There are a few steps, some simple, some a little more complicated, that can ensure the longevity of your computer, keep your data safe (so it doesn’t get lost or stolen), and basically keep you from being forced to spend expensive repairs or spend time out of home. your machine
The most basic level of preventative maintenance is keeping your software up to date, especially updates from Microsoft. These updates help fix newly discovered security holes in the system – vulnerabilities that malicious people can exploit to do a variety of nefarious things to your computer. They can lock your valuable data, preventing you from accessing your files or deleting them completely. The other big threat that can result from hackers gaining access to your machine is identity theft. The thief can collect passwords, social security numbers, just about anything he wants once he has access to your computer. Identity theft is a major problem facing Americans today, with total monetary damage running into the hundreds of billions of dollars, with an average loss per person of nearly $5,000. But by keeping your operating system updated properly and in a timely manner, you have a much better chance of avoiding what could be an incredible headache.
Just as people brush their teeth so they don’t have to deal with an expensive and painful trip to the dentist, you should also take small steps to keep your machine clean. A sure way to destroy a computer is to allow it to overheat. Your computer is made up of many fragile electronic components that can only function efficiently within a certain temperature threshold. If your computer is exposed to excessive temperatures for an extended period of time, something may be wrong. This is likely to inevitably lead to costly repairs and even more costly downtime. To keep your machine running at the proper temperature, use compressed air to shut down the fans your computer uses, including heat sink fans, power supply fans, and possibly video card fans. This will remove dust and allow your fans to run much more efficiently.
Coming back to the topic of updates, it’s important to judiciously update your antivirus software (and if you don’t have antivirus software, you should buy it). The reason it’s so important to stay up-to-date with virus definitions is that bad people are creating new threats on a daily basis, and if you simply run a scan without updating your antivirus software first, your scan won’t find any newly developed threats. That will leave you vulnerable. Other software to keep up to date includes Adobe, Flash Player, along with many other third-party software that hackers can use to attack your computer.
One last method to extend the life of your computer and increase performance is to defragment your hard drive on a weekly basis. Doing so will allow your drive to read data more quickly, and since the drive will have to do less work, it will likely last longer.
The goal of preventative maintenance is to save money and prevent downtime.
