With the passing of the recent holiday season, many of us are assessing our finances and vowing to be more frugal in the new year. Making money stretch is an important financial skill, and maintaining our expensive assets is a big component in any responsible budget. Your new computer is one such asset that needs to be properly serviced and kept in order to last for years. Neglected machines need to be replaced every year, or else they become unbearably slow and miserable to use. Thankfully, there are many easy steps that can be taken to ensure that this does not happen to your PC.

Install a Real-Time Virus Scanner

Real-time virus scanners are your first line of defense against the malicious infections that threaten to destroy your new computer. Viruses almost always come from online activity, and are usually installed on your computer from an infected download. The unfortunate reality is that you can never be sure which downloads are safe, and which could be dangerous – you might think you’re downloading a great new game, and before you know it your computer is under siege from a virus infection.

This is why a real-time scanner is necessary for responsible computing. If you rely on a manual scanner (i.e., one that you have to run every time you use it) you will only catch viruses that have already infected your PC and broken pieces of the operating system. Real-time scanners are always running and will prevent infections before they take over your machine.

Don’t Keep It Near a Window

When setting up your new computer, avoid positioning it near a window. Sometimes this can seem like the ideal set-up, since a desk facing a window provides a soothing view of your property, however windows pose a special danger to computers that could significantly reduce their lifespan. Technology resource Factoidz.com notes that windows attract the most moisture and dust of any area in a room.

The temperature difference between the inside of your home and outside world causes the moisture in the air to collect on and around the window. Having a computer right against it can draw dust, moisture, and mold into the hardware. Needless to say, introducing such unwanted material to your machine can slowly destroy it over time.

Clean Inside The Case

Even if you avoid placing your computer near a window, all machines slowly collect dust and dirt inside of their case. The cooling fans inside of the case are always spinning when the PC is on, drawing in air from around the room. This happens even faster when the computer sits on or very close to the floor, as carpets and rugs are natural collectors of dust and lint. Left unadressed, this material can gather in huge quantities, contributing to hardware breakdown and computer crashes.

Don’t let grime invade your PC and ruin it from the inside out. Instead, pick up a small shop vacuum with hose attachments for cleaning small, fragile areas. The ones sold by DataVac are a good choice, as they are made for cleaning technology. Every six months, undo the screws on your desktop case and vacuum out the dust that has accumulated on the hardware. This will help ensure the longevity of your hardware and keep your machine operating like new for a long time.

Defrag Regularly

The longer a computer is used, the more “fragmented” it’s hard drive becomes. Put simply, this means that related files get scattered around and the system has to take longer to find them as you use programs. This contributes to lagging, freezing, and general system slowness. To solve this problem, your computer comes with a defrag (known in Windows as “Disk Defragmenter”) utility that moves like files together and dramatically speeds up the entire user experience.

A complete system defrag generally takes a good bit of time, sometimes an hour or more depending on the size of your drive and the amount of the stuff you have saved on it. Schedule a time to defrag your machine once a month, and set it to run when you will not be using it (such as before you go to sleep or leave for work in the morning). Regular hard drive maintenance will keep your programs loading and running as smooth as the first day you brought it home.

Maintain The Registry

The Windows registry is an often neglected part of your operating system that requires sound maintenance to run at optimal performance. This is the part of your system where every program stores its settings, and each setting is known as a key. The problem is that as you install and delete software over time, many registry keys get left behind from old programs you no longer use. These junk keys clog up the registry and cause the system to begin to slow.

To maintain optimal system performance, install a registry maintenance tool and run scheduled, monthly cleanings. PCTools makes an acclaimed registry tool called Registry Mechanic that will keep your system’s registry running at peak performance for the life of your machine.

Don’t Forget About Spyware

While spyware is not quite as prevalent as it was in the early-mid 2000’s, it is still a threat that demands your proactive attention. Spyware behaves much like a virus, installing itself through hidden and non-consensual download tactics and spreading through the computer’s operating system once there. Spyware displays unwanted advertising, edits system settings without permission, installs other software, and can slow the machine to a halt at its worst. Some of the really malicious variants even harvest personal data (such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc) and send them back to their creator for purposes of identity theft.

Many virus scanners come with anti-spyware software as well, but it is always a safe bet to keep a separate anti-spyware tool installed as well for extra protection. Lavasoft AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy are two of the most highly acclaimed anti-spyware suites, and can both be downloaded for free. Much like anti-virus software, you will need to keep your program’s definitions up to date to remain defended against the latest infections to hit the web.

Set a Stand By Timer

Leaving your computer running for days on end can wear down your hardware components and contribute to system crashes and loss of performance. However, constant shutting down and starting up of the computer forces it to heat up and cool down several times per day, which is also dangerous for the PC. The best way to handle your computer when you aren’t using it is to set a stand-by timer. This is an easy system setting that puts your computer into sleep mode when you don’t use it for a certain amount of time (usually around 15-30 minutes).

Sleep mode powers down most of your moving components (such as the hard drive) and screen, keeping only the bare minimum of settings on so that your desktop can be recalled quickly when you return to the keyboard. Not only does this preserve system integrity, it also saves electricity, making it a frugal setting to enable. Of course, a good system restart is good for the machine every couple of days, so make sure to reboot it several times each week.

About the Author: Brian Tanner is a freelance writer for HP. Since 1939, HP has been making technology products to help people and companies address their problems and challenges, and realize their possibilities, aspirations and dreams. On their website you can find a printer to printer ink.

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