Slowdown Computer Maintenance

If you are in the ice cream business, the summer may be your "hottest" season. But, lots of businesses appear to slow down over the summer--schools are out & lots of clients & employees are enjoying holidays & relatives time.

Smart business owners take advantage of this slowdown to set goals & review business strategies. It is & a pleasant time to maintain your computer systems & review your know-how needs for the approaching year.

Don't let the summer slowdown affect your computer! Here are 7 tips to keep your Windows or Mac computer jogging at sizzling speeds in the fast lane:

Uninstall unused programs, & in case you are a Mac user, uninstall unnecessary language files! Another tip for Mac users: In case you are using an Intel-based machine, remove the unused Power PC binaries. While it may appear obvious, they recommend that you double check that you don't need these programs before removing, in particular, anything that looks like it might be system related.

Wipe out your temp files, temporary Net files & other junk files at least time a month. In case you are a Windows user, don't forget to tidy up that registry. Mac users, clear your cache. You may need to invest in some lovely third-party application to do these steps on your Windows & Mac machines.

Empty the trash! This is applicable to both Windows & Mac users.

Maintain at least 10-15% free disk space on both Windows & Mac platforms. The operating system needs room to maneuver-be positive to give your system the space it needs.

Clean up your electronic mail. In the event you must hang on to it, think about moving items to an archive folder or file.

Defragment your system. Newer Mac & Windows operating systems (OS X & Windows 7) do not need this as much; however, in case you are still using an older machine, you will notice a performance benefit from defragmenting your hard disk.

Shutdown your machine regularly, don't put it to sleep. Not only is it "green," it will perform a complete system reset & give your computer a burst of "energy."

Now that you have got cleaned things up, keep going! They recommend performing these system maintenance tasks at least monthly-preferably every week.