5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR COMPUTERS RUNNING SMOOTHLY

No matter how many times in a year you buy a new computer, regardless of brand, price, specs – after months of heavy use, it will eventually stop being the slick, swift and seamless computer that it was – and begin to lag and stutter.

Your computer can only handle so many simultaneously running processes before it starts to show signs of strain. This may manifest as long load or boot times, or applications may hang or stall, or the computer may exhibit signs of instability such as blue screens or sudden restarts.

Unless you employ certain measures regularly, you will continuously be bogged down by these problems. The followingtips will help prevent your computer from deteriorating in performance.

Always protect your PC with reputable antivirus security software

Don’t let yourself be distracted by your web browsing and downloading habits as this will leave you vulnerable to all sorts of malware more quickly than you could imagine. With just a single click on the wrong link, image, social site or email, your computer could download and install a variety of malicious software without you realising.

Downloading trusted antivirus security software will increase the level of protection you have while browsing the internet and help secure all your data and personal information from getting into the hands of cyber criminals and identity thieves. Perhaps you would want to invest on an enhanced antivirus software to receive more security features.

Do a monthly clean up. Uninstall any programs you do not use.

Each month, delete unneeded folders, and files. They take up useful memory, and if they become superfluous, can slow down your computer. These programs you have installed are filling up your hard drive. If you no longer use them now is the time to uninstall them. If you’re a pack rat and just can’t seem to part with these files, save them to disk for future reference if needed.

Delete cookies.

Reset your internet browser/s, and clear your cache after you sign off. These files are completely unnecessary, take up memory, and can allow spyware to invade your computer.

Defragment your hard drive

Simply put your computer has a lot of unneeded junk files on it and they are scattered all over your hard drive. Defragmenting your hard drive can place everything on your hard drive in a way that makes it faster for your computer to access files faster.

Clean out your hardware

If you’ve never opened up your computer, you may be surprised by how grimy it gets inside the casing. Physical cleaning is a great way to improve your machine’s longevity –just pick up a can of compressed air or a vacuum cleaner designed for computers, turn off your machine, pop the case, and get to work. Laptops are trickier, as they are harder to open up as thoroughlyas desktop machines, but it’s still a good idea to do what you can.