Coastal Computers & Design Blog

Must-Do Computer Maintenance

By Anna Hodges

Over the last 13 years, I have learned (sometimes the hard way) how very important it is to keep my computer properly maintained. It moves much faster and safer since I do this on a regular basis. Therefore, it is rather annoying when friends and family complain about how poorly their systems run. I ask them if they do even the basic scans and clean up on them, and they usually have no clue what I am referring to. (After many free teaching sessions on the subject, I often consider doing technical support for a living.) I do the following cleanup and scans at least once a week.

Most or all of the newer Windows operating systems come with their own firewall, cleanup, and disk defragment utilities. You can access them via the start button in the lower left corner of the task bar at the bottom of the desktop. For the firewall, from start go to Control Panel and double left click the Security Center Icon. It will show if the firewall is on, your virus protection and if automatic updates is on. Automatic updates can be scheduled for user convenience. These are critical updates from the Microsoft site. Most of them fix security issues to prevent hackers and fix security bugs. Scheduling Automatic Updates is very highly recommended.

The best virus protection I have found is AVG (AVG.com). They do offer a free program that I used for years. A highly trained support technician advised me of it after my computer was hacked. I liked and trusted it so much, that I have just purchased my second 2-year license because it offers more real time protection and is easy to use. It is also very reasonably priced. I tried McAffee for a while, but it did not have all of what I was looking for. I initially used Norton Anti-virus until a hacker was able to shut it down and give me a virus. Norton has too many bells and unnecessary whistles for my liking, and I found it very difficult to uninstall. It seems to wind its way into everything.

To access the operating system’s maintenance utilities, again go to start and click All Programs in the menu on the left. Then go to Accessories, then System Tools. I do the Disk Cleanup for C: first. Be careful of what is checked in this tool, as you do not want to delete any needed files. Several years ago, I was not so knowledgeable and checked for it to clean up my Office Setup Files. I lost them, and I needed them.

When you click the Cleanup box that pops up, it will check to see what needs cleaned up and then show you a list of files to take care of. These are the ones to check: downloaded program files, temporary internet files, offline webpages, Microsoft Office Temporary files, recycle bin, web client/publisher temporary files, and compress old files. This is washing away the junk that will lug your system way down.

The other tool that should be done at least weekly is the Disk Defragmenter. Access it the same way you access the Cleanup tool. Be sure that the Disk C: is what will be defragmented. The other disk is your recovery disk, and since you do not do anything with it, it does not need work. Leave it alone. Defragmenting helps keep all files for each program together in one place, so the brain does not have to search for things. Fragmented drives run very slowly.

Those are the basic steps to keeping the Windows systems in good shape. I also do weekly scans with the free versions of Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware. The most trusted site to get them is CNet.com, downloads, search for Free Spybot Search and Destroy, then search for Free Adaware. You will need to read the readme files to make sure you understand how to set the settings and whether to remove certain items or not. They will scan for things like adware and tracking cookies that we get from surfing the web.

I purchased my Gateway desktop in 2004. It is my third computer, and the most powerful and expensive one I have owned. It still runs as nicely as it did when I bought it. I attribute this to the consistent upkeep I perform.

Anna Hodges has a passion for writing in several different genres. She believes in taking a stand for what she believes in and endeavors to do this at her site:http://annasversatilewriting.com - While there, check out her page Anna’s Picks for work at home resources.

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