Well that was 2019 – and good riddance to it as far as mmyself and my family are concerned, here’s to 2020 and moving forward. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and are also looking forward to a healthy and stress-free year!
It’s usually around this time of year that my customers think of getting their computers checked over to make sure they are up to date and ready for the coming months of use. There are a few things that you can check yourself to try to keep your computer running in tip top condition.
1. Check for updates – all the modern versions of windows require updating on at least a monthly basis. If you’re using Windows 10 then it’s likely that you’ve not installed the “feature updates” as only the critical updates are installed automatically. To check which updates you have available click on the start button > settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.
2. Consider giving yourself a “post-Christmas” present of a solid state drive – replacing your hard drive with a new ‘solid state drive’ is likely the quickest way that you can supercharge your computer. If you want to know more then have a read of the article I wrote on them at www.bluemoonsolutions.es/solid-state-drives-ssds
3. Check and remove any PUP’s and SpyWare – by simply using your computer and by browsing the Internet, you will pick up unwanted programs and general ‘rubbish’. There is a quick and easy way in which you can identify this and remove it. Malware Bytes is a great program that is available for free for the first 30 days, so why not pop over to www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download and download a copy, run it on your computer and zap anything that it finds.
4. Backup, Backup, Backup! Yes I know that I keep banging on about backups, but that’s because they are the single most important thing that you should be doing if you care about your data (if you don’t then you can skip this stage). If you want to keep your pictures, documents etc. in the event of a failure of your computer then you need to back them up. Again, if you’d like more information then you can find it at www.bluemoonsolutions.es/why-are-backups-important-and-what-do-i-need
Of course there is much more that you can do, if you want a full health check then give either your usual computer guy (or us) a call and get your computer running as well as it can.