Happy New Year

Welcome to 2009

January 2009 is National Clean Up Your Computer Month

January is the month to start fresh, change and improve your lifestyle, and stick to those resolutions. So, you’re going to eat healthier, get more exercise, organize your closet. What about your computer? When was the last time you performed a clean up?

Run Disk Cleanup
Run disk cleanup to free up space on your hard drive.
1. Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. Select the drive you want to clean up and click OK.

Defragment Disk Drive
Run Disk Defragmenter to reorganize your files so that they open faster.
1. Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
2. Select the drive you want and click on Defragment.
You should defragment on a regular basis, weekly is best but monthly is acceptable, to keep your hard disk(s) properly optimized and always use the Full option. For best performance you should disable any screen saver or other automated software you may have running such as an anti-virus program.

If you don’t have an IT Department that creates backups on a regular basis:

Backup Your Hard Drive
Run a backup of your programs and files to prevent data loss and damage caused by disk failures, power outages, virus infections and other damaging events.
1. Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup
2. Click on Backup Wizard and follow the on screen instructions.
3. Be sure to make a set of emergency repair disks by clicking on Emergency Repair Disk, if you haven't already done so.

Here’s to healthier computing for 2009!