As the old saying goes, the better you treat your tools, the better they will treat you. Your computer, even though you may not think of it on this base a level, is a tool. A very expensive tool that often is one of the most important parts of your life these days, but a tool nonetheless. So the better you treat it, the more maintenance you can provide it with and the better cared for it is on a regular basis, the longer it will last. In theory, at least. Below are some of the habitual maintenance tips you should regularly perform on your computer to ensure it’s longevity, like a mechanic performs maintenance on his dream car every weekend.
Keep All Working Files in One Folder
You know how your desktop is cluttered with individual files of all those different projects you are hard at work on? It’s really slowing your computer down. Create a folder and put all the different documents in there. This will not only help your computer to run faster immediately, it will also help you to know where all of your documents are at once and also make it easy for you to back everything up at once.
Never Store Personal Files on the Root C: Drive
The root folder may seem like an easy place to store files, but it makes you very prone to losing everything all at once. By doing this you could corrupt your disk file table which could lead to a NTLDR is missing error message when you start up the computer. This is terrible, meaning you may have lost just about everything stored in that folder and possibly on the computer as a whole. Any personal files on the Root C: drive should be moved to a documents folder immediately/
Get Rid Of Old Programs- Optimize Your PC
Old programs will slow down everything on your computer. So if there is a program that you used to use but now use a different version of, or there is a program that you hardly ever use at all, just delete them and worry about reinstalling them in the off chance you will ever really need them. This will not only make your computer faster, but it will keep your software up to date with the newest programs out there.
Get a Surge Protector
This is a one time purchase and it will protect your computer from any chance of an electrical surge, which could literally fry it and wipe out everything on your harddrive. This doesn’t happen very often, but it’s better to be safe than sorry rather than just sorry and devastated that everything on your computer is gone forever. If you haven’t got a surge protector you are risking disaster!
Don’t Download Random Things
Be careful with what you download. Don’t accept anything that you didn’t ask for or seems suspicious, like if it has a random extension you have never seem before like .bat or .vbs or .mdb. These are probably viruses and will really mess up your computer and, in turn, your world. Also beware suspicious email. Don’t even open it to give it a chance to infect your computer. Some of these more advanced computer viruses are incredibly insidious.
Update Everything the First Chance You Get
Regular updated for hardware and software are sent to your computer via internet every week or so. Don’t put these off. Here’s how to access Windows updates. It’s like going to a doctor or mechanic—as soon as you see that something is wrong, take care of it. With updating your computer, this pre-emptively protects your computer and keeps it as up to date as any other machine out there.
Back-Up Critical Files -Routine Computer Maintenance
Do this weekly, if not daily. It will minimize any chance of you losing any important work if something terrible does happen to your PC. You can use an external hard drive to store backup files, however there are many other choices when it comes to backup storage options.
Reboot
If you shut your computer down every night, than this is not something you have to worry about. If you leave your computer running all the time, than take this to heart: rebooting your computer resets the RAM and helps it to run much faster than it did before. So do this every few days, especially if you notice your computer is running particularly slow.
Clean Out Your Email
Every month or so, purge your email of junk mail or special offers or emails you will never need again. Empty the trash folder yourself, as sometimes emails you meant to delete get hung up in there for an extended period of time. This can cause your computer to run much more slowly if there are a ton of emails stored up.
Clean Up Dust – Improve PC Performance
Computers will collect very large amounts of dust that can mess them up internally. This is because they are sedentary much of the time and collect dead pieces of skin that come off your hands, which turns into dust. So turn off your computer, unplug it and use a canned air duster to get rid of as much dust as possible. Not only will the computer run fast but it will feel and look a lot cleaner. Which makes it almost seem brand new.
