Spring Cleaning? Don’t Forget Your Computer!

Spring is in the air and for many people that means spring-cleaning.  If you give your home a thorough cleaning each spring, here is another item to add to your checklist:  your computer!

Failure to clean your computer thoroughly at least once or twice a year will result in decreased performance and possibly even failure.  Here is why:

• Dust clogs the computer’s cooling system causing it to heat up, damaging sensitive electronic equipment.  Dust can also cause fan noise and slow performance.
• Crumbs and dirt in your keyboard can cause keys to stick when typing.  Plus, leaving those crumbs around is unhealthy and disgusting.  In fact, a study headed by Dr. James Francis, a British microbiologist, found that the average office computer keyboard has bacteria and germ levels up to five times higher than those commonly found on a toilet set.
• Dust, fingerprints and dirt build-up will make your computer monitor appear dim and fuzzy.

Physical dirt is only the beginning of spring-cleaning you should be doing for your computer.  You should also: 

• Delete temporary files and unused programs taking up space and slowing your computer.
• Defrag your hard drive, if you use a PC (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter).
• Get rid of clutter on your computer’s desktop by removing shortcuts and files you do not need.
• Make sure you have the latest security patches and updates installed and configured properly.
• Check your backups and conduct an emergency “restore” of the data. Whether you back up to an external hard drive on use an online backup service, the best time to check that all of your photos, music and other essential files are being backed up is when you DON’T desperately need to recover your data!

If you need assistance spring cleaning your computer or would like more information, you can call us at 703-652-4685, email us at info@gaeltek.com, or visit our website at www.gaeltek.com.