Home Computer Housekeeping Tips
Prevent problems on your home PC with regular housekeeping. As the old adage goes, prevention is better than a cure and this is never more appropriate than when it comes to computers.
Regular maintenance is the key to keeping your PC running smoothly and preventing bigger repair expenses in the future.
We’ve put together a list of maintenance tips and tasks that will increase the life of your PC, reduce the number of maintenance call-outs and will even increase the speed, reliability and overall performance of your computer.
IMPORTANT - Before you do anything, backup your data!! Imagine losing all your digital photographs or all the downloaded music you paid for? We’re not trying to scare you but a hard disk drive failure is a sure thing at some point. It’s not a matter of if it will fail but when!
If you are unsure about backing up your data or you require any of our other services such as fixing a problem or upgrading your system then we’re here to help. Just call us on 0845 2233116 or e-mail us at info@pcsupportgroup.com
Automatic Updates
The software that underpins everything you do on your computer is your operating system. On newer computers this will typically come with Windows Vista while older computers will use Windows XP.
Unfortunately no matter how much testing the makers of these operating systems do, they can never replicate every combination of actions that the tens of millions of users perform every day once it is being used for real. Consequently new problems (bugs) are found from time to time (quite a few in the first year after it is first released and then fewer as time goes on).
These bugs vary in the impact they have on a user. Some go virtually unnoticed whilst others can slow a computer down or even leave it exposed to viruses. To fix these the operating system needs regular updates which you can download from the internet.
Both Windows XP and Windows Vista can be set up to check for these updates automatically. This is how to do this:
- Go to the 'Start' button Right-click on 'My Computer' > Select 'Properties'.
- On the 'Automatic Updates' tab, make sure there's ,a tick next to where it says ‘Automatic (recommended)'.
- Select 'Every day' and choose time of day that suits you
- Click OK
- Go to the 'Start' button select 'Control Panel' and then 'System and Maintenance'
- Click 'Turn automatic updating on or off' under the 'Windows Update' heading.
- Make sure there’s a tick next to where it says 'lnstall updates automatically (recommended)'
- Underneath, 'Every day' should be selected in the drop-down menu and you can change the time of day to suit you
- Click OK.
You should also manually update your operating system once a month to pick up 'lower priority' updates.
The new Windows Update also lets you update non-Windows Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office.
Here's how you do it:
1. Start Windows Update
- In both Windows XP and Vista, go to 'Start' > 'All Programs' > 'Windows Update'.
2. Selecting updates
- In Windows XP, an Internet Explorer window will open (if you are prompted to install Windows Update, accept and wait for the window to reload).
- Click on the 'Custom' button and Microsoft Update will search for available updates.
- In the 'Customize your results' page that eventually opens, you'll see a grey taskbar on the left. From here you can select 'Software, Optional' to see what Microsoft updates are available.
- In Windows Vista, a special 'Windows Update' screen will open.
- Click the 'Check for updates' link in the left-hand taskbar to see what's available.
Maintaining Your Hard Disk
When your computer stores a large file (such as a photograph) it breaks it down into small pieces and places it on your hard disk drive where there is free space; not necessarily in one place and not directly after the last part of the file. As a result, every time your files are used, the computer has to find and reassemble them, slowing the process down.
This ‘fragmentation’ of files can also leave lots of small unusable free space on your disk drive. To re-arrange these files into a more sensible order, freeing up disk space and keeping files together as much as possible it is recommended that your regularly ‘defragment’ your hard disk.
To launch the Disk Defragmenter tool
- Go to: 'Start' > 'My Computer' (in Windows XP) or 'Start' > 'Computer' (in Windows Vista)
- Right-click on the icon for the disk you want to defragment.
- Select 'Properties' > click the 'Tools' tab > click 'Defragment Now'.
In Windows Vista, you can also set Disk Defragmenter to run automatically at appointed times.
- Go to 'Start' > 'Control Panel' > 'System and Maintenance' > click where it says 'Defragment your hard drive' under 'Administrative Tools'.
- In the window that opens, tick the box next to where it says 'Run on a schedule (recommended)' and click the 'Modify Schedule' button to change the time and frequency.
Hard disk health check
To check the physical state of your hard disk it is also recommended that you regularly (about once a month) run the error-checker tool. To do this:
- Go to 'Start' > 'My Computer' (Windows XP); or 'Start' > 'Computer' (Windows Vista)
- Next, right-click on the icon for the disk you want to check.
