by Bob Pritchard

Created on: October 02, 2010

Have you ever wondered why your computer doesn't run like it did when it was new? If you spend a few minutes a week doing general maintenance it will always run just like the day you purchased it. The longer a computer goes between maintenance sessions the more the performance will suffer. This article describes the most basic steps in restoring your computers performance.

Run your antivirus software

This is a maintenance step that must be done at least once a week or when you feel something seems wrong. Antivirus is not an optional software. Today every computer needs to be protected with a real time antivirus program.

Run your spyware software

There are many spyware removal programs available today. Spyware can really slow a computer substantially. You need to run a spyware program at least once a week or when you seem to have suddenly slowed down.

Defragment your hard drive.

Defragmenting your hard drive is one of the most important maintenance steps. When a hard drive is overly fragmented the computer has a hard time finding files. This really slows the computer a lot. Think of your hard drive as a filing cabinet. If the files and folders are in the wrong places it takes a longer time to find them. Defragmenting puts them all back in the correct places so that when you open them the computer knows exactly where they are and can find them quickly.

Dump the junk

It's a good idea to look through the programs you have added to your computer. Quite often you have programs you no longer use. Delete them. There is no point keeping programs you will never use as its only a burden on your system. Look through your hard drive at least once a month and get rid of the junk.

Clean up your free space with disk cleanup.

In a windows xp computer go to start/control panel/performance and maintenance/free up space on your hard disk. Other windows computers are similar.
This will get rid of temporary internet files, empty the recycle bin, clean up setup and downloaded program files and compress your old files.

Clean your browser

In most browsers you choose tools from your toolbar then internet options. Under the heading browsing history you have the option of deleting your temporary internet files, cookies, history, form data and saved passwords.

If you do all of the things mentioned in this article your computer will be back to like new. Some of these programs allow you to set up a schedule to automatically do the scans. This is a nice feature. The only catch is your computer needs to be on when the scans are scheduled. Taking the time to do basic computer maintenance will save time in the long run not having to wait for data to load.

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