1) Defrag Your Hard Drive

Imagine what your office would look like if you never filed anything alphabetically. Suppose you just stuffed everything in the file cabinet with no “system”. Well, next time you wanted to find something, you’d probably have to open a lot of drawers and look in a lot of file folders to locate that important document, wouldn’t you? You’d eventually find it, after all it’s in there somewhere, but it could take a lot of time.

This is similar to what happens to your computer. Files get opened and then saved in the next available open space on your hard drive. The process of defragging your hard drive rearranges all the scattered information and sorts it logically. Defragging your hard drive can make your computer run faster and extend the life of your hard drive. You should defrag your hard drive about once a month.

This process takes awhile so you might want to run it overnight.

Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter Select drive C > Click Start

2) Clean Up Your Hard Disk

This process is a lot like taking out the trash. It deletes temporary Internet files, temporary program files and empties the recycle bin.

Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System tools > Disk Clean Up

3) Install An Anti-Virus Program

A virus checker can save you a lot of headaches with your computer. It’s much easier to prevent a computer virus than to deal with it after you’ve got one. My virus checker catches and deletes a lot of e-mail viruses for me. It automatically scans and quarantines any infected files, rendering them harmless. Norton and McAfee both make good ones. Don’t forget to update the virus definitions periodically.

http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_9xnt/

4) Update Your Operating System With The Latest Security & Bug Fixes. FREE

The process is simple and fast. You’ll get a list of files for which newer versions are available. You probably won’t need all of them, but the descriptions make it easy to pick and choose the ones you need. The most important ones are found by clicking on the link that says “critical updates”.

Start > Settings > Windows Update (Takes you to the Microsoft Windows update website) Click the link labeled “Scan For Updates”

5) Scan Disk

This feature checks your files for errors and fixes your computer when you are having problems. These errors usually occur when your computer crashes and has to be restarted. Run it every two weeks to verify that your computer is error free.

Double click on “My Computer” from your desktop. Right click on C drive > select “Properties” > click “Tools” In the Error Checking Status Box, click “Check Now”. Check “Thorough” and “Automatically Fix Errors” Under “Options” for “Thorough”, select “System And Data Areas” and click “OK”. Click “Start”

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