your defrag and rebooting needs.
Out of interest - why is this?
posted by ed\26h at 5:40 AM CST on September 10 [+fave] [!]
Me too. As far as I know, there's no difference in the file systems in Home and Pro so there would be no reason to make one more susceptible to fragmentation.
And rebooting is dependent on apps are running and memory leaks. Again, not fixed with Pro.
The reason to upgrade to Pro would be if these machines are going to join an Windows NT domain and/or you'd want to manage them remotely.
posted by birdherder at 7:16 AM on September 10, 2006
Out of interest - why is this?
posted by ed\26h at 5:40 AM CST on September 10 [+fave] [!]
Me too. As far as I know, there's no difference in the file systems in Home and Pro so there would be no reason to make one more susceptible to fragmentation.
And rebooting is dependent on apps are running and memory leaks. Again, not fixed with Pro.
The reason to upgrade to Pro would be if these machines are going to join an Windows NT domain and/or you'd want to manage them remotely.
posted by birdherder at 7:16 AM on September 10, 2006
Here's a partial systeminfo from a little laptop I routinely use for Web surfing:
posted by paulsc at 7:27 AM on September 10, 2006
Host Name: WINBOOK-M OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS Version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation OS Build Type: Uniprocessor Free Registered Owner: Doobie Registered Organization: Product ID: 55274-XXX-9999999999 Original Install Date: 10/20/2003, 3:35:41 PM System Up Time: 7 Days, 14 Hours, 16 Minutes, 56 SecondsThis is nothing unusual these days, and in fact, this little box often stays up a month at a time, if I don't take it out somewhere, and shut it down. Often, it just gets rebooted monthly when I restart after running Windows Update. There are millions of corporate machines that only get intentionally shutdown in cases of power failures, or when a reboot after patching is required.
posted by paulsc at 7:27 AM on September 10, 2006
\\26H-MOBILE has been up for: 6 day(s), 23 hour(s), 44 minute(s), 20 second(s)Equally typical
posted by ed\26h at 10:10 AM on September 10, 2006
Rhizome, there's nothing that would support your advice to move to XP Pro; there have been a few threads here and elsewhere detailing that there's no difference with the functional base of the two operating systems (the part that would contribute to any need for rebooting or disk maintenance or anything similar).
As for the 24/7 bit, I've had Windows XP machines up and running for months at a time without reboots; for my server here at home, it only ever gets a reboot when there's a power outage severe enough to deplete my UPS, or when I install something (internal hardware, or kernel-level system software) that requires a shutdown.
posted by delfuego at 11:22 AM on September 10, 2006
As for the 24/7 bit, I've had Windows XP machines up and running for months at a time without reboots; for my server here at home, it only ever gets a reboot when there's a power outage severe enough to deplete my UPS, or when I install something (internal hardware, or kernel-level system software) that requires a shutdown.
posted by delfuego at 11:22 AM on September 10, 2006
A computer should never need to be rebooted except to install hardware or operating system enhancements. A mandatory reboot in any other situation is a bug. Memory leaks are bugs. Security patches are bugs. Failing hardware is a hardware bug.
(But power outages are user error. Plug in your computer, sir.)
posted by ryanrs at 7:17 PM on September 10, 2006
(But power outages are user error. Plug in your computer, sir.)
posted by ryanrs at 7:17 PM on September 10, 2006
Response by poster: I don't know how to link to another members reply from this thread, so I'll italicize their comment, and bold the first word of its answer below it.
I hope this will help everyone else here.
posted by CrayDrygu
If they aren't connected to the internet, then are they connected to any other sort of network? What are they used for?
Their primarly use, that I have seen, is general usage. MS Word documents, tons of excel spreadsheets.
They are NOT connected to any network.
posted by Ryaske
2) I suggest you also look into getting a third-party defragmenter.. as they are more comprensive and much faster. I haven't found any free ones
Actually, I was able to locate, download and install (for personal use) O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware on majorgeeks.com.
