PC Maintenance

How to keep your computer healthy

Areas We’ll Cover

Software Hard Drive Networking Hardware

Software

Update your Internet Browsers

e.g. Mozilla Firefox, MS Internet Explorer It’s important to keep up with browser upgrades The latest versions usually contain important security

fixes Firefox: Help Check for Updates… IE: Tools Windows Update

Software

How to safely uninstall software

Start menu Settings Control Panel Add or Remove Programs

Software - Unresponsive

Dealing with Unresponsive Software

Sometimes, software will freeze on you and you’ll get a “Not Responding” message

To shut it down:– CTRL + ALT + Delete– Task List– Choose application and End Task

Hard Drive

Maintenance - Defragmentation

A few times a year, you should defrag your computer Defragmentation reorganizes your computer’s

contents, placing files closer together and creating large areas of free space. This will make your computer faster.

Start Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter

Hard Drive

Maintenance – Disk Cleanup

Every few months, you should perform a Disk Cleanup to remove or compress non-critical files and clear space

Start Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Cleanup

Hard Drive

Maintenance – Recycle Bin

At least once a week, you should empty your Recycle Bin. Too many files in the bin can slow your machine

Right-click on the Recycle Bin Empty Recycle Bin

Hard Drive

Backup Your Data

Just wait until you lose a 10-page term paper – you’ll wish you had!

Methods of backing up:– Writable CD-R (650 MB) or CD-RW (700 MB)– USB Flash Drive: 8 MB – 64 GB– External Hard Drive (can be huge)

Networking

Anti-virus Software

Be sure you have software like Symantec Norton AntiVirus and keep it updated (it can be set to automatically update itself)

Will prevent or eliminate viruses or worms from messing with your machine

You can download this for free– goWMU– Student Services tab– Virus Protection Downloads window

Networking

Anti-spyware

Spyware can take partial control of your machine and send information about your activity over the web or will launch pop-up adds

Download and run Ad-Aware SE (free).

Networking

Stop Hackers

If you have fulltime access to the Internet you may be vulnerable to being hacked by other users

If you’re concerned, download a free firewall program like ZoneAlarm (free).

Networking

Safe email

Phishing scams– http://www.antiphishing.org/

Other scams– http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/– Search Google for others

Attachments and images embedded in emails

Hardware

Computers ain’t cheap – take care of them!

Monitor wipes Keyboard vacuum Remove dust from back Open and clean your mouse (ick)