“You can pay me now or pay me later.”
This advertisement encouraging auto maintenance could also apply to your home/office computer. Here are some suggestions to keep your computer running with optimum performance.

Hardware clean up -

At least once a year remove the side cover of your computer and blow out the dust using canned air, if you use your air compressor hold the nozzle away from any thing inside the computer and blow from several different angles. While you have the cover off take some time to check that the cable ends are all tight. You might also consider moving your computer to your desktop where there is less dust.

Disk clean up -

Regularly remove any temp files, temporary Internet files, cookies or any unneeded/unwanted programs.

First, uninstall any programs that you no longer use (Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs). This step is probably more important if you are short of disk space.

Next, to clean up temp files use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool (Start>All Programs >Accessories >System Tools>Disk Cleanup tool). On the “Disk Cleanup” tab, check to see that Temporary Internet files, Recycle Bin, Temporary Files are checked and click OK. Next go through your My Documents folder and clean out documents that you no longer use or need, do the same with the My Music and My Pictures folders and any other folders where you regularly save files. Now would also be a good time to go through your email and clean out the Deleted and Sent Items and any other email you no longer need

Defrag –

Over time the files on your computer can become quite fragmented so periodically run the built in Windows Disk Defragmenter tool. Defragmenting will reorganize program and data files and help to speed up access to your programs and files. An added benefit will be potentially extending the life of your hard drive.

Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Disk Defragmenter and click the Defragment button. This version of the Disk Defragmenter is much improved from older versions where if there was any disk activity the Defragmenter would restart. Although you can continue using your computer it is probably best to just leave it alone until the disk defragmenting process is finished.

Software Updates -

Make sure that the Windows Update feature is turned on (Start>Control Panel>Security Settings>Automatic Updates). If you have the updates set to automatically download an icon will appear in the system tray (lower right side of the task bar). Also your antivirus, antispyware, firewall software should be set to automatically update as well. Most of these applications have an auto update feature built in so once set they will automatically go to the corresponding website and download needed updates.

This whole process could take several hours depending on how much you use your computer and how much maintenance has been performed in the past.

This maintenance should be done regularly. The frequency will depend on how you use your computer. Deleting temporary Internet files and cookies could be done weekly and defragging could be done monthly for example.

The directions to the locations of Automatic updates and Windows Firewall settings assume that you already have installed Service pack 2 for Windows XP. If not you can still access them through the Control Panel. By now, many of you have already learned there are many more ways to access these tools, but I have only listed the standard path.

Rick Quirk
Network Administrator, NWROC