Until I started using a Personal Computer I had no idea the amount of software and even hardware, not to mention time involved in keeping one happily running. Having just spent the time involved in running a disc health scan on two hard drives totaling 80 Gigabytes I’ve decided to write an article on my experience with Computer Maintenance.
Starting with the computer’s power supply I use an APC Uninterruptible Power Supply—UPS. It protects my modem from lightening strikes and the computer from power surges including lightening as well as brownouts. In case of a blackout it will keep the computer running for up to 30 minutes and then if I’m not around or awake automatically shut the computer down properly—and we all know how touchy Windows is about being abruptly terminated.
If you’re reading this then you’re online and should be using an anti-virus programme—I use Norton. Anti-virus programmes are run continually in the background to prevent malicious activity on your computer—even to the extent of attempting to protect one from one’s own stupidity. It also scans incoming and outgoing E-mail, internet traffic, and downloads for viruses, worms, and Trojans. Anti-virus software must be updated daily; either automatically or manually. The update subscription must be given an infusion of cash yearly. My version of Norton is configured to run a daily smart scan of the contents of my computer’s memory and its starting programmes. It also automatically runs a weekly complete system scan.
To guard against spyware, tracking cookies, key-loggers and the like I use Lavasoft’s Ad Aware. The freeware version will manually scan your computer but I use the shareware version which keeps Ad Watch running constantly in the background. Beyond preventing malware it also prevents my home page from being changed, prevents programmes such as Quick Time, Realplayer, Messenger and the like from inserting a startup programme in my system tray, blocks pop-ups, and prevents hijack attempts. Just to make sure I also have Spybot, but I use it only for scans, I don’t use their tea timer monitoring programme. Win Patrol performs many of these functions as well.
As a gate-keeper for your computer anyone with a permanent connection to the internet must have a firewall. Properly configured it decides which websites can have access to your computer and which programmes can have access to the internet and even what kinds of data they can send or receive. Windows XP has a built in firewall but many other software programmes exist. For the serious user there are also hardware firewalls and routers.
To monitor the physical health of the computer I have Hard Disc Health which reads one’s Hard Disc’s Smart Monitoring system to warn of possible Hard Disc Failure. Motherboard Monitor will tell you about the power being used by various components of your computer, the temperature of critical elements, and the speed at which your fans are rotating. Asus Motherboards have their own proprietary Probe and I currently use it.
It’s important to clean house on a computer just as you would your home. Programmes you no longer have any use for should be uninstalled; files that have outlived their usefulness should be deleted, as should unneeded cookies, temporary caches, and the temporary internet cache. You can configure your browser to empty the internet cache when you close it. Don’t forget that you must also empty the recycle bin—right click on it and you’ll see the configuration dialogue box—default size is 10% of your drive; if you have an 80 Gigabyte Drive that’s 8 Gigabytes; set it back to something more reasonable—say 1%. Given the hundreds of file recovery programmes out there it would seem that people will be people and regularly inadvertently delete important files. Next topic—backup.
My computer has three background backup programmes. First Windows has a built-in system restore system. It’s supposed to enable one to recover should an update or programme installation go bad. Unless kept in check it can also eat up huge chunks of your hard disc space. I find it intrusive and a memory and user resources hog. With Norton Utilities Professional I also get Norton Go Back and Norton Ghost. They can also aid you in file recovery and system restore. Unfortunately when Go Back runs out of its allotted file space, without warning it hijacks one’s computer to establish a fresh backup of all your files. The new Norton Ghost does many of the same functions. The old DOS-based version created a compressed backup by cloning your files to another drive. Currently I use none of these finding that they use too much disc space, memory, and user resources. I’ve also found them to cause certain programmes I use to crash. I’m also skeptical of the value of using the drives on my computer for backup. Accordingly I presently use Cobian Backup—a freeware utility—to maintain an uncompressed clone of both my discs on a remote hard drive. I run the programme weekly to do an incremental backup of all files that have changed. For my purposes this protects all my important data without the annoyance of using a background programme non-stop and should my drives fail the data is stored off-computer. Microsoft Office has a save your settings utility and a built in repair facility and there are programmes to back up most E-mail programmes—I use Mozilla’s.
The file system on your hard discs also requires maintenance. At least monthly I run Disc Check as I did today. Windows has a built-in error checking programme—Scan Disc—but I use Norton’s Disc Doctor. It checks the integrity of the data on one’s drive and looks for bad sectors on one’s hard drive taking them out of service so that they won’t cause a loss of data. Maxtor has DOS-based software that will do an even more thorough job. When data is written to you drive Windows dumps it wherever there is open space on your drive recording in the process where it has stored that data. Over time the information on your drive becomes fragmented and when you open a document or run a programme Windows seems to take forever to find it and load it into memory. Therefore either Windows or, in my case Norton’s Defragmentation programme should be run when fragmentation reaches an unacceptable level—say 10%. Again, this can be done manually, or the programme can be set up to run at a set time weekly when that parameter is reached. When it’s running Defragmentation pretty much takes over the use of your computer so pick a time when you don’t need it. Scheduled tasks stores these automated tasks—just remember that they won’t run unless you leave the computer on when they’re scheduled to take place.
Finally there are updates. Bill Gate’s operating systems appear to be works continually in progress and extensive updates are issued monthly with the update programme built right into Windows. It can be set to run automatically but I prefer to run it myself as updates frequently require that the computer be rebooted. The creators of most software issue updates periodically, often to cope with Windows updates and the drivers that enable your hardware and software to communicate with the computer can get updates as well along with the firmware that runs your hardware. Before updates are run anti-virus and spyware programmes should be disabled and background programmes shut down.
I’m always shocked when I discover a friend or acquaintance who attempts to operate a computer without doing any of these things—perhaps you’ve received an infected E-mail from such an acquaintance. For the more technically minded there are many other maintenance, configuration, and tweaking softwares about—Hard Disc cleaners, registry cleaners, Configuration Utilities, start-up monitors and the like. For most people the processes I’ve described above will be more than adequate and suffice to keep them busy.
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