subject: Does Your PC Need a PC Health Advisor? [print this page] Does Your PC Need a PC Health Advisor? Does Your PC Need a PC Health Advisor?
What is a PC Health Advisor?
Just like you go in for regular checkups to make sure that your body is healthy and to prevent illness, a PC health advisor is a software program designed to do the same for your computer. Computers age just like their human counterparts, with symptoms such as system slowdowns. Instead of aches and pains, computers experience error messages, lockups, and crashes. PC Health Advisor Software is used to diagnose and correct these issues.
What does a PC Health Advisor Look For?
Physician's run through a routine set of tests when performing checkups, and so does diagnostic software such as PC Health Advisor. While a doctor listens to your heartbeat, takes your blood pressure, and checks your reflexes, PC Health Advisor diagnostic software runs computer checks such as scanning for viruses, checking the hard disk, and testing memory. Most tools in this class include fixes for common problems. For example, if a virus is found, it's typically eradicated. Depending on what's available in the program, the utility may clean the Windows registry, defragment the hard disk, or clean out temporary files that are interfering with the computer's performance. The overall goal of a PC health advisor program is to evaluate and improve the computer's health.
Some Computers have a Built-in PC Health Advisor
If your computer runs Windows Vista or Windows 7, it has a built-in Performance Information and Tools center which acts as a PC Health Advisor . This center features the Windows Experience Index which rates your computer's components such as processor, memory, RAM, graphics, gaming graphics, and hard disk. Included in this center are links to other screens where you can improve the computer's performance by manually adjusting visual effects, indexing options, power settings, and disk cleanup. A performance manager and a real-time resource monitor are also available. While these tools are useful, they generally require a great deal of user interaction in order to dramatically improve performance. These tools are standalone system tools that are grouped together in the Windows Control Panel, not a dedicated utility that does everything automatically.
Which PC Health Advisor Utility is Right for Your Computer?
While the built-in defragmenting utility in Windows allows users to defragment the hard disk and the Disk Cleanup wizard makes it easy to delete temporary files, many computer users fail to perform these routine tasks because they're easy to forget about and a bit of a hassle to perform. Instead of relying on your memory and these clumsy tools, improve your computer's performance by installing a PC Health Advisor utility designed for the job. Many good computer optimization utilities exist - and they're easy to use. In fact, you can schedule regular scans, defrags, registry cleanings, and other tasks and keep your computer in the best shape possible. Look for a utility with features that appeal to you (such as scheduling, automatic updates, and automatic backups). In addition to features, pay attention to the software developer and the website where you purchase the product. Is the developer reputable? Is the download site safe and free of malware?
If you're not the do-it-yourself type, take care of your computer's health with automated health advisor tools.
