Speed up your PC: Automate your computer
maintenance schedule
Most people do one of the following when
their computer begins to slow down (besides get angry):
1. Speed
up their computer by buying more memory.
2. Try
to tweak their computer's settings.
3. Give
up. They figure that their computer is old, there's nothing else they can do,
and it's probably time to buy a new computer.
All these solutions can help increase PC
speed. However, what's to keep your newly blazing PC from slowing down again
after a couple months or years? A badly fragmented hard drive will bring even a
top-of-the-line new computer to a grinding halt.
One option is to create a preventive PC
maintenance plan—a computer maintenance schedule that's easy to set up and put
in motion so you never have to think about it again. The plan outlined in this
paper uses tools that are built in to your Windows operating system,
including
Disk Defragmenter, so they can be run free of charge as often as you like.
The following sections provide information on
how to automate a maintenance schedule to help keep your PC running smoothly.
These procedures differ from version to version, but overall you'll find these
tasks work for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
Create a preventive maintenance plan for
your computer
When people notice their computer's performance slowing, the
most common reason is the hard disk. Your computer's hard disk is a
non-removable area that holds all the information available from your computer.
Over time, hard disks begin to lose their ability to store data efficiently.
The Windows operating system provides three great tools to help
keep your hard drive humming smoothly. These tools are Disk Cleanup, Disk
Defragmenter, and Check Disk. Find more
information about using these tools to optimize your PC.Ideally you should clean the hard disk of temporary
files, optimize (defragment) the hard disk, and check the hard disk for errors
on a weekly basis.
Who has the time (or the desire) to keep up with this schedule?
The best solution is to let Windows do all of the work.
Windows allows you to set up and automate these tasks. Please
note that the tools may require user input or administrator privileges to run
correctly. See specific sections for additional details, and make sure you know
your administrator password.
Tip: In Windows 7 and
Windows Vista, you can go directly to any of the tools mentioned in this
article. Just click the Start button, and, in the Search box,
type the name of the tool. When you see the name of the tool populate in the
Search list, just click it. This works for the Task Scheduler tool referenced
on some of the pages linked to in this article, as well.
Clean up your hard disk
Your computer amasses temporary files over time. These files can
come from any number of sources, with the web being one of the largest
offenders. After a while, these temporary files will slow down your computer.
About once every week, you should run the Windows Disk Cleanup
utility to clear your PC of these temporary files. The Windows Disk Cleanup
tool requires user input to complete its designated task. For this reason, it
is recommended that, when setting up the utility to run automatically (as
described in the next paragraph), you choose a time when you are typically on
the computer so you can provide this input. When using the Create Basic
Task Wizard, select the Open the Properties dialog for this task
when I click Finish check box. This allows you to access additional
properties related to the task. On the Settings tab, select
the Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed check
box to ensure that the task starts the next time you are logged on to your computer.
Schedule Disk Cleanup to run
automatically:
Optimize your fragmented files
Whenever a file becomes too large to store in a single location
on your hard disk, your computer breaks that file into parts (or fragments).
Don't worry, though. Your computer keeps track of all these fragments, piecing
them together whenever the file is accessed.
However, as fragmented files accumulate on your hard disk, your
computer becomes gradually slower. This is because your computer has to go
through all these fragmented files to piece the correct parts together again.
Although there's nothing you can do to prevent the fragmentation
of files, Windows does have a utility (Disk Defragmenter) to help deal with
this situation. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented files, resulting in
increased free space on your hard disk and quicker performance from your PC.
About once every week, you should run the Windows Disk
Defragmenter utility.
Note: Windows 7 and
most versions of Windows Vista are preconfigured to automatically run Disk
Defragmenter on a weekly basis. Follow the directions for your operating system
to confirm that Disk Defragmenter is already set up or to make changes to the
existing schedule.
Set up Disk Defragmenter to run
automatically:
Check your hard disk for errors
Whenever a program you're using crashes, your computer may
create errors on your hard disk. These errors will eventually slow your
computer to a crawl.
The good news is that Windows includes a Check Disk program.
Check Disk corrects these types of errors on your hard disk, resulting in
better PC performance.
About once every week, you should run the Check Disk utility.
While Check Disk runs, a black window will open. If you happen to be working at
your computer when the window opens, you can ignore it. The window will
automatically disappear when Check Disk is complete.
Note: You must be
logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. If you aren't logged on
as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user
account.
Set up Check Disk to run automatically:
Follow the prompts in Task Scheduler to schedule a program to
run at a set time (for Windows 7 and Windows Vista only—the directions in Step
1 for Windows XP are all inclusive).
Note: Check Disk isn't
available within the scroll-down list of programs that you select from in the
Task Scheduler, so you'll need to select it manually. To select it, click Browse.
Then, navigate to windows\system32\chkdsk.exe. Select chkdsk.exe,
and then click Open.
Schedule tasks
The best way to schedule tasks as described in the previous
sections varies depending on how you use your computer. For example, if you
shut down your computer every day, schedule the tasks to perform during a time
when your computer is typically on. You can do this by editing the Task properties
as described in the steps for each utility and operating system. On the Settings tab,
select the Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is
missed check box when creating the new tasks described in this
article. This ensures that the task starts the next time you are logged on to
your computer, should it happen to be turned off during the scheduled time. If
you set your computer to Hibernate or Sleep and want to schedule the tasks to
run during that mode (for example, overnight), on the Conditions tab,
select the Wake the computer to run this task check box. If
you don't set these parameters during the initial setup, you can always go back
and access them via the Task Scheduler. Simply locate your task in
the Task Scheduler Library, and then double-click it. This opens
the Properties dialog box for a given task.
Let Windows do all the work
These automated tasks—while they seem simple enough—are the
foundation on which your computer's performance rests. Lucky for us, Windows
can completely handle these tasks. You never have to worry about them. You just
set up your maintenance tasks once, automate them, and let Windows take care of
the rest.
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