5 Maintenance Tips to Resolve Your PC's Performance Issues

The consistency of your computer's performance is greatly affected by its speed. It will not be running as fast as it used to when it was fresh out of the box. Usually, its common problems are the result of viruses, spywares and registry overload. These issues can be easily stabilized with proper care as well as regular hardware maintenance check. You should not wait for the time that all your important data are lost because you did not take the necessary maintenance procedures to improve the computer speed performance while increasing the lifespan of your system.

* Check your hard drive regularly. Always keep your system working well by having your hard drive regularly checked, cleaned and de-cluttered so you can quickly access your programs and files. Running a disk check can help identify and remove errors, such as "DLL, SYS and EXE", in the hard disk usually caused by crashes or power failures. Do it regularly once every few months to make sure that the drive itself properly functions. You can do this when you click My Computer, right click drive C, select properties and choose the Tools tab. Under Error Checking option, click the Check Now button, check all the boxes and click Start. Choose Automatically fix file system errors in order to automatically repair problems with regards to files and folders that the scan detects. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors will perform a thorough disk check and attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk although it takes a longer time to complete.

* Perform a disk cleanup. Disk cleanup is another method that can resolve the issues on the performance of your computer. It is a computer maintenance utility included in the Windows package that is designed to free up disk space on the hard drive of your computer. The process involves searching and analyzing for files that are no longer used. The next step would be the removal of temporary files in order to free up some disk space. These files usually include temporary Internet and Windows files, compressed old files, downloaded program files, unused applications or optional Windows components, setup log files, offline files and Recycle Bin. Over time, these files could accumulate so it is always important to clean them up. You can do this once a month by clicking on My Computer then right click drive C, select properties and choose the Disk Cleanup tab.

* Use the Disk Defragmenter utility. The Disk Defragmenter is a computer program included in the Windows package that is designed to increase access speed and sometimes even increase the amount of usable space. The disk performance and speed is increased as it pierces together several parts of files that have been broken apart. This will help optimize the time it takes to read and write the files to and from the disk as it minimizes the head travel time while it maximizes the transfer rate. You will observe that, over time, files and folders are broken into chunks of data. If you want to access these files, it takes a lot of work for your hard disk to look in more places in order to find all the contents and this is known as fragmentation. The Disk Defragmenter will help piece back together these chunks of data so that your hard drive can load it a lot easier. Disk defragmenting should be done at least once a month and it is best to run once you are finished with all your work for the day. You will observe that using this utility can often take several hours to complete. You can perform this when you click on My Computer, right click on the drive C, choose Properties, select the Tools tab, and click the Defragment Now button under the Defragmentation option.

* Check for Windows update automatically. Higher versions of Windows will automatically check if it should be updated. You can find patches, updates and security fixes for Windows and other programs that you need to install always so that your PC will be up-to-date. When you choose Automatic Updates, it can easily make necessary checks on its own and will prompt you whenever you need to do something. Make sure that this option is always on and you can do this when you click Start, go to Control Panel, click Automatic Updates and choose Automatic (recommended).

* Empty your Recycle Bin. If you notice, deleting files and moving it to the Recycle Bin will only remove it from the folder but not from the hard drive. Unless you accidentally do it then you can just restore the file to its original folder. Periodically emptying the Recycle Bin is recommended in order to free some disk space.

These fixes can be a bit tedious but you have to remember that these are necessary ways to help your computer running smoothly. Don't forget to check your hard drive once in a while. If you experience certain issues with your computer and you are hesitant to fix it, might as well consult a computer repair service provider.