User vs System-Wide Maintenance Question

Tomel · 14 Nov 2010

I have several "users" on my Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit system. I'm not totally clear on which system maintenance items can be just run under the administrator account and will cover ALL users at once and which must be run for each user account individually. I have classified them the way I see it and want to know if I am correct.

Thanks.

Maintenance which can be run in Administrator Account for all users at once

Defragmentation
MSE Antivirus
Error-Checking
System Restore Point

Maintenance which must be run for each user individually

BackUp
CCleaner
AntiSpyware Software (e.g., SuperAntispyware, Ad-Aware, MalAwareBytes)
Disk CleanUp (Is this necessary if CCleaner is used?)

Petey7 · 14 Nov 2010

Anti-spyware software should be system wide. The backup depends. I know with Windows Backup you can select to make an image of the entire hard drive or backup personal files and folders. If the first option I mentioned is used it will be a system wide event. I'm not familiar with CCleaner to know if it is done across multiple user accounts. Since you use it, I assume you know if it does or doesn't.

richc46 · 14 Nov 2010

When you refer to back up, if it is a backup of documents etc. it is for an individual user or as Petey says you can choose system wide.
Ccleaner, I have the software and it is awesome. I however, am the only user of my computer. It was my understanding the for some features that would be system wide such as reg cleaning, it must be done from and adminstrator account or run as administrator. To even see restore points, you must be in an adminstrator account or run as administrator.

Bill2 · 14 Nov 2010

If you use CCleaner, theres no need to run the inbuilt disk cleanup too.

To run CCleaner for all users, heres a workaround. This cleans each user when they login. So you wont have to login to every user and clean their account.

1) Make a shortcut to CCleaner with the path "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\ccleaner.exe" /AUTO

2) Place this shortcut in the folder "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup". This is a hidden system folder.