The well-deserved summer holidays are coming to an end and a good number of users, students and employees have returned (or will have to return soon) to the routine in what we know as ‘Back to School’.
Many of us have the PC as our main work tool and we must have a specific maintenance schedule with tasks that provide numerous benefits in terms of efficiency, performance, safety and useas well as extending its useful life. Or that is the theory. Caught up in the daily battle, we may not have been able to dedicate the necessary time to it. If you have a few days before returning to work, it is a good time to do some tasks that will avoid many problems in the future.
We remind you of them by focusing mainly on personal computers with Windows, although most of them can be extrapolated to any operating system.
1.- Make data backups
The tasks of backup They are one of the preferred actions in PC maintenance and should be performed (or better yet automated) by any professional or consumer to safeguard their data. A computer can fail at any time, due to a hardware problem in one of its components such as the storage unit or memory, in the system software and applications or due to a virus that deletes files or prevents access to the computer such as Ransomware.
Losing our professional or personal files can be very costly and sometimes impossible to recover, hence its importance. We recommend that you start your technical recovery here before you have to regret it. The system, applications and the hardware itself can be recovered, but not the data and sometimes losing it can be a tragedy.
2.- Update the operating system
The operating system is the software foundation of our computer and we must ensure that it is updated to the most recent stable build or at least that it has the latest published security patches installed. If we use older versions, we run a greater risk of being attacked through unpatched vulnerabilities.
All operating systems can be updated automatically or manually. Microsoft systems use Windows Update as an internal tool. If you prefer, and the Microsoft Update Catalog for manual installation of specific security updates or rollup packages.
3.- Check and increase security
Other tasks included in PC maintenance include searching for malware and disinfecting it if necessary. Start by scanning your computer with the security application you have installed, including external hard drives or pen drives that you also use regularly because they are frequently a route of infection.
For persistent malware hidden in the system, there is nothing better than using “Live CD/USB” solutions, created on removable drives and capable of booting without interfering with the installed operating system. These are known as “rescue antivirus” and work on any computer. These external media are excellent, as they do not penalize performance and allow you to preempt the loading of viruses or Trojans into memory, making it difficult to remove them. All providers offer free solutions of this type and we highly recommend them, as well as having some security solution loaded on the system.
4.- Change your passwords
Completing the security section, you can take advantage of the opportunity to renew the passwords to access your computer and services, an important matter that should be done regularly and that we do not do. We continue to fail to comply with all the basic rules for their creation and maintenance and all the reports reveal that the most used passwords are old ones that are a bargain for cybercriminals.
In recent years, the industry has proposed biometric systems and functions such as two-factor authentication that we must activate in all compatible services. But until they are fully extended, passwords will continue to be the most used method and to create them we have to look for long and complex keys, and combine non-alphanumeric characters, upper and lower case letters. Another recommended option is to use password managers that do the work on their own, protect our identity and avoid us having to create and remember multiple passwords.
5.- Update applications and drivers
Just as important as updating the operating system is updating the applications. New versions of the ones we have installed will offer better performance and stability in most cases. In addition, malware has a preferred method of infection by taking advantage of software vulnerabilities. We must pay special attention to that group of critical applications that we use daily and that are the most attacked, such as web browsers and their extensions and plug-ins, office applications or others such as Java or Adobe Flash, which has been attacked for two decades and still runs on the Internet.
The same can be said for driver updates. In addition to the security aspect, we will gain stability, compatibility and also performance, especially with graphics card drivers that are updated for almost every major new game that is released.
6.- Delete programs that you do not use
You probably have a good number of applications that you no longer use. And if you use Windows and you didn’t clean it up in the past, you’ll have a good amount of junk applications from the Bloatware that Microsoft and manufacturers “punish” us with. All of them together penalize performance, stability, user experience and even security.
Before the ‘back to school’ is a good time to remove those programs that are taking up memory and storage and surely slowing down its operation. All operating systems include a program uninstallation function. In Windows 10 or 11 from the control panel or the general Settings tool.
7. Reduce startup load
Windows operating systems have a system configuration function called “msconfig”, which, in addition to advanced services, allows us to select the applications that load when the computer starts up, reducing the load on it and improving its performance. You can access it with the command name, “msconfig”, from the run function. In Windows 10 and 11, you can use the “task manager” to manage startup items.
8.- Activate system restore
Windows has a system recovery tool that can “save our lives” in the event of a software error, a virus entering our computer, or simply installing drivers or an application that does not work correctly and sometimes destabilizes the operating system.
This utility saves the main operating system files and configuration, settings, drivers, registry keys or installed programs, and in case of errors it allows you to revert the changes made and return to a previous state where the system worked correctly. The operation and management of this feature is basically the same in all Windows systems (7, 8.1 and 10) and is very useful for any user when the system does not work well or does so erratically.
9.- In Windows 10 and Windows 11, monitor privacy
Windows 10 privacy remains one of the most controversial issues of this operating system, although Microsoft has been improving transparency and control in successive updates since a terrifying initial configuration that sparked a flood of criticism for the massive collection of data. Windows 11, in this field, aims in the same way.
Windows 10’s privacy options have improved substantially since the first versions, and they start right from the installation, but there’s still room for improvement. If you’re looking for more control than the built-in tools offer, you can use third-party apps like DoNotSpy11 (free and open source) that, in addition to managing the typical privacy components, also offers anti-bloatware options.
10.- Clean the registry (carefully)
Advanced users can perform tasks that go beyond regular maintenance, but – knowing what they are doing – can offer us advantages. The registry is a database where Windows stores information about software, hardware, settings and users, and completely controls the operation of a PC, appearance, component behavior or access to functions. The registry increases in size with the mere use of the operating system, the installation/uninstallation of applications or any hardware component that we add or replace.
It is not unusual for all of this to slow down the use of the computer or leave traces of faulty or corrupted entries and inconsistencies that harm the user experience and cause everything from minor errors to serious failures. The industry offers free applications to “clean” this registry. You have to be very careful with them, but they can be effective in the right hands, after backing up the registry in case something goes wrong.
Don’t put it off. These maintenance tasks to get your PC up to speed are a great investment to avoid headaches and loss of time and money in the future, with Direct benefits in performance, stability and securityIf you complete it with a physical cleaning and eventually with the improvement of some of its components, you can increase its useful life and leave it ready for the harsh autumn that awaits us.
Source: www.muycomputer.com
