How to Maintain Computers in a Monthly Fashion

Many average users of the computer only use it for email, browsing the internet, and sometimes chatting and paying bills. But sometimes when just doing your normal routine, your computer may start to slow down or have errors.

Some users will immediately call up their most technically inclined friend for assistance. But sometimes even then, they won't know the solution to the problem. So they call up the local computer shop and geek crew for an estimate. Once quoted $70-140 per hour, they immediately hang up and have to make a tough decision: Let the problem persist and hope it goes away after a few restarts, or get ready to open their wallets as far as they will go.

Fortunately, there are people out there who can help you solve your problem for only $40 per hour, but even then you get pretty lucky the person is who they say they are. I am that person. I am an honest individual who is what many call a geek and can fix almost anything when it comes to personal computers and small business networks. But this article isn't about me, it's about some of the things I do and am willing to tell you about the procedures for you to do it yourself and keep your computer running smoothly and hopefully without as many errors as before.

Now, after normal wear and tear of computers being used day in and out, the computer guts will sometimes wear out. This is normal, just like the human body getting old, except computers only last anywhere from 2 seconds (when something must have gone wrong in the factory build of the computer), all the way up to years and years on end and sometimes even up to 20 years these days!

But occasionally, computers will slow down. Sometimes it's a user error when people get used to such a fast speed that when their computer is run for so long, people often see it as getting slower and slower. Truth is that you are just getting used to the speed. Why not install some more memory or upgrade the CPU? Sounds complex huh? It can be.

Here are some normal and typical things you can do to keep your computer running healthy, safer, and more enjoyable knowing you are taking care of it and keeping out a lot of bad things.

-Defrag the hard drive. What this means is taking parts of files on your hard drive (or storage space) and putting them in a more sequential order so the computer can read programs faster without thinking as much. Over time, when we add files and delete files, in sometimes about a month's time, the deleted files get overwritten by new ones and sometimes that space that was trying to be overwritten wasn't big enough, so the computer takes the tail end of the new file and places it elsewhere. This is called a fragmented file. When defragging the hard drive, the program takes the fragmented files and moves them around to work smoother and faster, thus making your PC a little faster and more efficient. This program can be found in "Start">All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragment

-Cleanup the C: Drive. With the program called "Disk Cleanup," you can remove temporary internet files, files collected from all around, downloaded and saved images from WebPages, and much more. Sometimes when browsing the web, your computer will download the images and certain pieces of the webpage that you went to and store it in what we call a cache. It temporarily holds the pieces until you visit the page again, and it loads everything on the page a lot faster. Sometimes though, overtime it collects quite a lot of files, and this should be emptied from time to time. This program can be found in "Start">All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. It is very useful for speeding up your computer a bit with the sacrifice of the system having to download all the files over again. But it's pretty quick about it, you most likely won't even notice!

-Run Spyware Eliminators. Programs cost a lot of money just to maintain your computer. Thing is, they shouldn't! A lot of people know, and now you know too: the best anti-spyware programs are free. They are free to download off the internet, and all come with free updates as well! Programs such as Spybot: Search and Destroy eliminates Trojans and is very aggressive towards deleting certain cookies as well as blocking WebPages that are known for bad and illegal content. Ad-Aware is pretty famous as well. Many people don't think it's very effective, but truth be told, when you run SpyBot along side with Ad-Aware, you will most likely have eliminated more than 99% of spyware from your system. These programs are free for download. Just Google their names and you will pick them right up. Programs such as Spy Sweeper cause more problems than it actually fixes. Sometimes the program will even slow down your computer to a crawl, and also tell you there is spyware on your machine when there really isn't just to fool you into thinking it's a great program. Don't pay for these programs, download them for free!

-Run you're Anti-Virus! What? You don't have one? Well don't worry, the geeks of the internet are here for your rescue! There is yet another free program called AVG Free. It is a free anti-virus program with daily updates, daily scans, and is very persistent with keeping up to date and eliminating threats or neutralizing them. Norton, McAfee, Bit Defender, and many more different pay anti-viruses are also very effective. Make sure to be running these scans once a week to once a month. This is very advisable to keep junk off your machine and running smoothly.

There are many other programs out there, but experiment, never pay for anti-spyware programs, and run these suggested programs at least once a month to a week. This will ensure your computer a longer and safer life. But there is still always a chance something could go wrong :0( but when that does, you can always call me. =)