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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dave rose who wrote (15034)	1/18/2001 12:31:37 PM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110652

dave, re, "is it always safe to eliminate all duplicate file found by Norton System Works? I find Norton to be very confusing for a novice. It scares me." good question, dave. the program within norton systemworks (nsw) that performs the duplicate file deletion is called cleansweep (cs). i wholeheartedly concur that it can be a bit of trouble for the novice user. i feel very comfortable with cs, but i have used it for 3+ years. first let me pass along two links that just coincidentally found their way into my inbox this a.m, as if someone knew you'd be asking this question..... ****************************** "To view the online tutorials for Norton CleanSweep, please visit the following Internet addresses: Norton CleanSweep 2001: symantec.com Norton CleanSweep 2000 and earlier versions: symantec.com ****************************** perhaps you'll derive some good from these tutorials. i hope so. <g> is it always safe, you ask? yes. if you follow cs's basic intuitive rule, which is not to delete items with a red light (simulating stop!) preceding them. yellow indicates caution. i usually leave those files alone too. green lights mean rock and roll, as far as i'm concerned. an added safety measure is that cs creates backups of the deleted items. they have a default shelf life of like 30 days. the next time you open cs, if it's been 30 days since deleting a batch of duplicate or orphan or redundant files, cs will notify you of their continued presence and ask if you want to now delete the backup. the obvious beauty of this method is that if you find you've deleted something that your system needs, you can recover it. cs also operates this way when uninstalling larger items, like browsers. i used to wonder what the heck the point was of trying to get rid of a program or file, only to have cs back it up. wasn't the net result (space-wise) the same, i wondered? well the answer to that is, no, it's not, because cs will compress the files it is saving as backups, until they are probably 50% of their original size. so they are made smaller and placed out of the way where they will eventually be discarded with your future permission. kinda' neat, imo. so look for those green lights, dave. and read the manual. check out the online tutorial. and you can always ask here, and either me or another nsw user will help out. but it truly would be cool to see you start using cs. it's a super useful tool. hope this helps :) mark