Good morning everyone and welcome to this weeks IT Help and Advice blog.
Today I'm going to be talking about the Computer Maintenance side of a computer. Just like a car needs regular checks and looking after having a computer is the same principle.
Every computer whether it's a desktop, laptop or MacBook all need looking after an checking regularly to make sure they are running at full capacity.
There are several built in items within Windows that can help with keeping your computer on top.
When you look and think about a computers health what do you instantly think of...? Is it; it turns on and does what i want it to, so it's fine. Or is it a case it starts running slow so you think its time for a new computer?
Whichever way you look at it, it may not be any of the above it could just be its need a good clean up.
There are several things you can do, these include:
Virus scan (Check out my other blog Viruses and Antivirus Software)
Disk Defragment
Disk Clean Up
Check you system storage
Windows Update
All the above can help speed up the running facilities on the computer and also keep it safe at the same time.
Virus scan:
To find out how to Virus Scan your computer please check out my blog on Viruses and Antivirus Software.
But in simple terms you need to open your Antivirus software and click on "Run Full Scan" and then remove anything it comes up with.
Disk Defragment:
To run a Disk Defragment you need to open the built in software. To do this follow these simple steps:
Open windows (bottom left)
Go to Windows Administrative Tools
Click to open the folder
Go to Disk Defragment and Drive Optimiser
Click this option
Run the Defragment on your system.
This process can take a while to be patient
This process basically picks up all your files saved on your hard drive and moves them all together so it frees up space and memory on computer. Making your computer run faster and freeing up much needed space.
Disk Clean Up:
To run the Disk Clean Up you need to open the built in software. To do this follow these following simple steps:
Open windows (bottom left)
Go to Windows Administrative Tools
Click to open the folder
Go to Disk Clean Up
Double click to open
Select the drive to clean up (generally will be c:)
Click ok
It will then bring up all the things you can clear off you computer
Select all the file sections
Click ok
Then when asked click yes to delete these files.
It will then complete the process
This will get rid of all the files you don't need that is put in place when installing new software, deleted files or temporary files put in place when running Window Update.
Check your System Storage:
To check your system storage you need to go into your settings to check the free space you have on the system.
To look at this follow these simple steps to check what you have free:
Open Windows
Select Settings
Then click on System
Then on the left click storage
This will then check what storage you have left.
It will also give you options to delete temporary files.
Ideally you want as much space as possible to ensure your computer can save all those important documents etc.
If your running on under 20gb (check out my blog on Bits, Bytes, Kilobytes, Gigabytes and Terabytes for more information) of space left you may want to move some files off and save them in another place.
Windows Update:
The other most important thing you need to keep on top of is those all important Windows Updates that come through. Just like on a phone when you get system updates the principle is the same.
To run the Windows update just follow these simple steps:
Open Windows
Select Settings
Select Update and Security
Click check for updates
If any updates appear click on download and install and it will install the latest updates.
During this process you may need to restart your computer a few times for all the updates to complete. Sometimes they will allow you to reschedule these updates or postpone until your ready to finish the installation.
To finalise:
With all the above things it should help you to keep your computer in good health and keep it running at optimum speeds without giving you any issues.
As I put in above please check out my other blogs for more information on specific things I've mentioned above. As this will also help you to gain the best performance from your computer.
For this week that is all and I will be back next week with my next Midweek Wednesday IT Help and Advice Blog.
Enjoy having a fast and smooth working computer device and remember if it slows down again redo the processes above.
Have an amazing week and I'll be back next week with my next next midweek Wednesday blog.
Always remember you're stronger than you believe
Maria
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