PC Housekeeping

Illegal operation. No, we haven’t gone onto the black market to have our appendix removed or hip replaced. It’s an all too common response from our humble desktop PC (or laptop) when it can no longer cope.

Psychologists say you can tell the state of someone’s mind from the state of their desk (I’ve had it then). You can also tell a lot about someone’s attitude to ICT by the state of their computer. Whilst the techies (and those with ICT-OCD) have pristine systems, many of us are a little slacker in our computer housekeeping. We’re accidents waiting to happen.

Just as you wouldn’t drive a car for long without regular oil changes, filling up with fuel or an annual service, so a computer needs a bit of tender loving care and attention. Looked after properly, it will give you years of service, run smoothly when you need it to and make your life easier.

But who needs more responsibility? Well, here’s the quick guide to what you need to do, bearing in mind your other more interesting and important commitments…

  1. Keep it clean. This doesn’t mean a regular dust (doesn’t hurt though) or using the CD tray as a coffee cup holder (please don’t!). It means keeping an eye out for nasty infections, treating any you find and using the proper protection. We’ll be featuring ICT security in a couple of months but for now think (a) Firewall, (b) Anti-virus [which MUST be up to date and switched on] and (c) regular Anti-spyware checking. Avoid downloading things from websites you don’t trust 100% and above all keep away from pretty screensavers.
  2. Back it up. Yes, back ups are boring and time consuming but might just save your organisation. Most servers can be set up to copy automatically to tape each day/night. Individual files can be copied to an external hard drive or DVD-rewriter or even a USB key. You don’t have to copy the whole system all the time but keeping your key and recent files in a safe and secure place will save time and money when a problem occurs.
  3. Keep an eye on how much email you have. We all get too much email (whether legitimate or spam). Like all good information managers, we should delete what we don’t need and archive the rest. So how come you’ve got 1500 emails in your Inbox? Stop using email for storing information (especially contact details) – it won’t be that easy to find when you want it anyway. Remember the 3 R’s. Read, reply, aRchive.
  4. Use folders effectively. Storing all your files in My Documents is a bad idea and slows down the system. File everything in its proper place (project names, sub folders etc.). Even cleaning this up can make a big difference to your system speed. If there are files you no longer need, archive them to CD or DVD or a removable hard drive.
  5. Make sure your system software is up to date. Whilst you probably don’t want to buy the first version of software released by a supplier, you should make sure you keep up to date with ‘patches’ (the additions software suppliers release to fix bugs or problems). Windows and Microsoft software are frequently updated (see update.Microsoft.com for more details) but pretty much all your software will be patched, updated or upgraded at some stage (try Help > Check for Updates on the top menu bar of some of your applications).
  6. Get rid of software you no longer need. Most software has a means of uninstalling itself or you can do this via Windows. You should take care with this though as you might be uninstalling something vital for the system.
  7. Disk defragmentation. It sounds painful but its an essential way to keep your system running smoothly. The problem occurs when you delete files and new files are copied to the disk in ‘pieces’ rather than whole chunks. Imagine having a ten page report with each page filed in a different part of your office – ‘defrag’ helps bring all the pieces together (well, it does on the disk, you’ll have to sort your office out yourself).
  8. Empty your recycle bin. Delete doesn’t really mean delete, it’s the electronic equivalent of throwing it in the bin (you can fish it out later if you really want to).
  9. Clean out your computer’s temporary internet files, cookies etc (all the trash you accumulate whilst browsing the web) and temporary files accumulated by Windows.
  10. Even better , get some help to set up your PC so that these tasks are automatic. After all, if the computer can do its own housekeeping, why should you waste your time on it.

If, after all that, you still feel like you’re stuck on a traffic jam on the M25 on a wet November day, it’s probably time to install more memory and/or a bigger hard drive or buy a new PC. Whichever option you go for, remember to treat the new (or revamped) PC with a bit more TLC and it will reward you for years to come.

Some useful resources

Spyware Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Easycleaner http://www.toniarts.com/ecleane.htm (can cause problems when used with Microsoft Office XP)

Dustbuster http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1182

Disclaimer
Deleting files is a serious business. ALWAYS make sure you back up your system and data before making any changes to it.


Simon Davey
Preponderate.net
simon@preponderate.net

More Articles

web design & technology by Futurate