Computer House Cleaning Part 1

So I thought that I would cover some simple techniques today that any user can use to get rid of the junk that slows down your computer.

The First rule of thumb is this: NEVER click "ok" to any dialogue box when you don't know what it's going to do. ALWAYS hit cancel if your in doubt.

That rule will save many of you from getting Spyware and Adware on your machines as your surf the net.

Next Make SURE you have a good antivirus and by good I mean NOT Norton. Norton is probably the worst Antivirus out there and will cause you more problems than it fixes. Mcafee is a little better but still not what I would recommend. I personally use KasperSky. Kaspersky is a great antivirus always more up to date than Norton and Mcafee, in fact Norton and Mcafee get their virus databases from Kastersky's database. So that would be my choice, now if you have Norton or Mcafee don't go out and change right away, but perhaps the next time your license is due you can think of switching out.

Third: Monitor what programs get installed on your machine. One way to tell is to go to Start and then Programs and just look through the list and see what you got. I bet it's been a while since you did that. If you feel a little more comfortable with your machine you can go to Add/Remove programs in the control panel and see all the programs that are installed on your computer. Go down through the list and remove programs that you know you don't use. If your in doubt about a program WEBIT! and see what it does.

Fourth: CLEAN UP YOUR DESKTOP! Thats right I'm talking to YOU!! I know you have way to many icons just floating around on your desktop and your just holding on to them for that one fateful day when you might need it again. If you haven't clicked an Icon on your desktop for over a week then delete it off the desktop. And NEVER, I mean NEVER store files on your desktop. The desktop is the worst place to store a file. Why? The desktop is a virtual space and that means that it's the first thing to crash when your computer goes down and that means that you have a much better chance of loosing whatever files you had on the desktop. You should ALWAYS keep files that your working on in Folders on your hard drive. NEVER on the desktop. And one more thing, the more icons you have on your desktop the longer it takes your windows to load and that means more waiting time for you.

Fifth: Get organized! Know where all your files are and be able to access them easily and efficiently. Use folders names that make sense. Don't just go with what the computer chooses for you. Pick names for your folders that make sense to you and that you'll remember later. Being a well organized user will give you the best chances of not loosing files and not duplicating files or folders. That's a good thing to mention as well, Look through your files and see if your have duplicates. If you have one picture of a dog with a bone in one folder and the same picture in another, you probably don't need both so eliminate one and keep yourself well organized.

Well this has gone on longer than I thought and I have a lot more to share so we'll call this installment one on Computer House Cleaning. Happy Computing!