Member Avatar for caudicus

Hello,

I was hoping someone might know how to go about clearing out unwanted files, programs, registry entries, temp files, etc every time the computer starts up.

At school, there used to be a refresh.ini that ran every time you fired up the computer, and I am hoping to accomplish much the same. I am at a backpacker hostel and people from all over the world use the computers at all hours. The problem is that they install stuff, (even on guest account) download stuff, and generally make a mess of any system. After I spend hours and hours cleaning viruses, spyware, the registry, and deleting all of their pointless downloads, I would like the changes to stick and not have to come back to it.

Any tips locking down an XP computer beyond just guest account would be appreciated, too.

Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gerbil
Member Avatar for gerbil

==Get CCleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ - and install it in a new folder. You should keep this one for general use. Choose carefully at the installation checkboxes, I set them to only open from the recycle bin. It's neater that way, but won't suit your purpose.
[you can then run CCleaner from the recycle bin rclick menu using its default settings if you set up CCleaner as i suggested, rclicking the bin icon should give you the Open CCleaner option...].
If you have FireFox open the Applications tab and ensure at least that Cookies and Cache are checked.
Select the Cleaner icon, press Run Cleaner.
Run CCleaner in any other Accounts.
[For future quick temp file cleaning select the options you wish to use via the Windows and Applications tabs ..]
[Note that CCleaner is also a free registry cleaner. Explore all its options, but skip the prefetch folder cleaning option. That one is unnecessary because windows automatically dumps old unused entries anyway, they can do no harm, and further, if there is no prefetch entry for an app you wish to load then your sys will just be a lil bit slower loading it. And an entry will then be generated anyway.]

This is an easily customisable tool via its .ini files - you can use them to point it at any object you like. I forget what options to run it are available on installation, but you could use the Scheduler service, or place a link to it in the Startup folder.
If they are restricted to a Guest account their "installations" should not be able to make any reg changes. You can also schedule a System Restore to run at startup, which should take care of some of their changes.

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