1.) Daily do a virus check
If you suspect somethings wrong with your computer - like giving tell tale signs of sudden sluggishness, mysterious file loadings or dissappearing files, and extra hard drive activity - STOP! and do an immediate virus check. Of course I'm not talking about day to day grindings of the computer, but a sudden change in the computers usual operating proceedures. It does pay to be safe, rather then be sorry.
It is strongly recommended that everyone have an up-to-date virus checker. The one that comes with Windows 95 is already outdated even before it was shipped, so do not depend on it to catch the new virus strands out today. There are 100 to 300 new viruses "born" every week! If possible have your virus checker automatically do a scan every time you boot up.
I suggest McAfee for Windows95, as it acts as a shield and loads upon boot up. It is shareware, meaning free for a trial period, at which after you can purchase it. Norton Utilities has a good virus checker, along with Central Point, but I found McAfee to be the best.
For DOS users, F-Prot takes the best I've seen. Having learned from experience, F-Prot nails viruses dead (to borrow a phrase). While it is not made for Windows 95, it still can do a decent scan of your system when in the DOS mode. It also is shareware.
2.) Once a week, Scandisk your hard drive.
This is done from your Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then click on Scandisk.
Have the options set to Standard, Automatically Fix (click on the little radio buttons you will see). This will help fix any trouble from loose files and other items that slow down your system.
3.) Once a month, Defragment your hard drive.
AFTER you have done Scandisk, you may either do this weekly, or monthly depending on how often you use your computer and files in it. This is done by going Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Defragment.
If you have a 3rd party memory manager like QEMM 8.0 for Windows 95, it wouldn't hurt to Optimize your computer once a month either.
And remember the famous last words of a college student (me) who just had a crash after doing a 120 pages of term assignments:
Well there was a happy ending...I did back up, but it was a week old, and had about 70 pages of my term projects! So it did save me some time...but should have backed up every day!
Back up your files if not daily, weekly onto disks that are virus free!