Wednesday, August 18, 2010

What maintenance does my computer need?

I have a Dell PC that's about 3 years old.



What kind of maintenance do I need to perform on it?



How often do I need to defrag?



I have Norton SystemWorks on my computer to get rid of the internet clutter, but is that all I really need?



What maintenance does my computer need?free anti virus



You should defrag about once a month, though most people will only defrag when they experience slowness. I always defrag right after a Windows install, after I install or remove a lot of software. The problem with scans and defrag are that they are time consuming, and you can't do anything when they are running (especially with a defrag). You can schedule these to run at a time when you wouldn't be using the computer, but then the computer has to be on for the program to run.



Systemworks is okay, don't get me wrong, it's a powerful utility, but it is also a resource hog (I know from experience). For antivirus, I use AVG, produced by grisoft, available free at: http://free.grisoft.com/ , for spyware I use Spybot S%26D (Spybot search and destroy) and lavasoft ad-aware available from downloads.com , for firewall, you can use ZoneAlarm.



Here is a good page that recommends programs for different uses (like AV, Firewall, spyware, etc) and provides links to them: http://www.firewallguide.com/freeware.ht...



What maintenance does my computer need?internet security software



If it is working, don't try to fix it. If not use ccleaner software.

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