Why It’s Important To Look After Your Computer

For many of us, using our computers daily is just ‘one of those things’. But do we ever stop to think about what we put these brilliant machines through? Over time they often begin to show signs of age or struggle; though they aren’t human, our PC’s, Laptops, and Apple Macs still need and deserve a bit of TLC once in a while.

If your computer is screaming for attention, you might be experiencing one or more of the following symptoms:

–        Generally slow or unresponsive

–        System freezes or locks up

–        Slow or no access to the internet

–        Will not shut down

Rather than waiting until problems occur, simple routine maintenance could help keep your PC running smoothly and inevitably boost its lifespan. Always make sure your data is backed up before attempting maintenance.

Scandisk:
Checks for damaged areas on your hard drive(s), alerting you to its health status and potentially saving you from data loss. Before running this check, ensure all programs and files are closed (including those in the system tray). Information on how to run Scandisk can be found at www.nexusconsultancy.co.uk/scandisk

Maintain Your Antivirus:
We can’t stress enough the importance of keeping your antivirus software up-to-date. Don’t be vulnerable to viruses or spyware: always make sure that automatic updates have run successfully and, if you pay for your software, don’t forget to renew your yearly subscription fee to stay protected.

Delete Temporary Internet Files:
Whenever you visit a website, your browser stores the location of the URL in a temporary ‘cookie’. Eventually, the accumulation of thousands of these cookies can take up valuable storage space, slowing down both your browser and PC. Don’t worry when deleting these as they are simply ‘junk’ files, and nothing to do with your data. Deleting saved passwords and form data is good practice for security reasons, and only means you will have to re-enter the details on next login.

Defragment Your Hard Drive:
This should be done once a week, otherwise it becomes a huge task for your computer. ‘Defragging’ reorders all the little pieces of data that have been scattered across your hard drive with every day use. Leaving your data fragmented makes it difficult for your system to retrieve when opening a file or program, thus making your computer feel sluggish.

Regularly Shut Down:
Contrary to popular belief, it is very important to shut down your computer regularly: every keystroke generates temporary files that are stored on your system, and are only purged during the shutdown process. Shutting down rarely or never means your PC becomes a storage unit for all of these junk files, and will eventually get slower and slower.

 

If you want to learn more about maintaining your PC, Laptop or Mac or would like us to take a look at your machine, feel free to call us on 01753 884 700/01494 730 120