Computer Software & Proactive Preventative Maintenance

As time goes by, the computer that you use gets older. It may not function as fast as it used too back in the day. It becomes slower. There could be a couple of reasons for this. The software may require more system resources than your computer has. Possibly, a virus, or some malware has been picked up somewhere along the line. The registry may need some love and attention.

Like everything in the world, your computer may need some maintenance on the software side of things. This may mean, but not limited to cleaning up the hard drive of files and programs that are not really needed or used anymore. You could also get the windows operating system do some maintenance to the hard drive in the form of a disk defrag. Additionally, third party registry cleaning software can be used if that is what you want to do. If the machine had been used on the internet, there may be some spyware, malware, and other un-invited guest running on your system.

To clarify, we want to make sure that your operating system is performing at its optimal potential. Sometimes it may require that we reinstall the operating system software just to clean up operating system files that may have changed, or have gone missing during the usage of the computer. My personal favorite is to periodically re-format the hard drive and start over with a new installation of the operating system. Re-installing the operating system from scratch is a catch all in terms of dealing with unhealthy software issues. I find that re-formatting the hard drive, and re-installing the operating system is most cost effective in terms of a computer software fix because this eliminates having to deal with too much third party software solutions.

The windows registry is a major database for your windows operating system that deals with activities involving what you do with your current installation. If you install, remove, software, it is captured in the registry. When you open a program, how a program is opened, what files can be opened by specific software go into the registry. Quite a bit of information changes over the life of a computer and it is not uncommon for the windows registry to get messy. Regardless, over time the windows registry may get dirty and need cleaning. You could use third party software such as Registry Repair, Registry Cleaner, Reg Mechanic, and Reg Cure etc. I find it more cost effective to just take the data on the hard drive that I need, save it elsewhere, and then reformat it and install windows from scratch. With that you get a clean registry to start with.

In dealing with unfriendly, uninvited software such as adware, spyware, malware, viruses and spam, I like to use a combination of software that is available in FREE versions to help make these types of computer repairs. It is not necessary to have to put out a lot of money in terms of protecting your data and eliminating unfriendly software. On the internet you can find Microsoft Defender Anti-Spyware from microsoft.com. And you can also find Avast Anti-virus. Both of those are available for FREE. I personally use Lavasofts suite of adware/spyware solutions. You will also find there are tons of product available on the market. Some may work better than others, some may not even work at all. The focus of this type of repair, is scanning the system, and cleaning, deleting and or having rouge files quarantined.

In order to keep your system running correctly, you must control the software that gets installed into the machine. Start with a fresh and clean install of the operating system. If you are not at liberty to provide a fresh and clean installation of the operating system, clean the registry, and defrag the hard drive is the next best bet. You should protect your information by having an antivirus, anti-adware/spyware/ malware software installed. It is also recommended that you perform various system scans and checks to look out for threats on your system. In terms of computer repair, proactive, periodic, preventative maintenance can help you avoid costly repairs of a reactive nature.

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About the Author:
Paul Wilson Jr has been fixing computers since 1994. For more of my computer repair techniques, articles, reports, and sweet deals on computer parts, visit DIY-Computer-Repairs.

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