Maintaining a Computer System

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Schedule De-fragmentation of a Computer System

Computer systems sometimes don’t save data in an efficient way on the hard disk and this can decrease the performance of the system due to this it is often wise to run a disk defrag on a regular basis. This can be done by following these simple steps below.

  • I launched disk defragmenter, this can be located within the Control Panel, and clicked configure schedule: I selected the weekly option added a date and time.
  • My disk will now automatically defragment on a weekly basis every Wednesday at 1:00 AM in the morning.
  • This will keep the operating system and files running smoothly on the system and should speed up the processing time.

Scan Anti-Virus

Scanning the computer for Viruses is a regular maintenance task, which is usually performed on most systems to protect vital data being lost or hardware from being damaged by malicious software. This is shown below within the bullet points.

  • The computer system being scanned by a free Anti-Virus scanned called Malwarebytes. For most computer systems, Windows Defender is also capable of running this sort of scan. Malwarebytes will present you with an option to scan, click this button, this will run a full scan.
      • As you can see the scanning software checks each file for as suspicious or malicious software, which could damage the operating system files or hardware. If any are found the software moves them into quarantine to then be deleted at the user’s permission.
  • Scan Registry Errors

    A Microsoft operating system uses a registry to store important settings that enable the operating system to run correctly such as the default application to open specific file types. If this application was uninstalled the registry files may still exist and therefore are redundant. Running a registry scanner such as Ccleaner below can remove these unneeded files ensuring that they do not cause errors or slow the computer down in the future. Below shows the bullet points of the CCleaner registry scanner running:

            • The cleaner scans for issues: This time however there were no issues found, but if there were the application would offer to clear them by deleting the registry files.
            • This is just a quick scan that enables you to check if there are any issues.

    Windows Updates

    Windows updates are a vital and valuable tool to the Microsoft operating systems. They offer fixes, support and upgrade for the operating system in order for it to maintain security and to allow it to adapt with the times. Below talks of how the updates are searched for on the Windows 7 operating system.

            • Click control panel in the start menu. This will then show you all of the options you are able to do with the computer such as its settings or other customizable things such as the background, however, this is just being used to install Windows Updates for the meantime.
            • Click security and settings. This will now show you other settings that you are able to change click “Check for updates” under “Windows Update” the system then checks for updates and installs any that are necessary; this usually requires a reboot of the computer system for completion.

    File Management

    As the course client is a businessperson, file management is essential to allow for efficient and organised work. Many users overlook file management when using a computer system but after some time this can become a burden to the user when attempting to find files and folders. For example, our business client would deal with many customers every single week so they would need to save the files that relate to the customer in an organised way. This could be done using an alphabetic organizational structure, just as illustrated in the screenshot below.

    New folders are created from A-Z

    Organising clients photographs and work in this way would save time in the future when searching over past clients.

    Backup

    It’s important to many users that their data and personal files are backed up to an external or secondary storage medium encase the system fails and the hard drive corrupts. To stop this from happing I’ve installed a free tool called EaseUS Todo backup which can automatically back up the system, files and disks. Below talks of how the back up is initiated:

    System back up is selected:

            • Location of the backup is selected and named: E.g Windows Hard Drive
            • The backup begins: It will ensure that all your work is safe
            • This will allow the user to reinstall the system to a later date saving all of their settings and personal files

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