More Computer Maintenance Tips

Check and manually update your Windows copy, on a fortnightly basis	Microsoft Windows self-updates itself whenever you are connected to the Internet. However, it pays to check the Microsoft site once-in-a-while, to check out whether you have missed out any important update! Update once every week if you browse the Internet frequently or at least once in a fortnight, if you aren't a regular Net visitor.
Check and manually update other applications you use (such as MS Office/ Project/ Visio, Adobe Acrobat, etc.), on a fortnightly basis	Microsoft products are targeted by Hackers and other unscrupulous people, as the market share of Microsoft products is the highest in almost every software category. The share of Windows-based PCs is massive - 80-plus % or so - of all installed PCs worldwide. To secure your PC as well as you can against these unscrupulous people, you must update all the applications you have installed, on a regular basis. Check for updates every fortnight. Usually all software products have an ‘Update’ link or at least a link to their websites, under their Help MenuItem.
Run a good Antivirus program	Antivirus Programs are like Insurance: you appreciate their utility only when disaster strikes, but you aren’t insured… Virus Programs equip your PC to fight viruses and other undesirable programs. Today, a PC without a good Antivirus program could get infected by viruses in as little as a few minutes, when connected to the Internet! So whatever your budget, you need to set aside about US$100 (i.e., INR 4000/-) for a good Antivirus program.
Update your Antivirus program every day – or at least once every few days	Your PC is only as protected as the last Virus program update. Any of the many viruses that were developed since your last update can bring your PC down! And viruses – both new ones as well as different strains of existing ones – are created almost every day!
Run a decent Anti Spyware Program	Like Viruses, Spyware can bring your PC down, as well as rob you by stealing information about your Credit Card, Bank or Paypal account, while you use the Net. Spyware developers write programs that find their way into your PC, collect and send out your Credit Card information, Bank and Paypal account details including Passwords, Telephone Number, Address, e-Mail Address Book, etc. You can imagine the rest…
Update your Anti Spyware Program every week	Check weekly for new updates to your Anti Spyware program. New Spyware is written almost every day and a non-updated Spyware program could let the latest Spyware wreak havoc on your PC, by passing on your private and personal information to it's developers
Run a decent Disk Utility Program to recover from unexpected disasters/ accidents	Disk Utilities are covered under the Software link, in the Menu above (section to be added soon)
Run a decent Disk Defragmenting Software - a Disk Defragmenter is one of the most overlooked! With age (and/ or more files/ programs that are installed/ uninstalled), Disk Defragmentation becomes more and more important!	Disk Utilities are covered under the Software link, in the Menu above (section to be added soon)
Run a Personal Software Firewall, if you are willing to train it for your habits. Caution: You need to train your Personal Firewall very carefully, else you defeat its purpose!	We do not plan to cover Personal Firewalls for now...

Whether your PC continues to run trouble-free or inefficiently depends neither on your hardware or your software programs alone: it depends on both! To illustrate, a PC used for e-Mail and Browsing the Internet alone may be very fast for these tasks. Put it to the task of making Engineering Drawings using a high-end Engineering Design application and it would refuse to go beyond the program's splash screen! So is this PC performing non-optimally?

