How to Make Your Computer Happy

A computer isn’t on the same level as a car, but still requires a certain amount of monthly maintenance in order to keep it happy and healthy. If you want to keep your computer working for a long time and get the maximum use out of it, maintenance is an important task you should be doing. Maintaining your computer is not a hard chore to do, you could take it to a tech shop where they will do it for you, but it’s really not hard to do it at home. Follow these tips for an easy DIY maintain your computer at home.

Give Your Computer a Complete Cleaning- Dust, dirt, and other debris are drawn to computers thanks to the static electricity computers emulate. Dust and dirt easily collect in crevices such as the ones found on your keyboard and cooling fans. Often this goes unnoticed for great amounts of time, and can greatly damage these parts of your computer or laptop. Leaving your keyboard and cooling fans clogged can lead to overheating and can cause overheating. Taking care of this issue is simple if you have the know-how. Simply use a can of compressed air to blow all the dust and dirt away. Cleaning your monitor is another important step in the cleaning process. Our computer screens are constantly being touched, especially if you have a touchscreen laptop, and smudges of oil and dirt are left over from our fingers. To clean your computer monitor, the easiest way is to use anti-bacterial wipes, in fact, it’s a good idea to give your whole computer a wipe down with anti-bacterial wipes.

Check and Organize Cords- We have so many devices plugged into our computers. Printers, speakers, cameras, microphones, and scanners all contribute to the massive tangle of cords found behind most computers. This tangle of cords is not only ugly but could also be dangerous and potentially be slowing down the performance of your devices. The best way to go about organizing your cords is to start by unplugging them all. You can group them in different sections and then use a twist-tie to bundle them up. Plugging them back in is a good way to ensure that all the cords are plugged in securely so your devices are sure to work properly.

Cleanup Your Computer’s Insides- Taking care of the inside contents of your computer is arguably the most important part. Run a full system anti-virus scan to make sure your system is free of any viruses or malware. Run a disk cleanup to remove old files and temporary files, offline web pages, and empty the recycle bin. Make sure your version of Windows is up to date and that new system security patches are in order. Update installed software such as Adobe Reader, Flash, and Java to keep your computer safe from cyber-attacks. Run a full system data backup to make sure if anything happens to your files, you won’t lose anything important. Lastly, delete any unused files and programs. Some of us have a habit of creating or adding extra files and programs that end up unused and just clogging up our system.

If you follow these tips and consistently maintain your computer or laptop each month, you can be sure your computer will have a longer, healthier life.