New year, new computer care
January is filled with so many things. Settling in, getting business in order, facing the fact that the next holiday isn’t for a few months. What a month it is. But apart from those, it is also a great time to re-evaluate the state of your computer, network and overall security and whether you are giving it the proper care it requires.
Back up, back up, back up
If this isn’t already automatically etched into your brain, now’s the time to start. We should all be backing up our files regularly and not only when something goes wrong. Use an external hard drive as an extra safety measure. You can also check out the link to Office 365 https://www.office.com/ for more ways to back up your computer.
Use the cloud
Make an additional backup by saving your work to the cloud. Microsoft offers services with loads of free space for saving personal files, photos and documents.
Clean out the junk
Every programme that you have installed or every website that you have visited brings along with it junk. Junk that takes up space on your machine and slows it down as well as leaves it vulnerable to security breaches. Do a ‘disk clean-up’ as soon as possible.
Organise your data
A good habit to pick up is staying organised while using your computer. Find places to store things and stick to the system. This will save you time when saving files as well as make it easier to back up, because it won’t seem like a huge effort finding files that are all over the place.
Use Windows effectively
Once you’re in the swing of organising your hard drive, use Windows for further assistance. Windows has built-in tools that help with performance issues. Go to Control Panel, select ‘Find and fix problems’ and ‘Check for performance issue’
Start your computer’s year off right
Let’s face it, a computer that’s slow, or has no space, is a nightmare. You can avoid that happening to your beloved computer by following the suggestions above. We use them daily and we often expect the impossible from them – let’s take care of them.