Works very well, so I plan on keeping on my PC and using for my project at work.
posted by Ryaske
3) I would also google "Start up cop" or type msconfig in the Run box (see the start-up tab) and make sure all those running programs are necessary.
I searched for Starup cop, but the software is retail. I'm hoping to make all my software choices freeware ones.
So I came across this Autoruns by sysinternals.com
posted by thinman
Jamjammo, this post is a huge improvement over your previous version. And, of course, it's in the right section. I'm glad you were a good sport about the pile-on in the blue. Hope you get some helpful answers. (I don't happen to have any.)
Thank You, as you saw, there were tons of poor comments on the other one.
I wasn't aware that there are two sides to this 'site'.
posted by paulsc
I'd make sure that all the disks on the machines were running NTFS and not FAT32, and convert any that weren't, after verifying the disks for integrity and space.
This is what I have found concerning the conversion to NTFS.
http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm
In the interest of time and space, I'll just end my post here.
I'm very intrested in the NTFS/FAT32 conversion. I know NTFS is a lot safer and faster. Thanks everyone for the input this far!
:)
posted by jamjammo at 8:43 PM on September 11, 2006
I hope this will help everyone else here.
posted by CrayDrygu
If they aren't connected to the internet, then are they connected to any other sort of network? What are they used for?
Their primarly use, that I have seen, is general usage. MS Word documents, tons of excel spreadsheets.
They are NOT connected to any network.
posted by Ryaske
2) I suggest you also look into getting a third-party defragmenter.. as they are more comprensive and much faster. I haven't found any free ones
Actually, I was able to locate, download and install (for personal use) O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware on majorgeeks.com.
Works very well, so I plan on keeping on my PC and using for my project at work.
posted by Ryaske
3) I would also google "Start up cop" or type msconfig in the Run box (see the start-up tab) and make sure all those running programs are necessary.
I searched for Starup cop, but the software is retail. I'm hoping to make all my software choices freeware ones.
So I came across this Autoruns by sysinternals.com
posted by thinman
Jamjammo, this post is a huge improvement over your previous version. And, of course, it's in the right section. I'm glad you were a good sport about the pile-on in the blue. Hope you get some helpful answers. (I don't happen to have any.)
Thank You, as you saw, there were tons of poor comments on the other one.
I wasn't aware that there are two sides to this 'site'.
posted by paulsc
I'd make sure that all the disks on the machines were running NTFS and not FAT32, and convert any that weren't, after verifying the disks for integrity and space.
This is what I have found concerning the conversion to NTFS.
http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm
In the interest of time and space, I'll just end my post here.
I'm very intrested in the NTFS/FAT32 conversion. I know NTFS is a lot safer and faster. Thanks everyone for the input this far!
:)
posted by jamjammo at 8:43 PM on September 11, 2006
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1) If these comptuers are used for web browsing, considering also running Lavasoft Adware (free) and Bazooka Spyware Scanner in addition to Spybot - Search & Destroy. Run these one after another and you will see how each one misses a few.
2) I suggest you also look into getting a third-party defragmenter.. as they are more comprensive and much faster. I haven't found any free ones, but I use both Raxco's Perfect Disk and Executive Software Diskeeper Pro. I dont think its necessary to use one after another here, as they both do a good job. I usually alternate between the two programs each time I defrag a PC (about two week intervals, depending on the PC's file activity).
3) I would also google "Start up cop" or type msconfig in the Run box (see the start-up tab) and make sure all those running programs are necessary. If they are not, shut them down. Also, google "windows xp services" to find the list of required services. You can shut down all the services not required by the PC's users. These two actions will keep the computer fast without needing many restarts.
4) google "diskpie" and use the program to determine where the largest files reside. Delete any and all files that are not necessary (concentrate on Huge ones). This will help the defragers work faster, and do a better job.
Thats all I can think of on the top of my head...
posted by Ryaske at 9:54 PM on September 9, 2006