Top 5 Tips To Clean Up Your Computer (Outside & Inside)

Spring is nearly here and as we start to consider spring-cleaning our houses, how about spring cleaning your computer too? Keeping your computer up to date and free of harmful viruses will help to improve your system performance as well as increasing the lifespan of your device. Here are top 5 tips to clean up your computer and keep it operating at its best.

Step One

Before cleaning your computer, make sure you conduct a complete backup. There are plenty of ways to keep your data safe and avoid losing your important documents, program settings and most importantly your photos.

Discover the most popular ways to do this:

Backup through an External Drive

Back up to an external USB hard drive by using your computer’s built-in backup features. The benefits of choosing this backing up option is that is cheaper and faster, however, if you lose the physical drive, you won’t be able to recover your information.

Backup through Internet Programs

Some programs over the internet will run in the background on your PC, automatically backing up your files to the service’s web storage. This is a great opportunity to protect your files from natural disasters or hard drive failures.

Use a Cloud Storage Service

There are various cloud storage services available which will help you to easily save your information, although there may be storage costs to bear.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

Step 2 – Update Your Software

Making sure your operating system is up to date is key in offering some protection against cyber-attacks. Software updates might help to mitigate security gaps and remove computer viruses. We also encourage everyone to do regular updates, as your computer will have new features or better compatibility with other applications. This process will also improve the performance of your existing programs, which will refine your user experience.

Step 3 – Install An Anti-Virus Software

Imagine having a house without a door. This is equivalent of having a computer without an Anti-Virus software. An unprotected house will receive unwanted guests, such as thieves and in the computer world, this reflects an open door to malware and hacker attacks. If you are using a work computer or laptop it may be that your company has multi subscription to an Anti-virus service. It is worth checking when this software will need updating, with no risk of it running out. Working on a personal laptop? Do not worry there are plenty of anti-virus subscriptions available, and plenty of free ones.

Step 4 – Remove Unnecessary Files and Programs

Unwanted files and programs will only occupy unnecessary space on your disk, as well as impact your laptop effectiveness and speed. By removing or uninstalling programs that you don’t use anymore; you can easily boost your computer performance and open room for new and productive programs.

This does not mean completely deleting these files but removing them and storing them on an external device will only have a positive impact on your machine.

Step 5 – Clean It Up Inside and Out

Dusting your computer

Once you have done an inside clean, you will now need to take care of the outside. If you work with a computer, you may have noticed that these devices produce a lot of heat and depending on your work environment attract a lot of dust. You should take a dry cloth and wipe over your computer and monitor screen; any tough stains use distilled or filtered water.

Keyboard

The most used part of your computer or laptop is your keyboard. We may not want to think about it, but you will be touching these for long hours of the day, and from this they will begin to collect bacteria. Firstly, we would start by unplugging your keyword and flipping it over, you may be amazed at how much dirt, crumbs fall out! A quick spray using your can of compressed air will get rid of any stuck, stubborn dirt. Finally, we would then use an anti—bacteria wipe and gently wipe down.

Vents and fan health

To combat overheating, every computer has several small fans built into it, that take cooler air from around the computer and cycle it through to cool it down. To ensure these continue to do their job you should regularly check and clean the vents and fans. We recommend using a can of compressed air, that will gently blow away the dust. Excess dust, dirt, or grime can damage your computer, which will directly affect your PC performance and shortening its lifespan.