Welcome to the PC PAL Newsletter - January 2016
Hello and a 'Happy New Year' from everyone at the PC PAL team.
Yes, we know it's nearly February so a little late, but we thought we would stick with a traditional New Year welcome for our first Newsletter of the year!
The festive period now seems a distant memory and the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday adverts and promotions both in the national press, on the TV and right across the Internet, have now thankfully ended for another year. Now we believe that's worth celebrating!
Although it's still a little early to thing about 'Spring Cleaning' our homes, when it comes to our computers, laptops and tablets, housekeeping really does need to be done on a regular basis. We often use the analogy of looking after ones vehicle as an example of good housekeeping and maintenance, whereby regularly checking of things like tyre pressure, tyre tread depths, oil levels and screen wash help ensure the vehicles keeps running smoothly until the next annual service.
However, the important point to note is that computers are heavily used and are under near constant attack, not just from hackers and viruses (as covered in December's Newsletter), but also from the computer itself. Before you know it, it starts showing signs of running slower, taking at little bit longer to get going in the mornings or nagging the user to install or update Microsoft's monthly security updates.
So this month, we've put together a handful of useful housekeeping tips which if carried out once a week, will help keep your computer ticking along nicely and stay better protected from hackers and alike. After all, a slow and troublesome computer is no fun when you are desperately trying to search the internet for a particular item or trying to complete some urgent admin!
So, please take a few minutes to read our Newsletter and as always, please let us know what you think about our articles, as well as the ones written weekly on our blog: www.pcpal.co.uk/blog
Happy Housekeeping!
The 5 top housekeeping tips to keep your Computer updated and running well
Tip 1). Using a disk cleanup program
The first thing to do is to run a disk clean-up program like the built in Windows Disk Cleanup or the well regarded CCleaner, which help to get rid of those temporary internet files left over files from updates and tracking cookies. Whether you use a Windows computer or an Apple Mac, it's a good idea to run these programs on a regular basis. Once or twice a month should be fine.
Tip 2). Remove old and unneeded programs
Going through the programs you have installed and removing old and unneeded programs can really help speed up a sluggish computer.
Go to Control Panel and choose the 'Uninstall a Program' option, then go through the list and click the program(s) you want to uninstall and then click Uninstall in the bar above.
If you spot any programs that sound unfamiliar to you, hold off from removing them until you have ascertained exactly what they are used for - usually typing the program name into Google may well give some clarity to its usage.
Tip 3). Make sure your software is up to date
Programs like Adobe Flash player and Adobe Reader frequently get software updates, sometimes as often as once a week if a security vulnerability has been identified which could be exploited by hackers.
Microsoft usually release their Windows updates the 2nd Tuesday of every month, however with Windows 10 Microsoft changed how often updates are released, so it's worth checking directly in Settings and Update and Security more often.
Tip 4) Sorting out your emails
Email is usually another area to have a good sort through; things like emptying the deleted items folder can free up space and archiving emails older than several years can sometimes speed up the performance. Moving unwanted or spurious emails into the Junk/Spam folder can help the email system better identify what you class as junk rather than deleting straight away. The email software will learn your habits and hopefully better filter unwanted emails.
Tip 5). Run the Disk Defragmenter
Finally, running the Windows Disk Defragmenter program essentially helps to group together the physical blocks of data on your hard drive, allowing the hard drive to open your programs and files faster when you click them.
It does take some time to run (often over 60 minutes), so only start it when you don't need to use the computer for a few hours. It should be worth it in the end.