Yes, February 10th was National Clean Out your Computer Day. I know most of you probably have not celebrated this day before and are probably wondering why I even mentioned it. This just gives me an excuse to take you through some very important computer maintenance issues that usually get overlooked and can make a big difference for your computer.
So how do you celebrate this day?
The first thing is to get rid of unnecessary files that are on your computer. The files I am referring to are the temp files that are created when updates happen. There are tools built into both PCs and Macs that will remove these files, but I like to use a program called CCleaner (ccleaner.com) to do the job. This program is available for both platforms and will go through your computer and get rid of all of those temporary and unneeded files. It will also work in the background and tell you when you should run the cleaner again. They have a paid “Professional” version and a free version. The free version should be just fine.
The second thing you should do is look at your desktop and move any files stored there to your documents folder. By keeping your desktop relatively empty you will know if a new icon appears on it. Many times, unwanted programs that you accidentally install will drop an icon onto your desktop. If you notice anything suspicious you can take action to remove it. I am always available to remove those pesky programs that just happen to appear.
The third thing to do is make sure your backup is working properly. If it isn’t working correctly now is a good time to fix this so you won’t lose any documents in case of a computer failure. If you are not sure how to check your backup or you don’t have a backup, I can help with this also. If you are using a cloud service like OneDrive or DropBox as a backup, you might want to watch this video since those are not really backups but syncs.
The last thing is to make sure that your anti-virus is working properly. If it has expired and you are no longer protected, your data could be in jeopardy. I have written a lot and made videos about anti-virus software. If you need one, I can also help with that.
Now that you have done all of these things your computer will hopefully be more organized, maybe a little faster and definitely safer. So Happy National Clean Out your Computer Day!!
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