FREE Computer Maintenance Instructions

DISCLAIMER: These instructions are in no way fool-proof or all encompassing. In no way should these instructions be relied upon as a guarantee that you will not accidentally damage your computer or lose data. 

Computer not running as fast as it used to?

Just performing / checking steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (shown below) may help to a degree. If these steps fail to get your computer running fast again, then a software repair or reinstalling Windows is likely the solution. If performing a Windows reinstall be sure you understand the pro's and cons of reinstalling Windows .

 

1 ) Is your hard drive getting full?  Let's see.... START > My Computer > hold mouse over the drive and right click "properties" > "General" tab If you've only got 25% of disk space remaining then you need to start thinking about freeing up space by deleting and / or migrating data, and /or deleting unneeded programs. Consider upgrading your hard drive for more space.  Once you get to 15% remaining space or less then you will start to experience computer performance problems.

2) Check for viruses on all hard drives

Firstly you should be running an anti-virus program on your computer (such as the freeware Microsoft Security Essentials) and one that is CURRENT (not expired).  To open the anti-virus program, usually you click the anti-virus icon located in the task bar (bottom right hand corner). 

3 ) Disc Cleanup

START > My Computer > Right click a hard drive > Select "Properties" > General tab > Disc Cleanup

4 ) Defragment hard drive(s) In order to perform a defragment, there should be at least 15% of free space remaining on the drive. If you are unsure you can check by analyzing the disc first... START > My Computer > Right click a hard drive > Select "Properties" > Tools tab > Defragment now > Analyze  If you have at least 15% free space remaining then proceed to defragment the drive... START > My Computer > Right click a hard drive > Select "Properties" > Tools tab > Defragment now 5 ) Hard drive(s) error checking START > My Computer > Right click a hard drive > Select "Properties" > Tools > Error Checking > Check now > check "automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" (This diagnostic will require a restart of your computer. You will see a blue screen as the diagnostic is running. This may take 30 minutes or more depending on the size of your hard drive. When the diagnostic is done the computer will resolve back to the desktop.) Why run an error check? Error checking is important to run once in a while (perhaps every 4 months or so) because this check will locate and "flag" any "bad sectors" that it may find on your hard drive. Then your computer knows NOT to write data to those bad sectors. Otherwise, if data is written to bad sectors, then that document file, critical Windows update or other file would be unreadable. The end result might be that a document file or photograph becomes corrupted and won't open or worse -- your whole computer could fail.

Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 above for any other hard internal drives that may be connected to your system.

 

6 ) Uninstall unused programs.

START > Control Panel > Add or remove programs > select programs that you no longer use and uninstall

If you are unsure of what a program does then just leave it alone.

 

ADVANCED COMPUTER USERS......

7) Remove other unneeded programs not found under "add or remove programs". Only advanced computer users should attempt to disable or remove these programs. Major problems can occur if you tamper with the wrong programs.

START > Run > type "msconfig" > Uncheck unneeded "Services" and " Startup" items.

8) Registry cleaning is risky and often may leave your computer running worse than before, or even cause your computer to fail to start. If fact experts say that registry cleaning usually causes more damage than good. CLICK HERE if you wish to read in more detail about this topic. Registry cleaning should only be attempted to resolve specific computer problems under certain circumstances or possibly as a last resort before reinstalling Windows. Often the only safe and effective way to clean up a cluttered registry is to reinstall windows.

If you are feeling brave you might try C Cleaner, which is free. Be sure to FIRST back up your registry by creating a "restore point". If C Cleaner causes major problems you can then restore the computer to the restore point, but note that often "damage" left behind by registry cleaning isn't evident until long after the cleaning.

START > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > Create Restore Point

Because of the risks of running a registry cleaner it is best to only pick and choose a few registry items to delete, depending on what problems you may be having with the computer.

DISCLAIMER: These instructions are in no way fool-proof or all encompassing. In no way should these instructions be relied upon as a guarantee that you will not damage your computer or lose data. 

 

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