How to increase your computer performance ?

Keep your computer or laptop running at peak performance with the following actions. You've had your computer or laptop for a few years. It's running fine, but things are starting to take a while to boot up or run. There are things you know you should do with some frequency ... but what are? How frequently? How much time is this going to take?

The following checklist should help you keep your computer in healthy shape . We suggest you add reminders to your Notes calendar with a link to this page, or print out this list and pin it up in a prominent place so you remember to keep it clean and healthy!

Do these things once a year

• Delete and Reorganize.

Archive common files that you use rarely use in some detachable hard-drive and delete from your computer hard-drive. Reorganize your remaining data files. This will reduce the clutter and free up a portion of your hard drive.

• Clean it .

Make sure that you unplug and remove the battery (if using laptop) before cleaning.Use nonflammable air dusters to get rid of the dust on the keyboard. The blasts of air remove some dirt, but tend to rearrange it, too. If a vacuum is handy, pull out the brush extension to get a deep clean between the keys.

Also grimy LCD screen isn’t just hard to read through, the dirt can seep into its innards. Use towels dampened with water to clean the LCD/Monitor, but if using a chemical to cut through some tough grime, look for monitor-only cleansers and avoid anything with ammonia.

If you don’t eat, drink or smoke around your computer, clean it once a year (otherwise, a quarterly cleaning is required.) Most cleaning tools don’t require much of an investment: paper towels, a brush extension for your vacuum, and access to a source of water.So it is very economical to clean your computer.Isn’t easy and economical ?

Do these things once a month

• Run a Disk Cleanup (allow 5 - 60 minutes)

There are a number of ways you can keep your Windows PC operating at top performance. Here is a list of some of the top ways to boost your performance:
1. Delete unnecessary files
Check My Documents or other files to delete information you no longer need
Run a Disk Cleanup
From the Start bar, select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
Highlight the appropriate drive > OK

Note: May take 5 - 60 minutes depending on hard disk size and number of files. I recommend the following suggestions on the pop-up window that follow:

Safe to mark for deletion:
Downloaded Program Files
Temporary Internet Files
Off-line Web pages
Recycle Bin (check the Recycle Bin first for a last chance to recover any files)
Temporary Files
WebClient/Publisher Temporary Files
Don't mark (unless you're sure):
Compress old files
Office setup files
Catalog files for the content indexer

• Defragment your hard drive to streamline access to your files (allow 15 minutes and run regularly)

Your hard drive slows down as files are spread all over the hard drive. This slows down the time it takes to read in any particular file, especially larger files. By defragmenting your hard drive, you are realigning the files contiguously so that they will be read much faster. This activity should be done once in a month without fail.To defragment your Windows workspace, do the following:
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
Highlight the appropriate drive and click on Defragment

Note: You can run the analyser if you wish, or just start defragment. If defrag has not been run for years you can get a huge improvement, but it could take a couple of hours during which the computer should not be used. It is worth running defrag monthly, when it only takes approximately 15 minutes.

• Clear your cache to improve performance and prevent screen freeze ups. Cache is tracked commonly within browsers.
  

Do these things once a week

Check for spyware.


Do these things Everyday

• Hold your laptops correctly. Hold laptops (especially when open) with two flat palms, supporting the under-side of the machine. Holding / grabbing / carrying a taptop by the screen, or by only one corner, can squish important internal pieces and speed up system failures.
• Unplug to keep your battery working a long time and shut down to give your system a rest.

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