Assignment #7

How to Take Care of your PC

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     ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE - Installing a reputable anti-virus program will help rid your computer of unknown viruses, trojans, worms, etc., which slow it down immensely. There are tons of programs out there to choose from. I'd suggest kaspersky Anti-Virus. They have some of the most highly rated software on the web. There are also free anti-virus programs available, but they are not as effective as ones you pay for. I've provided links to both below (under resources).
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     ANTI-SPYWARE SOFTWARE - Spyware, much like viruses, slow down your PC tremendously. Most spyware is installed without you knowing when you're browsing the internet or opening up random emails. To eliminate them, I would suggest downloading Spy-Bot Search and Destroy. It's absolutely free and it's one of the best pieces of anti-spyware/adware software available. I've provided a link below.
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     DEFRAGMENTING YOUR HARD DRIVES - Fragmenting of the hard drives occur over time whenever you delete files, move them around or even when your computer looses power unexpectedly. Defragmenting regularly and often helps rearrange or your file, optimizing them for faster access. The windows operating system has this built in feature and is easily accessible from the start menu. Or you could download the free version of Auslogic's defragmenter, which I actually think is better.
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     DEFRAGMENT YOUR REGISTRY - Your registry, much like your hard drives, needs to be defragmented regularly. Auslogic also provided a program that performs this function, the link is below.
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     EXTERNAL CLEANING - Over time, the inside of your computer can gather massive amounts of dust. This decreases the airflow and increases the amount of heat inside your case, which can damage expensive components. Purchase a couple of Air Dusters and remove the dust regularly.
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     KEEP YOUR PC UP TO DATE - Regularly update your PC with the latest drivers and software upgrades. Doing this will improve the efficiency of many of the programs running and improve the overall performance.
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     START UP PROGRAMS - If your computer takes a long time to start up, you may want to disable some useless programs that start when you log on.
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     BACKGROUND PROGRAMS - Every programs that runs on your PC uses a small amount of memory. If you have to many programs running in the background at once, your computer can take a lot longer to respond and seem slow. Disabling many of these useless processes will free up memory and speed up your computers responsiveness.
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     TWEAKS - There are many other tweaks that you could do also. Search the internet for other ways to improve the performance of your PC. There are also many articles on eHow that can help you too.