Your PC's processor	Older processors like the Celeron/ Pentium I/ II and III are slow, the latest ones such as the Pentium 4/ Pentium D/ Centrino Duo run significantly faster. Again, if you upgrade your Operating System (or other main application programs) without upgrading your processor and/ or RAM, your PC may not be running optimally.
The amount of RAM (Random Access Memory, or simply, Memory) installed on your PC	To run your Windows XP-based PC satisfactorily, the minimum memory (called RAM - for Random Access Memory) requirement is 512 Megabytes (MB). We recommend you have 1 GB of Memory, though. To run Windows Vista, you need a minimum of 1 GB RAM. We recommend that you have 2 GB RAM, though. So if you upgraded your Operating System (or other main application programs) without increasing the amount of Memory (also called RAM - Random Access memory), your PC may not be running optimally.
A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) with dedicated Video Memory	Today's PCs have Graphics processing abilities built into the Motherboard. However, the performance of the in-built graphics processor would only be good for non graphics-intensive tasks. A dedicated Graphics Processing Card (example nVidia/ Radeon - these are called GPUs, i.e., Graphics Processing Units) with 128 MB or more of Video memory, considerably boosts the performance of graphics-intensive applications on your Windows-based PC! GPUs are cards that need to be fixed inside your Desktop PC. So if you are running graphics-intensive programs like Photography applications/ Engineering Design and Drafting programs/ Film Editing programs/ Video-rich Games, etc., these applications could be choking your main processor as well as your in-built Graphics processor. The solution (at least for a Desktop PC) is to add a dedicated GPU, with its own Video Memory, to your Desktop PC. As far as Notebooks are concerned, you need to decide whether you require a dedicated GPU, or whether you can make do without one, sharing Video Memory with your Notebook's main RAM. However, Notebooks with GPU and dedicated Video RAM cost at least 25% more! Unlike Desktops, you CANNOT add a GPU to your Notebook at a later date!
The number of start-up programs you run	Start-up programs show up as tiny icons on the right side of your Windows Start up Bar. The more the start-up programs, the slower your Computer becomes. This can be a real pain, especially if you do not have a great amount of memory or if you have an older processor. The screenshot you can see on clicking the link, PC Maintenance/ Quick Startups shows you my Startup bar, containing 18 icons and the Windows Update icon on my Startup Bar. While there is no ideal number of start up programs, the best rule here is to have only those startup programs that you really need and that, obviously, depends on YOU! The older your Computer and/ or the less RAM you can spare, the more stingy you need to be, with your Startup programs!
Your Hard Disk capacity & how much of it is available for use as the Paging File (also called Virtual Memory)	A Paging File is used by Windows-based PCs, to speed up overall performance. When you open a large application, the data already in the PC's physical memory (i.e., RAM) is written to its Hard Disk as a Paging File (also called Virtual Memory). Thus physical memory RAM is freed up for the newly-opened application, optimizing Windows performance. It is a good policy to let Windows manage its own performance settings. This is the default setting as well, so there is no need to change it. The link PC Maintenance/ Fine-tuning Virtual Memory shows in the startup bar. It explains the sequence of steps to reach these settings, if you want to check out your own settings Entry-level Hard Disks come with 120 or more Gigabytes (GB) storage these days. It is recommended that you have at least 2 GB free space on each of your Hard Disks, for your Windows-based PC to run optimally. So again, if you have added large programs, upgraded your RAM, changed to a faster processor but have not added a roomier Hard Disk, your PC may not be performing optimally!
The degree of fragmentation of the files on your Hard Disk(s)	Windows does not write your files (or the program files, when you install a program) in a contiguous manner. Over a period of time, files can and do get heavily fragmented. Large files may even be cut up into hundreds of fragments and could be spread across the platters of your Hard Disk! The more the file fragmentation, the longer it takes the Hard Disk's Actuator to seek and find the date it is searching for. Thus, the slower your computational experience. Hard Disks therefore need to be de-fragmented periodically, so that the amount of fragmentation is kept under control. Windows comes with a built-in Hard Disk Defragmenter which has very basic features. Norton 360 also comes with a very elementary Hard Disk Defragmenter (Optimizer). These do not really speed up your Hard Disk. The Best Hard Disk Defragmenters optimize the layout of Folders on your Hard Disk, instead of merely defragmenting your data and program files. In addition, they let you specify the order of files under each Folder as well as move the Windows Paging File, so that your Computer is speeded up as much as possible. Some of the heavy weight Hard Disk Defragmenters are shareware and may be downloaded freely from the Internet. This is NOT to say they are Freeware - they are Trialware that will simply stop functioning, once your trial period (15 days to 30 days) is over! Here are some of the best Hard Disk Defragmenters: you will find more information about Hard Disks and Defragmenters here: Norton SystemWorks Professional - US$99 for the Premium Edition. Download the 15-day Trialware by clicking here: The product Norton Disk Doctor has been around since the time of DOS. It is a tried and trusted product that is currently integrated with the Norton Suite of Applications. Over the years though, the product has somehow lost the bells and whistles that it had pioneered - today, there are dedicated Disk Optimizer products with more features, at cheaper prices. If you are looking for a basic Disk Optimizer with a host of other features, Norton SystemWorks Premier is excellent value for money indeed! Abelssoft JetDrive 2008 - 30 Euros for Professional Edition and 40 Euros for Ultimate Edition. Download the Test edition by clicking here: This is a product from a relatively-unknown vendor. However, its German origins are clearly visible in its slick interface - it is unusual to find a product that has such a beautiful interface... Interface isn't all you get with JetDrive - you also get a powerful Disk Optimizer that presents you a detailed report of the operations it has performed, at the end of its operations. We have found JetDrive to be a stable, feature-rich product that is quite a bargain for the money you spend on it! Diskeeper Corporation's Disk Defragmenter - This is yet another shareware that you may download and use free for 30 days. Download the 30-day Trialware by clicking here: If you like it, you need to pay US$ 30 (for the Home Edition) to keep running it. While Disk Defragmenter's interface is neither as attractive nor as easy to use as JetDrive's, it has excellent features. It even runs in the background (consuming a wee bit of memory in the bargain) and monitors file fragmentation, even as you dodge bullets while trying to get to the next level of your favorite shoot-em-up Computer game! Raxco PerfectDisk 2008 - Yet another Disk Defragmenter, PerfectDisk 2008 has all the features, bells and whistles that you could ask for. Automatic Defragmentation scheduling of both the Hard Disk and Removable Drives (such as your USB Drives) are all possible. So too is defragmenting Folders, system files, Windows Page file, etc. This is a top-of-the-line Disk Defragmenter - though it does not have as many Charts and Reports that inform you just how much time has been shaved off your Hard Disk's time to get data as Disk Defragmenter, it does present you with clear figures of the number and percentage of fragmented files before and after defragmentation. We have also observed that PerfectDisk gives the best defragmentation performance. PerfectDisk comes in seven major editions - slightly confusing and daunting, to the first-time user. We recommend the Professional version. Download the 30-days Trialware of PerfectDisk 2008 Professional for Home users by clicking here and the Business edition by clicking here.
Whether your Windows Registry is optimized	Your Windows Registry file is constantly changing, as you run your machine, install and uninstall programs. It also contains vital information, without which your Computer would refuse to boot up! A sub-optimal Registry would cause extremely long startup and shutdown times at best, frequent Computer freezes and errors loading/ running programs and a crashed machine, at the worst. Hence, it is wise to invest in a Registry Defragmentation and Optimization solution! Read more about the Windows Registry by clicking here.

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