Your computer is a machine just like a car, for example. And like your car, your PC requires frequent maintenance in order to function properly. People who never put oil into their car should hardly be surprised when it begins making funny noises some years down the line. By the same token, there are a few maintenance tasks you should do to make sure your computer keeps running cleanly.
Destroy Dust
Dust happens. This is an unfortunate truth about the universe. A secondary truth is that dust slows down computers. This means that you should take pains to get rid of dust as often as possible. Dust is the build up of skin cells and other detritus around the house, so it’s going to build up everywhere. It’ll happen on your keyboard, and on the inside of your computer, for example. Sometimes dust can get stuck in the fans in your computer and create horrible grinding noises. So if you open up the case from time to time and use a can of air, you’ll definitely be doing yourself a favor in the long run.
But the best way to deal with dust is with a microfilm rag and special cleaning fluid for sensitive areas. For example, it’s important that you make sure you don’t use just any older fluid or rag on an LCD screen, since they are very sensitive. Paper towels, for example, will tear up LCD screens if you aren’t careful. Instead, gently wiping them off with a cloth designed for the purpose will make it much easier to maintain monitors.
Make sure you don’t touch any components on the inside of your computer’s case unless you’ve thoroughly grounded yourself first. Static electricity will destroy open computer components in a hurry. This is one of the reasons why a can of air is used, since you can safely get rid of dust without touching anything.
Kill All Bad Programs
Malware and viruses will pop up on your computer over time if you don’t put in a concerted effort to destroy them. This could include popups, spyware programs giving your private information to third parties, or any number of other maladies that can affect your computer. By installing some anti-malware or anti-virus software and having it run on a regular schedule, you’ll maintain the sanctity of your computer and save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run.
There are many such programs out there, but make sure you research them first to make sure they are mainstream and respected companies like Norton and Spybot.
Update Your Drivers
You can download various programs to automatically keep track of and update your drivers, or you can look for the updates by hand if you want. But it’s important to keep updating them when they come out in order to make sure everything remains compatible with everything else, and also up to date with current standards. If you don’t maintain drivers, you could find yourself with programs that don’t work with sites online anymore. You could also find yourself with some very buggy programs in general since driver updates often remove known bugs.
These are just some of the basic maintain tasks you need to do to keep your computer up and running.
