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Health &
Wellness For Your PC
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People
often notice their computers are getting slower and wish they would run
quickly again like when they were brand new. While that may not be completely
possible, performing some routine computer "Health & Wellness" procedures can
go a long way towards keeping your computer healthy and running like a spring
chicken.
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Keep "Germs"
Out
The first component of
a good computer wellness routine is to keep the “germs” out in the first
place. To do that, it’s important to have current, reputable software tools
that keep out viruses and spyware. Then you must read the owners manual and
use the tools as prescribed. Just as owning a vacuum won’t keep your carpets
clean, installing those tools won’t help much unless you understand and use
them on a regular basis. |
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Recommended
security tools
For home users, I
recommend that you have at least two additional utilities that don’t come with
Windows: one for anti-virus and another for anti-spyware, or even better, a
“bundle” or "suite" that includes both. Cox high-speed internet offers a free
security suite to users with at least Windows 98SE or later. It’s not the
most user-friendly package I’ve tried, but the price is right, and it’s better
than nothing or than running an outdated version of Norton or McAffee.
After
installing these tools, make sure you set them up for automatic updates (if
that feature is available). Then - - here’s the unpleasant part many people
overlook - - you must initiate a scan for viruses and for spyware at least
every other week (or weekly if possible). These scans can take a half hour or
more, depending on the size of your hard drive and how many files exist. You
can start the scan, and then return later to check the results. If you leave
your computer on all the time, running these scans can be set up on an
overnight schedule with many products.
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Hard Drive
Cleaning
It‘s also good to clean
your hard drive about once a month, and then run the defragment system
utility. To do this in Windows XP, click the Start Button > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Select the drive letter you want
to clean (usually C:). It will then calculate how much space you can free up
and give you a choice of the types of files to delete. Normally, you can
check them all and click OK. After Cleanup is finished, run the Defragment
utility found at Start Button > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools >
Disk Defragment. This process re-organizes your hard disk to make more
efficient use of free space. Defragging can take several hours, so consider
starting it before going to bed. Defrag needs exclusive access to your
hard drive in order to process, so turn off all other tasks you see in the
system tray (lower left by the time display). Right click on
these "systray" task icons and look for a menu option to exit or close
(however, not all icons in the systray can be closed).
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Let’s Recap
Daily or every few
days -
Download automatic updates to Windows and your security software and install.
Even if you have automatic updates turned on, depending on the scheduled
update time, if you turn your computer off overnight, they cannot run.
Weekly or bi-weekly –
Run anti-virus and anti-spyware scans. Remember, you must "vacuum out
any cobwebs" that have sneaked in despite your protection software.
Monthly or bi-monthly –
Clean your hard drive by running Disk Cleanup, followed by running Disk
Defragment |
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