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How to Maintain Your Computer
 Think of a computer like a car. You have to do oil changes, check the tires,and get it inspected every so often to make sure that things stay running well. If you don’t, small problems can become big problems further down the road. Forexample, a lot of people wait until they hear weird sounds coming from the motorbefore they do any preventative maintenance on their vehicle. Then they take it tothe shop and a mechanic says, “You’ve burned the motor inoperable because younever filled the oil.”
Understand the Basics
Here are the first steps to computer maintenance. Compare the way yourcomputer’s data is stored and retrieved to a library. If there was only one librarianto find, put away, and retrieve all the books then the job would be tough for him/herand you’d have to wait a long time for him/her to get around to helping you. This iswhat your computer used to be like. The C: (C drive) was the library – cluttered,disorganized. Windows XP had to take lots of time moving your programs around,closing them, opening them, and keeping track of them. Over time, withdownloading, installing, and uninstalling different software, this bogged down theperformance of your computer.When I reinstalled XP, I made two partitions that you’ll have noticed: The C:and the D: Making a separate drive for Windows is like making a small area insideyour library, with its’ own librarian, that is dedicated to one function – efficientoperation. On your C: I have installed Windows XP, your Security programs, andPrograms that will permanently stay on the computer. All your other data – music,documents, pictures, video, games, applications that look interesting so you’retrying out – should be put on the D: This allows the C: to run with the mostefficiency and speed. Windows doesn’t have to take any extra steps when you firstturn on the computer – this gets you the fastest load time.
Cleaning:
When you download, install, and uninstall programs or applications – evenopen and close music files and documents – you leave behind fragments of spaceon the drive where they were located (C drive or D drive). These slow down yourcomputer when collected over time, and they are the things that are cleaned up in aDisk Defrag or defragmentation. It’s something that most people do only once they
 
“hear the motor making noises.” You should do this a lot more regularly if you wantto maintain the efficiency of the computer.I installed a program called Advanced Windows Care (quick launch bluebutton that has a big C on it). It’s a cleaner, designed to regularly maintain yourwhole computer. Click the “Care!” button and it will automatically run “MaintainWindows” and “Diagnose System.” You should additionally run “Disk Check” and“Disk Cleaner” from the “Utilities” tab.Anytime you install or uninstall large programs or software, you should runAdvanced Windows Care. Additionally, you should run it at least once a weekregardless of what you do on the computer. It’s a great program, and you can neverrun it too often.
Organization – Important!
A lot of accidents, bog downs, and mysterious problems can be prevented if you keep your data organized. A computer can be kept tidy and orderly, like abedroom, or it can be trashed with files hanging over every chair and clutterblocking the pathways. Here’s some things you can do to keep organized.-
Keep your data in appropriate folders
– Music in My Music,Documents in My Texts. Make subfolders and keep things so that you caneasily access them. The environment a person keeps can sometimes be areflection of that person’s inner self. (Sorry to go all New Agey on you!)-
Don’t put data on the C Drive
– your C drive and the programs withinit, must remain isolated from the rest of the computer to maintainefficiency and order.
Only permanent programs
, things you know you’llalways want to have, should be installed on the C drive. Documents,Music, Video, Games, and applications-you-may-or-may-not-keep shouldgo on the D drive.-
Don’t put anything on the Desktop
- The desktop, being part of the Cdrive, uses continual system resources. Putting icons and shortcuts on itwill slow your computer, increase your start up time, and increase thetime your programs take to open.-
Download all items to one place
– I’ve made a Downloads folder andset-up Firefox to download into that folder. Take things from there to itsappropriate folder if you want to keep it.-
Only one program should stay running in the background
– theanti-virus. Avira Antivirus is already installed, running, and always beginsat start-up. When you’re done using a program and you close it, double
 
check the TaskTray (bottom right corner with the little icons) to make surethat the program is really shut down. You can usually right click one of those icons and there’s an “Exit” command to close the program. Closingany program there besides the Anti-virus program will do no damage andis perfectly fine.
Downloads:
A general rule of thumb is to stop yourself from installing two kinds of thesame program. If you use iTunes then don’t install Winamp or Windows Mediaplayer updates. If you use VLC player (A multi-region, multi-format, open source,media/DVD player which I’ve installed for you) then don’t install PowerDVD or anyother Movie-playing application. While it’s all right to try new programs, rememberthat only permanent programs should be installed on the C drive. Things you’re notsure if you’ll want to keep – go ahead and try them out, but install them to the Ddrive.For safety’s sake, do not download something that you’re offered while net-browsing – unless it is from Microsoft Corporation (even then be aware that some jerks are good enough to fake an “official looking” trick – keep an eye on your anti-virus after you download anything, and check the file). Sometimes you’ll need newversions of Flash player, Java, or other net-related structuring – these you’ll need todownload as well, if you want certain web pages to work.If you’re ever unsure, try and scan it with your anti-virus program beforedownloading it. Whatever you do, if you don’t know what it is, don’t run it. Justsave it to the Downloads folder and then scan it with Avira (right-click and there’san option to “Scan with Avira”). I scan anything I’m even remotely suspicious of.
Security:
 The anti-virus stays running all the time, and you should only close it whendoing some deep cleaning – like a registry clean on Advanced Windows Care. Eventhen, “closing it” is as easy as right clicking the little icon and unchecking “AviraGuard enable.” You should not install another Anti-virus program – two should neverbe on any one computer. There will always be major conflict problems. The anti-virus will update virus and malicious software definitions every dayat a scheduled time (and leave you with an advertisement that you should justclose. It’s the cost you have to pay for using a free antivirus). I also scheduled it torun a full system scan every Sunday at 12:00. If the computer is not on, orsomething, don’t worry. You can run a manual full system scan anytime you like bydouble clicking the icon and doing “Scan system now.” You can change thesescheduled times, if you like, from within Avira at View>Administration>Scheduler.
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