The computer is probably the single most important piece of equipment in your company or business. That’s why keeping it in tip-top shape is a requirement. When it’s not working properly, your entire business slows down. It affects employee productivity. If you’re not taking good care of you PC and not doing a regular maintenance, though it may be functioning now, you could find yourself in trouble someday
SysAdmins at one time or the other has been / are involved in PC maintenance. It is one of their most important task in a company. Here are things to consider that will help you take better care of your computer:
- Be wary of what you install
- Install the right software
- Update your operating system
- Dump what you don’t need
- Defragment your hard drive
- Keep things clean
- Security is important
Be wary of what you install
When someone calls me and complains that their PC is not working the way they’re suppose to, I always check what programs are installed. And true enough, there are tons of programs installed that are not required.
There unnecessary programs use up space on you hard drive. Also these random program can open a door for viruses and may cause your computer to crash.
Install the right software
What are these necessary software? Antivirus and a firewall are some. These two critical pieces of software, which you should update on a regular basis, will serve as a wall of protection for your computer.
Update your operating system
Well, I’m sure your using Windows on your desktop PC. It’s critical that you update Microsoft Windows on a regular basis by going to the “Windows Update” website http://www.windowsupdate.comto automatically update your operating system.
Dump what you don’t need
Every few months you should regularly inventory your computer to find and delete the programs you don’t really need. These unused or unnecessary programs take up valuable hard drive space, and if you’re not using them, you should remove them from your computer via the “Add/Remove” programs option in your control panel.
Defragment your hard drive
Your hard drive is one of the hardest-working parts of your computer—you’re using it all the time, every day (whether you realize it or not) to access the programs you use and store the files you create. But the hard drive doesn’t save the files in any particular order; instead, it uses the first empty space it encounters (space that’s created when you delete files). So the pieces of data become scattered around the hard drive, making it slower for you to access the data stored there. That’s why it’s critical to defrag your hard drive on a regular basis to keep things running as quickly as possible. Do it monthly if you’re a “light” computer user and weekly if you’re a power user.
Keep things clean
I’ve seen offices where people have paper and stickies all over their computers, covering up the air vents. To help ensure your computer runs smoothly, don’t cover the air vents—you need to keep the internal components as cool as possible. You should also vacuum your computer every few months to clean out the dust that accumulates.
Security is important
When things do go wrong, you want to be prepared. Therefore, its important to always backup your important data. You can back it up online, to an external hard drive or to a central server, or you can place the data on CD-ROMs or DVDs. Whatever method you choose, make sure to back it up on a regular basis so that if your computer crashes, you can easily recover your important data.