Basic PC Maintenance
Regular computer maintenance can help prevent serious computer problems from occurring. Computer viruses and hard disk problems are the most annoying and easily preventable. Preventive computer maintenance can save you a lot of trouble. Follow these instructions on basic PC maintenance and use PC software utilities to keep your PC running smoothly.
Computer viruses can play havoc on your PC if you are not protected.
A virus is an intrusive program that infects computer files by inserting in those files copies of its self.
The copies are usually executed when the file is loaded into memory, allowing them to infect still other system files, and so on. Viruses often have damaging effects on your PC. Some viruses can destroy your PC's hard disk while others take up memory space that could other wise be used by your programs. This can slow down your PC speed. They might even delete valuable system files thus making your programs useless.
To prevent this it is vital to have an antivirus program on your PC. There are many free downloadable anti virus programs available on the internet.
Once you have installed it be sure to scan for viruses because in most cases when your PC slows down, gives sluggish performance, start up problems or freezes for no reason it is most likely to be a virus problem. Also be sure to update your Anti virus program regularly.
You may now also download a free antivirus from Microsoft Here
Out of the most important components of your PC the hard disk is the slowest.
This is the main limiting factor of your PC's performance. And if it doesn't work to its maximum performance it will surely slow down your computer. You can speed up your computer and make sure it works to its max by keeping it in good shape.
Here is how.....
Picture your hard disk as your room, "The less things you have in your room the easier it is to find things". Its the same for your hard disk the more data you have on your hard disk the longer it takes your PC to perform a task. Here are a few ways to get rid of some unwanted clutter.
1. Empty recycle bin : This is a fast way to get rid of unwanted files and make available valuable free space. Do this at least once week.
2. Disk cleanup : To give disk cleanup click start \ Programs accessories \ system tools \ disk cleanup
Here you have many options. You can safely give delete to all of them. But make sure you don't need them before you give delete.
3. Get rid of all unwanted files : You can manually get rid of files that you don't want. But always be careful when you delete files. You might need it one day. So be sure to backup what ever you think maybe important.
Note: Always remember to cleanup your hard disk before you use Disk defragmenter.
To run check disk on your PC. Go to My computer \ right click on the disk you want to scan \ properties \ click on the tools tab \ click check now on the first tool "Error-checking"
Here you can also select to Defragment or Backup your files.
The first option searches for files that have been corrupted.
The second option checks the condition of each sector on the disk.
For good disk maintenance run check disk periodically, at least once a week. This will find file fragments from applications that were not closed properly.
When a file is stored to a disk on your PC, it is broken into tiny pieces each piece is stored in the first available sector of the disk.
When the disk starts fill up and more files are deleted certain random sectors become available on the disk, the files are no longer placed adjacent to one another. Thus, a file may be scattered across the disk (fragmented). This slows down the time for the files retrieval and slows down your PC speed.
To overcome this problem you have to defragment your hard disk.
All you have to do is click start menu\ program files \accessories\system tools and click defragmenter.
Select the drive you want to defragment. Exit all your other programs, then return to defragmenter and click ok
