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It’s that time of week again. No, it’s not time for you to leave work and play more DCUO. It’s time for another IT qotw. As you all probably already know I am an IT guy by trade. You’d think that by the end of the day I get tired of it. But, I still try to do a little work on the side and I always am the go to go for the family’s computer questions. Today, I wanted to talk about the question that I probably get the most. “What can I do to maintain the performance of my computer?”
First off, realize that question is an excellent step. No matter how awesome your new computer is, it really does fall on you to keep it that way. Just by browsing the internet your computer will slow down. There are a ton of other things you can do to make it slower. However you don’t want to be one of those people that put their head in the sand and believe their computer is invincible. Don’t be the guy that ignores all the ‘…little read icons and warnings by the clock thingy…’ Don’t be afraid though, there is hope. There are some very simple things you can do to not only keep your PC from breaking needlessly, but also keep you from losing your files.
The first thing that you must get into a good habit with is backing up data. With the cost of external hard drives going down and the size going up I always recommend people buying at least one. A good rule of thumb is back up your data as often as you can afford to lose it. You really do never know what could go wrong with your computer. Just like your car, there is a ton of moving parts. Most of the time when your machine goes it does so fast and without warning. You can do a simple copy paste up to your external drive every time you download picture from Christmas or buy 100 songs off of iTunes. Or, you can use the Windows backup utility to do it automatically when you go to work, or when you go to sleep.
The next thing I would recommend is keep your machine updated. Update, update, update. Windows is constantly releasing updates to their products. While this is mostly because a lot of them are incomplete and the updates are to fix security problem, it doesn’t mean they are any less good for your computer. You should also definitely have antivirus software (ms security essentials is easy, has a very small footprint, and is free), and you need to keep that software updated. Antivirus software is literally only as good as the amount of updates you have. Virus software mostly works on scanning your machine for known files that are used with known viruses. That unfortunately changes all the time as people are constantly writing new viruses.
The next few thing can be lumped together, especially since all you loyal readers already know all about defragmentation. You should definitely defragment your machine at least once a month. This closes gaps in your file structure and will make read time on your hard drive faster. Along with that you should be clearing the cache on whatever browser you decide to use. By the cache I mean that browsers will keep copies of files, cookies that track your browsing patterns and pictures on your machine in order to make it easier the next time you visit a site. After months of not cleaning it, a full cache will cause very noticeable issues with your machine. To do this with internet explorer you can go to start->settings->control panel->internet options. On the general tab, in browsing history just press delete and select everything you can find with a check box.
Finally, and maybe the most simply, buy a good quality surge protector to have your computer plugged into. Electricity is the enemy. Even the most benign surge can fry the very sensitive boards that exist on your computer.
There is a lot more that we can go into. But, this is a good start. If you follow these steps, not only will your computer stay fast longer. If it ever happens to crash for no reason, you won’t lose as much data and time as you would have. Hopefully we here at It’s Geektime have again shed light on all your PC problems. If you have any questions in the future please feel free to let us know. Finally, remember, when you’re scared and feeling technically unsure. Never fear, IT guy is here!!!
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