Your laptop or desktop machine requires regular maintenance and prevents your system from experiencing program crashes, slow performance, system freezes and a variety of other unexpected and unpleasant problems. There are a number of things you can do regularly to make sure that you get optimum performance from your computer. Let's take a look...

Have a disaster plan ready

It's always smart to plan for the worst, and you can do this by creating System Restore Points regularly. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without aff ecting your personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos, its not intended for backing up personal fi les, so it cannot help you recover a personal file that has been deleted or damaged, but if you install something that's broken your PC, or something goes wrong, it can sort the problem out.

 

Creating a system restore point

• Click Start > Programs > Accessories, System Tools, System Restore.
• Click 'create a restore point', and then Next and in the 'restore point description' box, type a name to identify your restore point and you're done.
• To fi nish creating this restore point, click Create.

Using a restore point:

You can apply the System Restore Point you created by clicking the Start button >All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore and following the prompts.

Keep it clean, inside and out

On the inside

Remove unwanted fi les. There are files that accumulate in your computer without your knowledge, these files take up space and slow down your system. Typical examples include Windows temporary fi les and temporary Internet files and cookies.

These are unnecessary, and you can remove them. You might also want to go through your document folders and all the other folders on your computer and delete anything you're not using. Deleting is as easy as right-clicking on a file and selecting 'remove' or 'send to Recycle Bin'. Once you're done cleaning up, be sure to empty your Recycle Bin by rightclicking on it and selecting 'Empty'. Also keep your desktop clutter-free – the more icons you have on your desktop, the slower it becomes.

You can clean your hard drive by running Disk Defragmenter. Files on your hard drive tend to get moved around a fair bit as you're using your computer, which results in files being fragmented and this causes your computer to slow down, and will increase wear and tear on your hard drive that may lead to loss of data, which would be catastrophic.

Running Disk Defragmenter is easy, all you do is click Start > All Programs > Accessories >System Tools and then click Disk Defragmenter and set it to run.

This would also be a good time, once you've started running the defrag, to go make yourself a cup of tea and read the rest of this article. It's a lengthy process that requires patience, but it is absolutely necessary.

 

Removing Unwanted Files

Windows temporary files: Windows creates temporary files whenever you install new programs to your computer and these are stored in the directory C:\Windows\Temp.

How do you remove these? All you have to do is run Windows Disk Cleanup utility. Do this by clicking Start> Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup and then click Start > Run and in the Open box type cleanmgr and click OK.

Temporary Internet files: When you visit web pages on the Internet, they create new fi les on your computer and are saved in Temporary Internet files folder to help your computer remember these pages so they load quicker if you visit them again.

History files: This is the folder on your computer's hard drive in which a history of the web pages you visited is stored.

Cookies: these very small files that are stored onto your hard drive by many web sites and are used to collect statistical information about their websites.

How do I remove these? From your Internet Explorer window, select Tools from the menu bar and click on Internet Options. You can delete temporary Internet fi les, history files and cookies here.

On the outside

Don't stop at keeping merely the inside of your computer clean, it's just as important to keep the outside clean as well. Always keep it dust-free inside and out to avoid the CPU, power supply and case fans being clogged. Cover your computer with a soft dustproof cloth when not in use. If it's a laptop or netbook, keep it in a sleeve to prevent dust build-ups and unnecessary spills, bumps and other accidents.

Stay up to date

Regularly update your PC with the latest drivers, operating system and software upgrades. Doing this will improve the effi ciency of many of the programs running and improve your overall performance. You can either check for updates manually, or with a little help from us, set it so your computer searches for all necessary updates when you're connected to the Internet and does all the hard work for you.

Windows Update cheat sheet

Click the Start menu and open the control panel. Click the Security Centre option and open Automatic Updates and a window will pop up that will allow you to manage your Windows updates. You have

some choices here:

1. Automatic: (Recommended option) When you're connected to the Internet, Windows finds and downloads updates in the background. Unless you change the default schedule, updates that have been downloaded to your computer will be installed at 3 A.M, when it's least likely to interfere with your life.
2. Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them: Updates are downloaded in the background, while you're connected to the Internet. When they're done, a little notifi cation box will pop up asking you if you want to install the updates. You can click on the box to begin installing the updates.
3. Notify me, but don't automatically download or install updates: When Windows fi nds updates an alert will pop up, letting you know that updates are ready to be downloaded. After you click the icon or the alert, you can select some or all of the updates to download, and once they're downloaded, you'll be notifi ed it's time to install.
4. Turn off Automatic Updates: (not recommended) You will never be notifi ed when important updates are available for your computer, and you will never be asked to download or install them.

Your computer needs backup

To make sure you don't lose important files if your computer does decide to pop its clogs, you should back up your computer on a regular basis. The backup process copies your fi les to a safe place so that even if your computer fails, you won't lose them.

You'll want to get an external hard disk drive and you need to choose one that is at least as large as the hard disk drive inside your computer. For example, if your computer has a 100GB hard disk drive, choose a 100GB or larger external hard disk drive.

Then connect the external hard disk drive to your computer. Make a note of the drive letter (such as E:, F:, or G:) assigned to your new hard disk drive.

 

How to backup your files to an external hard drive:

• Click Start > Accessories > System Tools and then click Backup and the Back Up Wizard will open and you need to click Next.
• Select the 'back up fi les and settings' option and click Next.On the 'What to Back Up' page, select 'all information on this computer', and then click Next.
• On the Backup 'Type, Destination, and Name' page, click 'Choose a place to save your backup', and select your external hard disk drive. Then click Next.
• On the Completing the 'Backup or Restore Wizard' page, click Finish and then when the next window appears and back up has been completed click Done.

Protect your computer

The importance of virus protection for Windows computers cannot be emphasised enough. Make sure you set your virus protection to scan often (if not daily, then at the very least, weekly) and let it do its thing, uninterrupted, so as to keep your PC healthy.

Start differently

The programs that open automatically after your computer starts up, can aff ect how your computer runs – the more there are, the slower your computer will be.

How to change your start-up:

• Click Start > Run and type msconfi g into the box that appears. Select Startup and you will see a list of programs that start with Windows, then decide which ones you don't want to start and untick the boxes next to them.
• SHORTCUT: Click the Services tab and tick the box that says 'hide all Microsoft services'.
• When you have fi nished click on Apply > OK which will prompt you to restart your computer. Once your systemhas restarted, you will be presented with a screen that informs you that msconfi g has been used to make changes and then all you need do is, tick the box that says 'do not run on startup' and then OK.