PC Tune Up

I read a great article on the Yahoo Technology Web site from Robin Raskin. Robin writes about the10 important things you should do to keep your PC updated and running at full speed. You can read the complete article here - A PC Tune-up. Here are the top 10 items from the article:

Step One: Install Windows Service Pack for protection against spam, viruses, and intruders.

Step Two: Set them up with Windows Automatic Updates: To do this, open My Computer and select System Properties. Click on the Automatic Update tab and select Automatic Updates.

Step Three: Verify that Windows firewall is on by clicking on the Control Panel, then Security Center and Firewall.

Step Four: Scan for disk errors. To do this, open My Computer and select the drive to be checked. On the File menu, click Properties. On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now. Under Check disk options, select Scan.

Step Five: You can also run defrag (though it's not as critical), which puts files that have been chopped up into discontinuous locations on the hard disk back together into a single contiguous file. This will increase performance and reliability. You can find the Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button, then All Programs, selecting Accessories, then System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

Step 6: Uninstall unused applications by clicking on the Control Panel and selecting Add or Remove Programs. A list of programs and how often they've been used will pop up. Remove the ones they'll never use.

Step 7: Add anti-spyware utilities, such as Microsoft's Windows Defender (available as a free download until December 31).

Step 8: Add an overall Internet security package that includes virus and anti-spam protection such as AVG Anti-virus, which is free, or Norton Internet Security ($69). If they already use a program, make sure that the updates are current.

Step 9: Upgrade Internet Explorer to Version 7.0. This is controversial advice because some of you prefer Mozilla, but I would not put it on my parents' machine because it's still not the standard and they won't understand how to toggle between browsers.

Step 10: Create desktop icons for their most-often-used programs. Right-click the desktop (that's the opening Windows screen before you run any applications), select New, and then click Shortcut. Enter the location of the program. To add, click Browse to look for the file name and then click Next. Type the name that you want to appear under the icon, and then click Finish.