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Agenda

  Day One

   Hardware Vs. Software
   Static Electricity
   Heat
   Useful Tools
   Hardware

DayTwo – notes

    Software

   Backing up your Data
    External Backup Drives
    RAID Arrays
    Backup Software
    Backup Types

Day Three – notes

Day Four – notes

   Organize your Software

   Malicious Software

Related Resources

Reference Pages

Day Three Notes

Types of software

  • BIOS
  • Operating System
    • Kernel
    • Drivers
    • Services
      • Malware Detection
      • System (OS) Maintenance
    • Applications
      • Launch Helpers

How Programs get Started (Part 1)

  • The Boot Process (Summary)
    • Power On
    • BIOS - POST
    • Boot Sector
    • Operating System
      • Drivers
      • Services
      • Login Process
        • Application Helpers
        • User Applications

What is Running Right Now

  •  Process Explorer
    • Tree View
      • Finding services.exe
      • Finding explorer.exe

How Programs get Started (Part 2)

  •  Auto Runs (autoruns.exe)
    • Condenses many of the ways programs can start automatically.
    • The method of starting the program is shown just above the list.
    • The Windows Registry is a common place for Windows to get Startup Instructions from.
    • The Registry is a very complcated database that we will not really get into in this class.
  • Services Tab
    • These are the services that are launched by Windows automatically
  • Drivers Tab
    • These are all here to support the devices connected to your computer.
  • Login Tab
    • These are more likely to refer to programs that you have installed.
    • If you want to experiment, this is the best place to do it, just make sure you have a backup.
  •  Internet Explorer Tab
    • These might be support programs for Internet Explorer. Some Toolbars will be shown here.
    • Programs that are Internet related (but not necesarily Internet Explorer) might be here too.
      • Windows Messenger is an example
  • Scheduled Tasks
    • These are tasks that Windows has been told to do at certain times. We will look at how to set these up later.
      • They are useful for maintenance.

Do all of these need to be running?

  • Looking up a process in the Internet
  • Killing a Running Process
  • Disabling a Process from Startup

System Cleaning Tools