|
| Home Maintenance SpyWare Security Anti-Virus |
|
|
|
|
Where general PC maintenance is concerned there is no one magic method or program to be used. I try to follow these general steps:
(caution is needed here as some programs store their uninstall feature in temporary folders) Most maintenance can be done from within Windows itself and without the use of third party applications; however, that just scratches the surface, and if we want to do a really good cleaning, a combination of extra applications will be needed. Most of the applications needed are available over the Internet in free, trial, and commercial versions. I may occasionally suggest a commercial product that I have tested and used or that I am still useing. These are NOT essential purchases by any means.
One really great utility that I use is "V-COM System Suite 5" (formally known as "Ontrack"). This Utility has a wide array of tool that work to do a thorough job of optimizing and cleaning. It has the capabilty to run diagnostic tests on all system components. It will recover lost files using the built in Easy Recovery program or the File Undelete. "System Suite 5" also supports scheduled back-ups of critical system files, so that in the event of a disaster your PC can be restored to a date you and time before the disaster occured. There are many other features in this program that would take the rest of this page to describe. If you want to know more about "V-COM System Suite 5" then you should really check out there website. To keep your hard drives from running out of space, you should start by removing programs you don’t currently use or won’t use at all in the near future. First, check if the program has an entry in the Add/Remove page of the Control Panel. If it does, uninstall it from there. Then delete any unnecessary remaining files or folders afterwards. If the program is not listed in Add/Remove and doesn’t have its own uninstaller, then most of the time it is okay to delete the program’s folder. (CAUTION: be sure to backup any important information first) There are some good free and paid tools that will remove stubborn programs or programs with the uninstaller missing.
Next, be sure to update Windows whenever an update is available. Microsoft has many security holes that hackers try to find and exploit constantly. All of Microsoft's operating systems have a built in feature that, (when turned on), will alert you when critical updates are available. To turn this feature on for your version of Windows, type the words "Critical Updates" in the help files, and follow the instructions. You may also update manually by going to the Windows Update site.
More to come..... |
