Computer Maintenance

• Productivity Tips

    Your Windows*-based computer needs a small amount of regular attention to keep it running its best. Performing the tasks listed here (some can even be scheduled to take place automatically) will help you maintain your machine's performance.

Microsoft Update: the easiest critical maintenance you'll ever do.

    Software manufacturers are constantly on the lookout for problems ranging from bugs to security issues with their products. When they identify a problem, their programmers produce a software update that corrects it. Microsoft has made it simple to get these updates to you using the Windows Update and Microsoft Update services. (Windows* Update provides updates for only Windows, while Microsoft* Update gives you updates to other Microsoft software, like Microsoft Office*.)

 

    A new Windows computer is set to download critical updates (the ones that solve big functionality and security problems) automatically. If you want to change the automatic setting or manually check for updates, from the Start menu, click Windows Update or Microsoft Update, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Disk cleanup: like housecleaning for your hard drive.

   Over time, your computer collects junk, just like an overstuffed closet. And just like a closet, you can take back some of that space if you clean up your hard drive once in a while. Windows makes it easy with Disk Cleanup. To start the tool, from the Start menu, just click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup. The dialog box that appears will list several types of files you can delete to free up space on your hard drive.

    Select the appropriate checkboxes, and then click OK. This could take a while (maybe ten minutes or more) depending on what you select, but Windows will do the rest for you.

Defragment your hard drive: make things easier for your processor.

   Your computer constantly stores and deletes files on your hard drive. Over time this process can become disorganized, with files divided up into smaller and smaller chunks that are saved all over the place. To understand how this works, consider this example.

    The Windows Disk Defragmenter tool reorganizes all of your files so the chunks are put back together and the machine can run faster again. Running this tool is strictly manual in Windows XP*, but you can schedule it to run automatically in Windows Vista*. In either case, to launch the tool: from the Start menu, click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Defragmenter.

• Say you delete a file on your computer that's five kilobytes (5 KB), leaving a 5 KB chunk of empty hard drive space.
• Later, you save a 10 KB file. The computer wants to store that file in the 5 KB space it just freed up on the hard drive. It will save 5 KB of the file in that space, but if there is no empty space adjacent to that location, the computer will find somewhere else to put the other 5 KB.
• The file you just saved now exists on the hard drive as two 5 KB "fragments." That's OK, but over time, more and more files are divided into more and more fragments.
• When you open one of these files, the computer must gather the fragments from all over the hard disk, which forces the processor to work harder. Unfortunately, this additional work means your computer will work more slowly.

Windows Vista*: You can either run Disk Defragmenter with the Defragment now button or schedule defragmentation by clicking the Modify schedule button.

Windows XP*: To find out how fragmented the drives are, click the Analyze button. To defragment them, click the Defragment button.