subject: Using Computer Maintenance Tools To Keep Your Computer At Peak Performance [print this page] Few things bother we computer users more than having our computers slow down on us. The amount of aggravation this causes is followed closely behind by a computer that gives us frequent errors and crashes. Of course, it is up to us to realize all computers are prone to slowdowns, errors and crashes and we really should accept it. However, because these things happen it is up to us to be, like a good boy scout, always prepared.
For those of us who like taking advantage of the many advantages PC's offer us over Macs, being equipped with a few computer tools is a necessity. Just letting the chips fall where they may is the other choice we have. This choice is the one that can get us into more trouble. The reason it may bring us trouble is because this decision to cross the computer breakdown bridge when we come to it could cost us a lot more money.
Considering the Cost
True, good computer maintenance tools such as spyware cleaners, registry cleaners and driver scanners will cost a few bucks upfront. Still, this cost will pale in comparison to the charge we may be faced with if we our computer fails to start up some day. When this happens we might never get all our files back. Sometimes, it is impossible to even put a price on the irretrievable information a computer failure brings about!
Probably the most important computer tool is a virus scanner. The good news is most of us already have one installed on our computers. The bad news is a lot of virus cleaners are great when it comes to getting rid of viruses but they don't do a good job cleaning out spyware. Make sure your virus cleaner is capable of cleaning all types of malware including spyware and adware. This is important because spyware will do more than just slow your computer down, it will also steal private information about you.
Information Flow
In order to keep your computer speeding along, it is just about mandatory you clean the registry at least once a week. This will keep corruption from forming in your operating system's registry. Registry corruption will impede the flow of information throughout your operating system. This will cause the computer to do its options more slowly than it should. Of course, the more corruption, the slower your computer will become. A heavily corrupted registry will cause computer errors, freezes and crashes.
There are several computer maintenance tools around these days, but another one you should consider having on hand is a driver scanner. Driver mismatches can develop for a myriad of reasons. One of these reasons is your operating system updates itself regularly, but your hardware's device drivers do not. The resulting driver mismatch will make your computer behave in much the same way a corrupt registry will.
I've seen cases where a computer was virus, spyware and registry corruption free and still the computer's performance was bad. Letting a driver scanner automatically find and repair the driver mismatch got these computers back up and running fast again.
There was a time isolating a driver mismatch was a time consuming and difficult job. Driver scanners take all the hard work out of this job. They make it a click and forget process. For this reason, driver scanners have a soft spot in my heart. Still, keeping a computer running at its full potential requires keeping viruses, spyware, registry corruption as well as driver mismatches from developing in the PC, and doing so requires using the right computer maintenance tools.
