The care and feeding of PC's running Windows 95 or 98
Anyone out there who has owned or used a computer knows the sinking feeling that settles into the pit of the stomach when the dreaded phrase "Fatal Error" shows up on the monitor screen. Otherwise known as the 'blue screen of death' this (unfortunately) common occurrence can often be prevented by performing a little basic housecleaning in and around your computer files.
For systems running Windows 95 or 98.... The finest thing you can do for your computer is to upgrade to Windows XP. If that is just not an option at this moment, see below. This simple operation will help keep you out of the "blue" for a while.
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click on Start,
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click on Windows Explorer
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click on My Computer,
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click on Windows
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click on Temp folder
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click on the first file
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hold down Shift key
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click on last file
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click on Delete
Now do the same thing in the Temporary Internet Files folder.
Each time you send a file to the printer, the computer generates a temporary file in your Temp folder. Each time you visit a webpage, several cookies are generated and saved in Temporary Internet Files. Individually, these don't amount to much but when they number in the thousands and tens of thousands, collectively they take up a lot of memory.
Now memory is a funny thing. Computers have a finite amount and when it's just about to the limit, the computer starts balking at doing anything, even simple tasks as saving new files. Think of your hard drive as a filing cabinet. When the thing is stuffed full, it's just about impossible to cram in anything more. It's definitely time to clean out some old, useless stuff. In this case it's temp files (they serve no useful purpose) and internet cookies (just placeholders so you can navigate more easily back to web pages you have visited in the past).
So, clean out your filing cabinet once in a while and make your computer smile.