Software: Maintenance

A computer is a wonderful thing, but unless you change computers yearly (sometimes even then), a little simple maintenance may head off problems in the future.  We’ll take the time this issue, and future months to mention some of the “high points”.

It’s always a good idea, to start with general hard disk cleaning (XP: Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Clean Up) and “defragging” (XP: Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter).  Of the two, run Disk Clean Up first.  It will empty your Recycle bin, delete many temporary files, etc. – nothing you have actually saved into your files, and compress some into smaller space.  Think of all the data you have saved, deleted, moved, etc.  They are all little chunks of data that can dot your hard drive.  Large files may even be stuck here and there, taking quite a bit of system resources to even open it.  With defragmenting, you are allowing your computer to bring all your bits together and order them in a much smaller block on the hard drive.