Tip of the Week: Today is National Clean Out Your Computer Day. 5 Ways to Show Your PC Some Love

It’s National Clean Out Your Computer Day! To kick off this important day, we’d like to remind business owners that this is a valuable opportunity to make sure that you’re taking good care of one of your greatest assets: your company’s technology. Let’s go over some of the best ways that you can optimize the performance of your office computers.

Remove Unused Applications
How much money does your organization waste on unnecessary apps and programs? Chances are that over the years you’ve accumulated a variety of programs that you might not find useful anymore. Not only do these apps complicate device management and maintenance, but they also become an asset sink. To avoid these issues, uninstall software that you don’t use regularly.

Update All of Your Software
Conversely, be sure to upgrade the software solutions that you do use. The patches and security updates issued by developers are meant to improve the performance of your software… not to be ignored and put off for too long. However, if you’re not using the latest version of your organization's enterprise software, it could also mean a compatibility problem with legacy apps. We recommend a network audit from Washington Works to see just where your organization’s network stands.

Run Defrags
Your hard drive goes through all sorts of abuse whenever you save, move, or delete files. Bits and pieces of these files will eventually be stored in all sorts of places on your hard drive, which makes it challenging for the device to piece them all together when you need to view them, hampering its performance. Defragging will improve performance of your hard drive, which can speed up your overall computer. Some newer solid state drives, however, don’t need to be defragged, and newer versions of Windows automatically defrag while the drive is not in use. If you’d like, Washington Works can help you with this process.

Clean Up the Dust
As time goes on, dust will accumulate in and on your workstations. Use a can of compressed air to blow away dust that collects in your keyboard and around the vents of your workstation. Afterwards, be sure to use a damp cloth to wipe away any remaining specks of dust. It’s also helpful to take your keyboard and gently tap it upside-down to get any skin particles and food crumbs out of it. You might be surprised by how gross your keyboard actually is.

Remember the Insides
While cleaning the outside of your computer is important, large amounts of dust and hair can cause serious issues with the inside of your PC. Fans can seize up, and dust can insulate the sensitive components causing them to overheat or short out. Before attempting to clean your computer, be sure to shut it down and disconnect it from the outlet. Use a can of compressed air to blow away any dirt or dust that has accumulated on internal components, and make sure that you never handle sensitive parts with your fingers without washing them first. In fact, it’s better to just leave this responsibility to professional technicians, as you know they can be trusted to perform quality, low-risk maintenance on your machines.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of IT maintenance, we don’t blame you. However, we do want you to reach out to Washington Works for managed IT services. We can perform routine maintenance on your organization’s computers and keep them in tip-top shape all days out of the year, instead of just one. To learn more, reach out to us at 301-571-5040.