After spending a couple of days reformatting my computer, I thought it was worth mentioning that computers do require some “spring cleaning” each year. You don’t have to go so far as reformatting, but there are a few things that even a non-technical user can do to keep a computer running well.
Has your computer been running slow lately?
One possible culprit could be that you are filling up your hard drive. Check to see how much space is available on your “C:” drive. Not much? Maybe it’s time to clear up some.
Do you transfer photos from your digital camera to your computer for storage?
Pictures and movies can be very large files and can quickly eat up your hard drive space. Burn them onto a disk occasionally to reduce what you are storing on your computer. Double check that the storage disk burned correctly and your photos are on it before deleting the pictures off your computer. If I have issues with my computer running slowly, hard drive space availability is always what I check first. My photos and digital camera movies are usually to blame.
Review your computer files once or twice a year and identify the files you don’t need anymore. Just in case you need it one day, archive the files by burning them to a disk before deleting them.
Surf the web on a regular basis?
Temporary files and internet clutter can bog down your computer. A washing program such as Window Washer is great to run occasionally (once a week or more) to clean the unnecessary junk files off your computer.
Use anti-virus software to avoid virus issues.
Got any other tips to share?
I’ll just add that the most important thing you do for your computer isn’t clean up files, but get the recommended updates meant to fix bugs that can be a problem later, and clean up spyware and malware.
Lots of Internet use also adds pages to the cache that aren’t scripted well, and that consumes enormous resources even when you aren’t looking. So hitting “clear history” once in a while isn’t a bad idea.
ashok recently posted..Emily Dickinson- “It is an honorable Thought” 946
Great added advice! I find clearing the history and cache occasionally makes a difference in how it runs.