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Computer Maintenance

Taking into consideration the fact that computers are an important part of our lives, we should at least try to learn to take care of them.  A recent survey reveals that hundreds of dollars are spent annually on computer maintenance services that we can easily avoid with a little initiative and effort.

This article provides you with some PC maintenance tips to follow in order to extend the life of your computer and make it more efficient. (The hints below apply to Windows operating systems.)

1. When to reset and when to restart?

Many people think that resetting and restarting refer to the same thing. Actually, this is not the case. Restarting refers to the shutting down and turning on of the computer after the rebooting process is completed. This action can be done through various ways, one of them being the use of the shut down menu. Resetting is an entirely different thing done by pushing a button found on the CPU. This is a forced action and should be used just as a last resort.

When nothing else works, the resetting can be performed. For instance, when your computer freezes and not even the Ctrl+Alt+Del function does anything, then you can try resetting your computer. For cases in which you are installing new software, you must always choose restarting.

2. Shutting down your computer

The computer shut down must always be performed through the Shut Down function of the Shut Down menu. The computer must never be shut down by means of unplugging it because this may cause serious and permanent damage to your hard disk.

3. Occasional cleaning of your computer

In order to keep your computer in good shape, you must clean it from time to time. The best ways to do this are to run a Disk Defragmenter and a Disk Scan as often as you can. The disk defragmenter function helps freeing up your computer’s wasted space, increasing in this way its efficiency. Through scanning you are locating all the corrupt and bad files on your computer.

4. Keeping the start-up simple

The computer start-up must be simple. If you have many start programs, your computer might take a while until it starts. Therefore, you must delete the unnecessary programs from your start-up and keep it as simple as possible.

5. Installing an antivirus

Everybody knows that when using the internet and not only then, an antivirus is a must. A good antivirus will protect your computer from spyware, malware and other viruses. All you have to do is remember to update it regularly and perform periodical scans.

6. Installing firewalls

Some say that firewalls are better protectors than antivirus software. Actually, firewalls are considered to be the prevention while antivirus software is considered to be the cure. When a firewall is up, unauthorized access to your computer is totally restricted. The firewall must be set up as soon as you have an internet connection and it must be updated regularly.

7. Installing antispyware software

Spyware refers to unauthorized applications that penetrate into your system when using the Internet. Once they’ve penetrated into your system, they can send personal information from your PC to the host server, this being one of the most frequent cases of identity theft today. Luckily, there are antispyware programs that can be used in order to prevent such threats from happening.

8. Keeping sufficient disk space

Your hard disk must never be full. This will cause your computer to run slowly and may even harm your disk. At least 100 MB shouldbe kept free on your hard drive. However, today’s hard disks have hugecapacities so the space is not such a problem anymore.

9. Using peripheral devices wisely

When using peripheral devices, you must be very careful. They must not be just pulled out of the computer. First, use the corresponding removing program and take them out only when on your computer screen appears a window saying that it’s safe to remove the device.

10. Cleaning out the temp files

Temp files appear whenever you are working on a computer application. If not erased, they can gather and eventually block your PC, making it run extremely slow. In order to prevent that from happening, you must empty the cache and temp folders regularly.