Essential Computer Maintenance Tips

Owning and operating a personal computer (PC) is in many ways similar to owning and operating a car. Similar to maintaining a motor vehicle by checking engine fluid levels, tire pressures, and regularly changing the oil, it is necessary to check for spyware and malware and make sure the computer hard drive is operating efficiently. Most people recognize these facts and install security programs like Norton, McAfee, or Kaspersky on their computers.

in addition to installing a good security program on your computer, it is necessary to do other things if you want your PC to run efficiently with no unexpected "crashes" or long boot-up times. I was experiencing these problems until my friend gave me tips on regular essential computer maintenance.

The first tip was to cleanse my hard drive of unwanted deleted files and temporary files. After that, he suggested several things to do for regular essential computer maintenance. These essential computer maintenance tips are explained in this article.

Essential Tips

I install a program on my PC which would take care of essential computer maintenance in addition to the Norton protection which I already have. The name of the program is Advanced System Care 15 which can be downloaded for free. This program scans for and repairs errors for 12 essential items for daily computer maintenance. The 12 items addressed in the program include spyware threats; registry errors; privacy issues; junk files; internet problems; shortcut errors; disc errors; disc optimization issues; registry fragments; performance issues; browser security issues; and security holes. Each one of these issues is discussed in this article.

Spyware Threats

According to a Paretologic.com article, spyware is software or applications that can collect and record your user information. This could be, for example, internet surfing habits, keystrokes, and private information such as usernames and passwords without your knowledge.

The capabilities of spyware can be manifested by displaying unwanted advertising or by recording your private data and transmitting it to a third party. Also, spyware can shut down your computer programs and modify or delete your files. It is also disturbing that spyware can download and install unwanted files such as computer viruses, worms, or trojans.

Registry Errors

Based on an article on pc-manager.org, the Microsoft Windows registry is a large database holding the settings and configurations of programmed applications. This registry is the recorder of all acts of the PC. Improperly uninstalled applications, viruses, trojans, spyware, and unnecessary files can cause registry errors. If these errors are not fixed, system and application crashes will occur.

Privacy Issues

Cookie proliferation is one of the most widespread privacy issues. Cookie software keeps track of your browsing habits and personal data. Most advertising networks and marketers rely on cookies to learn about you and your purchasing habits. Other privacy issues include the seizing of cloud data and location data betrayal. I have noticed this by seeing my smartphone record all of the locations I have visited when traveling.

Junk Files

According to an article in spamfighters.com, junk files are created by Windows and other programs that write temporary files to your hard disc. This is done during the installation of programs and when they are up and running to make sure the programs work. The big problem is that if these junk files are not removed from your hard disc, they waste important disc space for your computer to run optimally.

Internet Problems

Internet problems are present in the display of 4xx error messages and failed DNS lookup messages. They can also be caused by firewalls not allowing a connection to a network.

Shortcut Errors

Based on an article on Cheesesoft.com, shortcuts on a desktop or in the Start button help us to quickly and easily get the folders, files, and programs we need for work. When we click on a shortcut, however, and it isn't working, we will see an error message for a broken shortcut. A shortcut becomes broken when the file or program it points to has been removed or deleted.

Disc Errors

According to Webroot.com, following a defragmenting of your hard drive disc, if you still see subpar computer performance, you must repair disc errors on your hard drive. Hard disc errors are usually caused by power outages, hardware failures, poor system maintenance, viruses, or human error. A program like Advanced System Care 15 lists and corrects errors on the hard disc like bad sectors, lost clusters, and cross-linked files.

Disc Optimization Issues

According to answers.yahoo.com, disk optimization is a process in which the physical location of files on a hard disc is "streamlined." Files and metadata are re-arranged to improve data access times and minimize time moving a hard drive's head. Files can become fragmented over time as they are changed and saved and as the disc is filled with different parts of a single file stored in different locations on a disc. The process of collecting file fragments and putting them back together again is called optimization.