The end of a year is a natural time for wrapping up loose
ends from the year past and positioning yourself—and
your PC—for a smooth start in the new year. In
fact, taking a few minutes now to focus on some basic upkeep
for your desktop hardware and software can pay off, big time,
for months to come.
So here are the tasks you’ll want to accomplish for
your computer to safely take you into the new year:
1. Run SCANDISK and CHKDSK on each
of your hard drives.
2. Update your anti-virus software;
ensure it is set to be running whenever your computer is on.
3. Remove other threats that may be
lurking in your computer like ‘adware’ and ‘spyware’.
4. Get rid of junk files and other
files you don’t need that are just taking up space.
5. Defrag all your hard drives.
This will make your computer actually run faster.
6. Make sure your Windows (Operating
System) is up-to-date.
7. Get your important files copied
and removed from the computer!
Print this page out FIRST. Then close all running programs.
Then, here’s how you do it:
1. Run SCANDISK/CHKDSK. Scandisk is used to check
the file system for any problems. This utility is found on
Windows 95, 98 and ME systems. On Windows NT, 2000, and XP
you can use Chkdsk. The ScanDisk utility is located
here...Start » All Programs » Accessories »
System Tools » ScanDisk. Chkdsk can be run by
running a command prompt, then typing in ‘chkdsk’
and the drive letter... for example ‘ chkdsk c: ‘.
This will check the drive in read only mode, to fix any errors
add a ‘ /f ‘ to the end, and then reboot. (chkdsk
c:/f).
2. Most Anti-virus software like Norton has an
‘Auto Update’ function. Use that to ensure
your antivirus files are up to date.
3. ‘Spyware’ is software that has
been installed on your computer without your knowledge.
It may have come along with some free software (like a cute
screen saver) you installed. It literally ‘spies’
on your computer and periodically SENDS information to another
computer. This information may be passwords, or VISA
numbers, or ? Anyway, I use the free SpyBot at (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd)
to look for and remove these horrible little programs.
So download it or another one and run it now!
4. To get rid of files you have that you don’t
need you need to do two things. First: Start »
All Programs » Accessories » System Tools »
Disk Cleanup, for each of your disk drives. After it
reads each drive it will give you options as to what files
you want to get rid of. At least choose – ‘Recycle
Bin’ and ‘Temporary files’. Second,
run the find command: Start » Find, you want to
find all these files: ‘*.tmp’ and ‘*.bak’.
Delete them since you don’t need them.
5. To Defrag your hard disks: Start » All
Programs » Accessories » System Tools »
Disk Defragmenter. If your hard drives are very fragmented,
you will really notice a huge difference after you defrag
– your computer will run faster!
6. Get any updates to your Operating System.
Go to http://www.windowsupdate.com/. It will search
your system and let you know of all the updates that are available.
Download and install them! Do this monthly
7. BACK UP your data.
So, now you can sit back and enjoy the new year knowing that
your computer is safe and will work for you into the new year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Link of the day: http://www.onlinehelp-uk.com/guide/health.htm
covers (in more detail) all that I have mentioned above).
