subject: Computer Tune Up Basics Preventative Maintenance [print this page] Following a specific schedule when tuning your computer will make sure that your computer is performing at its optimized condition. This article will tackle computers working with Microsoft operating systems. Knowing when to install necessary software updates from Microsoft, anti-virus and anti spyware programs, windows firewall, and other application is critical in order to maintain the system functionality. Temporary internet files, startup items and processes running at the background should be constantly checked in order to make sure that the computer resources are being used efficiently.
A computer tune up is not only done every week or every month. Every time you turn on your computer you should bear in mind that there is an opportunity to check and tune up your computer. It is what we call preventive maintenance. After turning on your computer, check first if update notifications are present. Normally, Microsoft, antivirus and other programs will show an update notification box at the bottom right of the window. Install those updates first before you start your computer work. This guarantees that you are using the optimized software since updates fixes bugs and adds security to the system.
If you are working on your computer and you notice it is working slowly, run antivirus and antispyware programs just to make sure that you are not infected. Also check to see if there are processes that are working in the background that you think are unnecessary. Warning! Do not disable them without running a search in Google if the program is legitimate or not, it will cause some problems in your program or on the operating system itself. To check what processes are running all you have to do is press ctrl, alt and delete at the same time and it will show the task manager. Programs that automatically start when you turn on your computer will show at the start up items. Go to Start, then click Run, type in msconfig and under startup tab it will show the startup items. Again, if you are not familiar with the name, do a search in Google to see if you can uncheck it to stop from automatically turning on.
These simple steps will tune up your computer and will serve as preventive maintenance. Along with deleting temporary internet files from your browser and removing unwanted programs, this should make sure that the computer resources are being properly used and in effect this will make the computer processing faster.
