How to keep your computer running smooth

Since the computer is actually a tool to get things done, it will require maintenance like any tool you use to keep it working efficiently and reliably. There are many people who just install anything on their computer without reading or even selecting manual install and choosing the components they want. They end up having toolbars, updaters, notification messages and other things that are not needed to run the software and only slow down your computer and thus yourself (takes you longer to get your job done). Not to mention opening the ‘funny program’ attached to an email you got from a ‘friend’ (that person did not actually send it but most likely a spam bot that was installed on their infected machine).

So here are some tips on how you can keep your computer running smooth and as problem-free-as-possible.

Drives and Partitions

Before we go to the backups we need to at least have more than just one drive. The reason is that it’s not a good idea to backup your data on the same drive because if your drive fails for some reason, you will not be able to restore the backup since it’s on the same drive that failed. Thus you will need at least one extra drive. This can be an internal or external drive. If you choose to buy an extra drive, make sure it has at least as much capacity as your main drive so that the backup will fit. External USB drives are fine too. If your external drive is a bit less in capacity than your main drive, then you can check how much space is used on your main drive as that will be the largest size of the backup (backup will be smaller since it uses compression). So if your main drive has 32Gb used, then your external drive needs to be at least 32 Gb in size (if you do not use compression).

If you decided to get a large capacity drive that is a lot more than the size of your main drive, then you might want to chop the drive into separate partitions for convenience. If you buy a house with one huge room, you would also want to divide it into smaller rooms for each to have their own purpose. I would advise to have one partition for the backups (the ‘backups’ partition) and one for files that do not need backing up (I would call this the ‘downloads’ partition). You can chop up your drive into partitions using tools like EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition.

If you decide not to get an extra drive and use the same drive that you have, then you will have to divide your drive into at least two partitions of equal size. One for Windows and the other for the backup. You will not be able to restore your backup if your entire disk fails though, but the chances of that happening is fairly low.

Backups

The most important of all tips is to at least make regular backups of your computer, and I am not talking about a simple file backup or “My Documents” backup. If you computer no longer boots for whatever reason (infection or defective hard drive) you will have to re-install Windows and all the programs and drivers and that can take a couple of hours if not days to get you back up and running again. There are scenario’s where even Windows System Restore cannot help (if you can no longer boot or you hard disk is dead). Wouldn’t it be nice to restore your system with just a few clicks and be back up and running within an hour or less (depending on the size of your backup)?

A great free backup tool is EASEUS Todo Backup. Here you would want to use the less obvious “Disk and partition backup” (on the right-side menu) functionality rather than System backup since we want to make some adjustments to the backup procedure. Make sure you select your backup partition as destination and select it to schedule the backup on a daily basis. Depending on the size of your backup partition you can select to keep the last 7 or 30 backups (Existing images cleanup rules). EASEUS Todo Backup will make incremental backups, that means the the first backup will contain all your files and will be very big and the next backups will only contain the new and modified files and thus will take less time to complete the backup. Note that the more backups you select to preserve, the more disk space this will take. If you are not sure how much backups you can preserve then simply enter 7. This will give you a history of up to one week to restore to.

If you have a slower computer or laptop, then making a backup every day can take a long time, use up lots of disk space and drain your battery. In that case I would advise to make a manual system backup to an external drive and update it regularly. You can do this in the Backup management option in Todo Backup once you made your backup. Simply update your existing backup by running it again or by deleting your old backup and creating a new one.

Also make sure you enable “PreOS” boot in the lower right corner of the options tab of Todo Backup. This will let you choose if you want to boot into Windows or Todo Backup when you start your computer. If you can no longer boot into Windows, then you can select Todo Backup to restore to you last backup when Windows was still working properly.

If you rather have a more advanced and experienced backup software, then I would recommend Acronis True Image Home (shareware).

Malware

Now that you have a safe backup of your system does not mean that you no longer need to be cautious of what files you open and what sites you visit. You might be able to restore to your previous state, but you should see this only as a failsafe solution in case of emergency. The best remedy is always a prevention.

Personally I have observed many Anti-malware solutions in action and so far my favorite isComodo Internet Security for several reasons. It’s free and it uses various techniques to keep your computer safe. Many other antivirus tools let an unknown program through. Comodo however runs the unknown program in a sandbox (a safe environment where a program ‘thinks’ it has access to your entire computer but is isolated from your system). If you tend to open unknown applications, then I would recommend to open them in the sandbox if Comodo asks you to. If you do not open files from emails and do not download suspicious files and rather not have the popups, then you can simply disable the Defence + and Sandbox by right-clicking on the Comodo icon in the tray. To save on system resources I would not recommend to install the firewall as well since the Windows firewall is pretty good in itself and if you are behind a router then you have an extra layer of firewall protection.

If you want to run unknown or suspicious applications without using a sandbox, then I would recommend to get the VirusTotal Uploader. This adds an option in your menu when you right-click on a file to upload it to the VirusTotal server and have it scanned with dozens of antimalware programs to give an idea of the threat of the program. Keep in mind though that sometimes some programs can detect certain files as ‘false positives’ and claim to be harmful while they are not.

If you believe you might be infected with something than you also might want to run a scan with Hitman Pro and / or Comodo Cleaning Essentials 2.0 32 bit (click here for 64 bit version) and / orMalwarebytes.

 

 

 

 

 

Software Maintenance

The more programs you install, the slower your computer gets as most programs that are installed have components that keep running in the background to check for updates, send error reports, etc.. All these background items also start when you start your computer so it takes longer for your computer to be ready. Also they consume your limited system memory so that you will have less memory left for your regular tasks. The result of this is that Windows will have to use your harddisk as memory if your main memory becomes full and that is what drastically slows down your computer and makes program a lot less responsive and take longer to start.

It’s better to completely uninstall a program that you no longer use rather than disable it in the startup since it will also save you disk space. To uninstall programs you can use the default windows software manager, however I would recommend Revo Uninstaller as many uninstallers leave stuff behind (like registry keys, a folder with configuration, shortcuts, etc..). Simply run Revo Uninstaller and inspect every single program you have and decide if you want to keep it or not.

If you want a complete PC check-up then I would recommend iolo System Mechanic. It’s a one-stop solution to fix your hard drive errors, startup-items, registry problems, system clutter and a lot more. I would recommend doing the deep scan and repair the detected startup items manually since sometimes it detects false positives (in my case it detected PicPick as a dangerous startup item).

Finally I would recommend Kingsoft PC Doctor as standard software for every PC you have. Among many features It offers an extra layer of protection on top of your existing antivirus as it has integrated cloud scanning of anything you download. You can also use it to disable startup items that you might want to remove, optimize your system, cleanup your registry, remove temporary files and windows update backup files (that can take up lots of space).

 

 

Hardware Maintenance

It’s also a good idea to get an air duster can and once in a while open up your computer (while it’s turned off and the power is unplugged) and dust it off on the inside, specially the fans. If the fans get too cluttered with dust, your computer will overheat and start failing or turn off while you are busy. Don’t forget to dust off the CPU, mainboard, Graphics card and chassis fan. And while you’re at it you can do the keyboard too.