Basic Computer Maintenance and Best Practices PDF

BASIC COMPUTER MAINTENANCE AND BEST PRACTICES Computer maintenance is divided into two (2) distinct part: Hardware 1. Use the computer more often – Non usable computer may cause problems on computer hardware because of corrosion and it deteriorates for computer p...

BASIC COMPUTER MAINTENANCE AND BEST PRACTICES Computer maintenance is divided into two (2) distinct part: Hardware 1. Use the computer more often – Non usable computer may cause problems on computer hardware because of corrosion and it deteriorates for computer parts composed of integrated circuits, capacitor, etc. and boards. Constant usage of computer may prevent the corrosion for electrolytic capacitor needs a voltage present to maintain the thin film that separate the aluminum foil. 2. Ventilation – CPU and other integrated circuits generates lots of heat when used, that’s why any kinds of fan exist in our computer. No proper ventilation may cause overheating of processor and other integrated circuits in computer 3. Regular cleaning – Dust and dirt may cause our peripherals or integrated circuits damage. Wipe the dust on flat surfaces using an alcohol and clean paint brush for hard to reach part areas or blower it the internal parts. DO NOT USE VACUUM to clean because some small parts may easily detached on our computer. No display on monitor on our computer screen but your computer is turning-on? Sometimes cause of a static electricity produce by our RAM/memory that needs to be clean. Rubbing a good pencil eraser or alcohol on memory on its bronze part is a good practice for computer hardware maintenance. Software 1. Update the system software and application software – updating your system and application software is a basic method of maintaining computer software. There are some software that needs to be updated anytime because of some fixed bugs or errors on their application. Software maybe need updates also because of the new features of the application that it helps enhances the performance. If the software is outdated, a compatibility issue to latest other later software may occur that results of some error or even make the performance of the computer slow. 2. Disk free spacing – The following are the best practices to maximize the disk free spacing on the computer:  Removing files. Remove files such as image, video, document file, etc. from folders that you no longer needed. This helps also to minimize the scanning time of your anti-virus program.  Disk Cleanup. The “Disk Cleanup”utility in Microsoft Windows is a useful tool that helps cleaning up the unnecessary files on your  computer such as “Downloaded Program Files”, “Temporary Internet Files”, “Delivery Optimization files”, etc.  Uninstalling programs. Uninstalling program twice annually is a good so that the load of computer memory and hard drive can be loosen up. 3. Back-up - Always do back-up of your important files to another hard drive, external drive or maybe in through cloud for we might don’t know when will be our computer parts being damage. 4. Scan regularly using Antivirus – Install an antivirus program in your computer so that you can scan your files regularly. This helps detect and remove viruses and other kind of malicious software (Malware), a file that can harm your computer or files. Purchase a license anti-virus program to avail full security and features of it but with the money constraints a free one is a way better than no anti-virus at all as a protection of computer. Scan once a week if you are heavily expose to downloading of any files such as video, music, images, especially the free ones. Scan once a month if you’re not that expose on those areas, if you are the only once using your computer. The more your computer exposes to web/internet or the more person using it, the more susceptible your computer in harm. 5. Disk optimization – Disk Defragmentation or Disk Optimization is a Microsoft Windows utility tool where you can perform to compress and/or organize your files on your hard drive. You may run this utility tool once a week for a better performance of your computer. You can schedule also the disk optimization to your most preferred time.