By Susan Larson
Most of us know there are things we should be doing on a regular basis for the benefit of our computer and our files. But we don’t. So on National Clean Out Your Computer Day — February 9 — here are six tips to make it happen.
Tip One: Verify Your Backup
“Before eliminating unneeded files and folders from your drive, verify that your backup is operating properly,” said Kroll Ontrack. Need more information? Read it here.
Tip Two: Remove the Dust
“The best thing that you can do, for the hardware, is to remove the dust that’s inside your computer,” said Beta News. Here are their instructions for just how to do that.
Tip Three: Organize Your Files and Folders
“Start by getting rid of every non-essential icon on your desktop and putting it in a folder,” said Andy Patrizio in IT World. “Your PC will speed up from this because it doesn’t have to refresh all those icons.”
Read more here.
Tip Four: Eliminate Excess Apps
[Excess apps] take up room on your hard drive, they may be running in your computer’s memory, and they can interfere with other software that you do want,” according to Inc. Magazine. Here’s how to eliminate unused apps.
Tip Five: Update All Software
“Software makers often defend against newly discovered security threats in the latest versions of their applications but leave earlier versions unprotected,” Inc. said. Here’s what to do.
Tip Six: Defrag
“The more you save, delete, change, and re-save data on your hard drive, the more that data is “fragmented”– stored in different locations around the disk,” Inc. said. Everyone should defrag more than once a year, but many of us don’t. But what does this mean and how do I do it? And what about a Mac versus a PC? Read this article on OSXDaily.
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