How to keep your PC fighting fit

Computers are silly beings, their silicon brains can’t keep themselves running fast always. They need to be maintained therefore care needs to be taken so that they keep performing the way we want them to for months (or maybe years too )to come…….

For this to happen there are few things to be kept in mind and should be followed religiously :-

1. The hard disk is perhaps the slowest part of a PC because its a mechanical device as the read-write heads move over magnetic tracks.Whereas, the processor & RAM are the fastest. So inspite of having the fastest processor and huge gigabites of RAM, an HDD becomes the limiting factor for the computer’s performance. So, get a good RPM hardrive, 7200rpm are common; 10000rpm are preferred.
2. The Hard Disk is like a large cupboard in which we store different types of files, at first they are properly arranged in a stack organised. With time, the stuff of the cupboard gets mixed up and the therefore, the time it takes to find the desired items increases. Simillar, is the case with the HDD. It becomes fragmented ( files gets divided into pieces) over time, so defragmentation is necessary. Its like rearranging the cupboard. It should be defragmented once every month.
3. Limit installing Trial softwares, sharewares and adwares. They leave nasty registry entries behind which makes Windows sluggish. Try to use freewares and open source applications. These days almost all applications have simillar free alternatives available.
4. Stop clicking any unknown link on websites, surf with caution, avoid visiting unknown suspicious images. eg. “FREE” accompanied by things like screensavers, emoticons, Speed downloads etc. They contain trojans,worms which infect the system
5. Uninstall softwares using “Revo Uninstaller” instead of the deault uninstall command in Windows, it gets rid of any file left behind and is very powerful (free also).
6. Use a good anti-virus and keep it updates, no matter how much we try Virus does creep into our PCs and hence its very important to be on guard.
7. Use System Utilities like CCleaner, Baku, Free Registry Cleaner etc to clean undeleted Files and registry entries.(Very important)
8. Remove unwanted Start-Up applications, they use memory and delay start up. Use “msconfig” by typing it without qoutes in Start->Run. Uncheck all you do not need.
9. Keep pagefile on a different partition or better still a different HDD if possible.
10. Lastly, always shutdown system properly to avoid Bad Sectors (dduhhhh.)

Post in your views on how to keep your PC fighting fit in the comments section.

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7. Add Control Panel Shortcut to Right-Click Menu on the Desktop
8. How to Recover/Restore a Deleted Partition

Tagged as: Clean PC, Defrangment, Increase Performance, Make your PC fast, Sped up Windows, Speed startup