- Select 'Properties' > click the 'Tools' tab > click 'Check Now'.
- In Windows Vista you'll need to click 'Continue' on the 'User Account Control' warning that pops up. In the dialogue box that appears, tick next to both options then click 'Start'.
Uninstall Programs
Often a new program will come along that looks fun to have or play with, but after a week or two you simply stop using it. These programs clutter up your drive and take up valuable space and resources.
You might be tempted to delete these programs from your drive, but doing so will cause problems. You must use the uninstall function of Windows for the program to be removed safely and completely.
Also, some seemingly invaluable programs may even cause problems on our PC once installed. If you're experiencing PC problems. The first thing to check is the last change you made to your system and undo it to see if this is what is causing trouble - this might mean uninstalling new hardware or removing the last piece of software you installed.
To safely uninstall programs:
- Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Windows then builds a list of the programs on your PC.
- Highlight the one you want to remove > click Remove or Change/Remove.
- Follow the on-screen directions for your particular program to finish uninstalling the software.
- Go to Start > Control Panel. Click 'Uninstall a program' under the Programs heading
- Highlight the program you want to remove > click Uninstall from the information bar
Declutter Your Disk
As we’ve already mentioned, keeping enough space on your hard disk and regularly defragmenting are key to ensuring your PC runs smoothly. Regularly clearing unwanted data and programs obviously goes some way towards this process. Not to mention reducing the need for you to upgrade your disk drive through lack of space!
The key areas to check are:
• Clean out temporary files.
When your computer is not shut down properly, it will pass information from memory into fragmented files. Also, while you’re running programs, your computer will write information that it does not immediately need into temporary files.
• Empty your internet cache.
As you surf the internet your computer stores web pages and images into a temporary internet cache (disk area) so that it can quickly recall and access information when you move back and forth between pages.
As default the amount of space that is used for these temporary files is 10% of your total drive space. This information can quickly mount up and take up valuable hard drive space that you could use for your own storage.
• Empty your mail programs of clutter.
It's easy to browse through your email and leave old messages there, promising yourself you'll sort them out later. One or two messages don't take up much space, but hundreds certainly do, particularly when they have large attachments.
Take the time to sort through these old emails now and delete what is not important. And remember, deleted only means moved to the ‘Deleted’ folder so you need to permanently delete them by emptying the “Deleted Items” folder.
• Empty your Recycle Bin.
Once you've emptied your drive of clutter; empty your Recycle Bin to remove what has been placed there in the process. Remember, deleting a file only moves it to this area. To actually free up disk space you need to keep your Recycle Bin empty!
To help you clean your system use the Disk Cleaner program. To launch this:
- Go to 'Start' > 'My Computer' (Windows XP); or 'Start' > 'Computer' (Windows Vista) and right-click the icon for the disk you want to clean up.
- Select 'Properties' and, under the 'General' tab, click 'Disk Cleanup'.
- Choose what you want to clean.
Windows will spend time calculating which files can be removed. A new dialogue box will appear, listing files in various categories. Some will already have ticks next to them (usually Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files and Recycle Bin); it's generally safe to clean these up.
You could gain space by deleting error logs or Windows System Restore points, but only do this if you feel comfortable doing so.
Delete Files
To look at specific files in each category at any point, click the 'View Files' button. If you're not sure of anything, the best course of action is not to clean it.
When you're ready, click 'OK' > 'Yes' (Windows XP) or 'OK' > 'Delete Files' (Windows Vista).
Make Sure Your System Has Enough Free Disk Space
Windows needs at least 200MB and preferably more than 15% of free disk space on your C: drive to use as ‘virtual memory’ (sometimes not everything can be stored in the memory of your PC so it temporarily writes information to the disk) and as a “storage area” when it is defragmenting your disk (see earlier point on defragmenting). If you don’t have enough free space your system will stop working properly, you will experience extreme slow-down and eventually Windows will start dumping data to your hard drive.
Summary
We've tried to make this section as easy to follow as possible but we understand that many people simply do not want to risk this sort of activity. If this applies to you then feel free to contact us as we can perform any of these tasks on a one-off basis or you can take out one of our maintenance contracts so we do this work for you regularly as part of the service. Simply call us on 0845 2233116 or email us at info@pcsupportgroup.com.
|