The article is written mainly for Windows computers, but some things may apply to other types of PCs.
So many people these days don’t take proper care of their hardware. Even though they are such a big part of our lives, some people make poor decisions when it comes to optimizing their PC. Many of the computer’s electronics will fail due to poor maintenance.
These electronics get used day in and day out and somehow we fail to give them the proper care they desperately need and deserve. You can extend your hardware life if you maintain it properly and you can save time and money by not sending it to the repair center or even replacing it with a new one. The best part is that anyone can do it and you don’t necessarily have to be a computer scientist to preserve the life of your personal computer.
The first thing we should talk about is prevention. The best way to avoid harm to your workstation is to prevent it from ever being harmed in the first place. With the constant evolution of the internet, there are so many ways people found to introduce viruses and malicious software to your PC.
So, to stay protected from these harmful things, an antivirus is needed. An antivirus is as important for your computer, as a strong defensive backline is important for football teams to rank high in the NFL future odds. Some computers get antiviruses by default, however, they don’t work as good as the ones you can get from companies that professionalize in this kind of thing.
That being said, that the first thing you need to do is invest in proper antivirus software. There are many in the market so it’s easy to get confused, however, ESET NOD32, Norton, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Webroot SecureAnywhere, are antiviruses that have proven to be very effective. These tools will take care of your computer and inform you if they sense a threat from harmful websites that you visit.
Furthermore, before we dig deeper into the computer maintenance, let’s talk about organization. Proper organization of files to a computer is maybe one of the most important things we need to address. So many people overlook this thing and they end up with a PC that is so cluttered with files and trash everywhere that it is almost impossible to organize and clean properly. The problem is not that you have icons that you never knew existed in your computer, causing confusion and disorganization and you cannot make a distinction of what is trash and what is needed.
To avoid getting unwanted memory stuck to your computer and slowing it down, you should make a good file system. The best way you can do this is by starting to create basic folders from the types of Work, Personal, and in them making sub-folders that contain a particular kind of files (like Photos, Documents, Games, etc.). There are so many things you can do to organize, however it boils down to personal preference to find a file system that works for you and stick to it.
The above mentioned is all well and good, but what do you do if your computer is neglected and needs a software clean. There are several types of software cleaning methods that can be used for your computer software, and those are, master reset, deep clean, and regular clean. Master reset, well as the name pretty much implies it deletes all data from the PC (this should be done if you don’t need any data that is on the hard drive and your PC is pretty much beyond saving).
Also, by deleting applications that are almost never used you can free up unnecessary memory usage that will speed up your computer. Basically, hand picking each file that needs to be deleted. For this clean, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragment should also be used. Deep clean needs to be done at least once a month. Finally the most importantly clean, the regular clean. A daily clean, which is basically erasing the junk that was made the day before. If you like to do proper computer maintenance, it is always better to run daily or weekly cleans in order to prevent a problem.
In conclusion, you do not necessarily need to be a computer scientist to preserve the life of your PC. We didn’t go into details about professional-level care of your computer, however, these are things that anyone can do and it is pretty simple and yet effective. These things need to be done regularly and become a routine so that your workstation works at peak performance.
You’ll also like to read: 10 Easy Ways to Know If You Need Computer Support