Small Town Geeks

By Elisa

Its important to dust out your power supply every now and then, and it is important to clean up your operating system every now and then as well. This helps keep it running as fast as possible, and helps you catch spyware and viruses before they get out of hand. Here are some things you should be doing to keep your operating system running in tip top shape:

1. Run an anti-malware/spyware program. My choice is malwarebytes found here. The free version has pretty much all the features as the full one, just no real time protection (automatic scanning) and no automatic updates. This means you just need to make sure it is updated before you scan you computer. Depending on the websites you visit, I would recommend running Malwarebytes at least once a week to once a month.

2. Keep an updated anti-virus on your computer. The best free one in my opinion out there is microsoft security essentials…but keep in mind the more computers that have the same software, the greater the risk is that a blackhat virus programmer will create a virus that will get through that software’s protection. This in my opinion is the biggest difference between different anti-virus programs. McAffee is on so many computers, so the chance of a virus being made that gets through that protection is greater than say kaspersky. I’ll leave this debate here for another day.  Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) will update itself and run on its own, but it is good to do a full scan at least once a week to once a month.

3. RUN UPDATES. Running software and hardware updates keeps your computer running as safe as possible and as fast as possible. Updates in XP can be found here (make sure its microsoft update, not just microsoft windows update), Updates for vista and 7 can be found by typing windows update in the start menu search panel (and make sure you check the option to install updates for windows and other software), for Mac X users “software updates” is found under the apple menu. Automatic updates should be turned on for all these operating systems, but it is good to go in and check yourself every now and then to make sure your system and programs are up to date.

4. CCleaner (which stands for Crap Cleaner), found here is one of my favorite programs. It’s a simple and easy to use programs (just be sure to avoid installing the yahoo toolbar during the setup process). It deletes all the space consuming stuff from your computer like temporary files. Most likely (though depending on your computer settings) whenever you visit a website, images and text are cashed and saved on your computer, and other things are saved to your temporary folder. Deleting this stuff yourself can be a pain, so CCleaner makes it simple and quick. I’ve deleted 4 gigs of crap from my computer, and when working with other laptops I’ve seen a huge increase in speed from running it alone. There is also a registry tab, which scans and deletes left over registry files that shouldn’t be there. CCleaner also has an uninstal function that can force delete programs or normally uninstall a program that you no longer want.

5. Defrag. This is really only important for windows XP computers because Vista, 7, and Mac OSX will defrag automatically. Defrag can be found under system tools. Pretty much defragging just reorganizes files so that they can be accessed more efficiently. Once you open the Defrag program in XP, you can analyze the harddrive and it should let you know whether you need a defrag or not. Defragging takes a while, so plan accordingly.

6. Startup Audit. Managing what starts up and what doesn’t when you boot up your computer can be a real time saver. The most hands-on way to do this is by typing msconfig into the run function in XP, or into the search bars in vista and 7. Then go to startup, and leave checked only the programs you want to start on boot. If you don’t know what it is, its probably best to leave it checked.