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Safety first
One of the easiest ways to keep your laptop running smoothly is to keep it
- and your data - safe. Viruses and other malware can wreak havoc on a PC, and
if that doesn't concern you, just bear in mind that while your PC spends its
resources on running unwanted programs, there are fewer resources to run the
ones you want.
15 - Check for viruses
As well as ridding your laptop of background programs that have been deliberately
- if perhaps misguidedly - installed, it's also essential that you keep it clear
of less welcome visitors. Apart from the inherent security risks computer viruses
pose, they also gobble up memory, processor time and battery life, and once
one starts sending itself to all the contacts in your email address book, you
may lose some friends too.
Anti-virus software is an essential addition to any laptop and if yours doesn't
have any installed, download and install AVG
Antivirus - it's free for personal use. Whichever anti-virus program you
use, it's important to keep it up to date, so make sure its auto-update feature
is enabled and that your laptop is online at least once a week so that it can
download updates.
16 - Check for spyware
Spyware may be less harmful than a virus, but it's still an uninvited and unwanted
guest on any laptop. Simply uninstalling the program it used to piggy-back on
to your laptop is seldom enough: most spyware needs to be hunted down and thoroughly
eradicated by a specialist tool. The two best programs in this field are Ad-Aware
and Spybot
Search & Destroy, both of which are free for personal use. As with anti-virus
software, both programs must be kept up to date, and you should run both regularly
- one may miss spyware that the other program will catch.
17 - Install a firewall
Your laptop may be safe online when its sitting behind the hardware firewall
in your wireless router, but what about when you're using someone else's connection?
Install a software firewall and you'll get an extra layer of online protection,
no matter how you connect to the net. Sunbelt
Kerio Personal Firewall is free for personal use - so get it.
18 - Windows updates
That Windows XP needs a hefty update every week or so to fix its various problems
is a fact of life and many of these updates are important security patches that
you should not ignore. That said, you can do without Windows automatically downloading
and installing 20Mb worth of files, then pestering you to restart your laptop,
when all you want to do is check your email and get on with some important work.
The solution is to change the way Windows' Automatic Updates works. Right-click
My Computer, choose Properties and click the Automatic Updates tab on the dialog
box. Select the "Notify me..." option and Windows will tell you when
updates are available, but won't download or install them until you say so -
just don't forget to download them when you're back on mains power.
19 - Set a password
Even if you're the only one who uses your laptop, you should set a Windows
password. You will have to enter the password whenever you start Windows, although
you can bypass it when resuming from Hibernate and Standby modes. However, you
can also lock the laptop whenever you need to leave it unattended by pressing
[Windows] [L], which is better than leaving your work for the world to see.
Regular maintenance
You've tweaked your laptop to improve its performance, but don't think that's
all there is to keeping it running smoothly. Regular maintenance will keep it
that way - and without it, you'll be back to square one.
20 - Clean up your hard disk
Windows creates all manner of temporary files as you use it, and similar files
are left behind when you install applications and browse the web. Laptop hard
drives are not exactly huge to begin with, so leaving all this digital detritus
behind is a waste of space. To clear it up, right-click your hard drive in My
Computer, select Properties and click the Disk Cleanup button on the dialog
box. Once the disk has been analysed, tick the boxes on the list of Files to
delete (everything except "Compress old files"), then click OK. Having
done this, untick the "Allow Indexing Service..." box on the dialog
box, before clicking OK. Disk indexing can degrade system performance, and you
won't miss it.
21 - Defrag!
Ridding your hard disk of all that unwanted junk will have left pockets of
free space scattered across it. Rather than having the hard disk seek here and
there for free space when you save a file, it's better to consolidate the space
into one chunk by defragmenting the hard disk. This has the added benefit of
consolidating fragments of files that were scattered across the disk as a result
of there not being enough free space in one place to hold them when they were
first created. You can find Windows' own disk defragmenter on the Tools tab
of the hard disk Properties dialog box.
22 - Clean up the Desktop
The more Desktop icons Windows has to keep track of, the less time it has for
handling everything else, so keep your Desktop clean for a smooth-running laptop.
The Windows Desktop Cleanup Wizard (right-click the Desktop, Properties >
Desktop tab > Customize Desktop) will help the chronically disorganised;
for everyone else a few Desktop folders for 'Images', 'Documents' and other
files should suffice.
23 - Streamline the Registry
Just as your laptop's hard disk fills with unwanted files over time, the Windows
Registry also gets left with unwanted and useless entries. Keeping the Registry
lean and compact will keep Windows running smoothly, and may prevent programs
crashing. RegSupreme
costs just $13 (£7) and allows you to remove redundant Registry entries,
as well as fix any errors, automatically.
24 - Keep it clean
It's not just your laptop's screen and keyboard that you should keep clean
- pay close attention to its air vents, too. If an air vent becomes clogged,
warm and cool air won't circulate freely, which means the cooling fans will
have to work overtime, reducing battery life as a result. Clean the vents with
a compressed air cleaner, and hold a vacuum cleaner nozzle nearby to suck up
the dislodged dust.
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