Maintaining your Computer: The Basics

Today I'll be taking some time to talk about maintaining your computer. We all spend hours on our computers, and with applications like facebook, twitter, and any number of online video games, we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As with most things, this means we'll be putting more of a strain on our computers, and as such, as with our cars, from time to time our computers need to be maintained.

The nice thing about maintaining computers is that you don't have to bring it in to someone to have serviced, you can do it all yourself with a little know how, which we'll go over, and a few low-cost, but effective programs. Today we're going to cover the basics of computer maintenance and look specifically at a few things you can do on your own without the need for extra software.


NOTE: This is written using Windows XP sp 3 please check back later for Vista/Windows 7 instructions.

The first thing you will want to do every two weeks is to defragment your system.
Go to the Start menu.
Go to All Programs.
Go to Applications.
Go to System Tools.
Click on Disk Defragmenter.
Select your drive (in most cases this will be labeled c: )
Click on Defragment

This process will happen automatically from this point, it will basically organize all the files on your computer and in many cases will allow your computer to operate more efficiently. I also recommend doing this before you go out for the evening, or before you head out to work as this process can take some time, but it is well worth it.

Another great maintenance process to run is Windows Update. This process will make sure your windows system is up to date.
Go to the Start Menu.
Click on Windows Update.
Internet Explorer will open.
Click on Express.
Click on Install Updates.
Restart your computer if necessary.

That's all for now everyone. Check back for part two of this guide tomorrow.