Good Computer Maintenance - Part One
Normally we think of maintenance as a chore something we have to do to keep things running smoothly & prevent problems down the road whether with our car house or computer. But with a PC maintenance can actually be fun … approached form right perspective.
Automatic Updates
The “joy” of computer maintenacne takes many forms. These days automation is the byword. Operating systems such as Microsoft Windows & Symantec’s Norton Interenet Security let you automatically keep crucial parts of your computer system up to date. It’s fun to watch the technology keep tabs on itself.
The security vulnerablilites of Windows are legion & this forces you to download patches & updates if you want to minimuze your exposure to hackers seeking to break into your system over the Internet.
You can run Windows Update periodically through Microsoft Internet Explorer which automatically detects which versions of Windows components you currently have installed and by checking with Microsoft’s site which have newer versions.
Or if you are running Windows XP Home Edition you can automate things even further by directing Windows to check for “critical updates” by itself at the frequency & time of your choosing. From the Control Panel go to System & click Automatic Updates to specify your settings.
Website Updates
You can keep your other software up to date by periodically checking the Websites of the respective manufacturers. Typically by pulling down the program’s Help menu you will quickly be directed to the site. But the Website VersionTracker www.techtracker.com/products does something similar with multiple programs for free whether you have a Windows PC or a Mac. The ad-supported site has 30,000 programs in its database. Pay versions starting at $24.95 automatically alert you when new updates of programs that you’re using become available.
Using Utilities
Staying up to date is crucially important these days in keeping the bad guys away from your computer & those using it. A good utility suite for this is Norton Internet Security www.symantec.com which combines such crucial tools as a firewall anti-virus program porn-blocker spam filter spyware detector & pop-up ad blocker. If you use the program make sure you let its LiveUpdate feature automatically keep your virus definitions & other components up to date.
Symantec’s other utility suite Norton SystemWorks is less useful & if you need system tools more powerful than those provided by Windows itself a better package overall is V Communications’ SystemSuite www.v-com.com .
SystemSuite includes tools for preventing & recovering from hard disk crashes recovering accidentally erased files completely uninstalling programs you no longer need & completely shredding sesitive files. It also has an excellent file manager PowerDesk that makes quicker work of copying moving deleting & otherwise manipulating files than Windows Explorer.
With today’s large & fast hard drives & more efficient operating systems one maintenance task that’s no longer as necessary is disk defragmenting. When working with files over time they invariably wind up stored in places at different locations on your hard disk. Running a defragmenter gathers up the pieces & places them together in one contiguous location.
Recent testing by the computer magazine PC World however showed that defragging no longer improves performance the way it used to. It still makes sense to defrag once in a while though unless it’s for a network file server there’s usually no need to buy a separate program for this beyond what comes with Windows itself.
So in all … even automated maintenance can be fun in that it automated & can leave you more time for other endevours.
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