10 Best Tips on Computer Maintenance
taken from ezinearticles.com by Pinky Mcbanon (updated)
Can you imagine a day in your life without your computer? Computers have become an integral part of our lives by enhancing our productivity at work and at home. It is essential for the computer to give us reliable service. This does not happen automatically. As computer owners, we need to ensure the serviceability of our computers.
The precautions mentioned below can keep your computer healthy and functioning in a stable and reliable manner.1. Regular Maintenance - Computers need a dust-free, temperature-controlled atmosphere to function correctly. This can be ensured by periodically opening up the case and removing accumulated dust with a vacuum cleaner. Dust tends to clog vents responsible for air circulation and obstruct moving parts in devices like fans that are normally used to aid heat dissipation.
2. Never Turn-off When You can Shutdown - If you abruptly turn off a computer that is hanging, your hard disk could be damaged and your software corrupted. Use the shutdown tab of the Task Manager to do so.
3. Get a Good UPS - The UPS provides standby power for a short while in case of mains failure and can help protect your work from loss. It also saves the hard disk and software installed from damage by allowing you to shutdown the computer if AC power is no longer available.
4. Run Disk Check Tool like Scandisk (in Windows 98) or Chkdsk (in Windows XP) regularly and run Disk Defragmenter if needed - This step performed on a regular basis can help you access the hard disk more efficiently and speed up you computer.
5. Anti-virus, Adware and Spyware Removal Tools - You need to have these software packages installed to scan your computer regularly to remove and prevent security threats. Updating protection software is also an integral part.
6. Uninstall Programs, Never Delete - It is better to uninstall software rather than delete manually, for proper functioning of your computer.
7. Registry Scan - Periodic registry scans are required to ensure that the registry is update. Using a registry cleaner is better than cleaning manually. I recommended to use TuneUp Utility.
8. Software and OS Update - Always make sure you update all installed software and the Operating System regularly. Keep the CD-ROMs for the software packages installed on your computer safely.
9. Firewall - If you browse the Internet, the protection afforded by a good firewall against online threats is invaluable. But, if your internet connection have a problem with activation of firewall, as well you turn off firewall.
10. Detaching Peripherals - It is not advised to detach and attach peripherals like a serial/parallel device when the computer is running as the threat of a short circuit destroying parts of the peripheral or the Motherboard is very real. This does not apply to hot-swappable devices like USB devices.
