Top 7 Tips for Checking Your Computers Health

If you’ve been living for any significant amount of time, then you’ll find that you have less and less time to do the little things. We’re not talking about things such as whether or not you’re feeling good or your team members are right for the day, but rather the bigger picture. Are all the systems and internal processes working as they should? Is your time being best served for maximum output? All of this reflection is important to ensuring you are moving your team and business in the direction of success and progress.

With the recently passed pandemic, one thing we can say for sure is that the world has changed, permanently, the way things are done, on a day to day has changed, whether for good or worse. Today, there’s a greater emphasis on efficiency, ensuring your navigating the workforce and resources optimally. It’s up to you to ask yourself those pertinent questions, such as, what you can do to get the quickest results. You need to consider, what kind of things you can do to save both time and money. And whether or not a resource is interchangeable. There are a ton of resources that are designed specifically for streamlining your processes, this in turn leads to a more efficient workforce, which in turn positively effects your system.

The system health check is designed specifically to help the end user identity areas of their system and the processes within it that are working as they should, as well as those areas that may need improvement.

So, what are the kinds of things you should be doing, to ensure your system is in top condition?

1. Your System Is the Only Constant

What is meant by this is that when you first acquired your system, it was specifically configured to your needs at that time. However, this may have been several years ago, and the requirements of your businesses may have changed in more ways than you could have imagined. This can be a problem when all the software you use is setup to serve processes you no longer acknowledge. This can adversely affect your business, as the end user looks at your company as not being up to par, not being competitive within its target industry. The end result is less revenue.

2. Utilise Diagnostic Tools

These are tools or computer programs that are designed to give the system operator insight into the status of the system, at the time. If you have a Windows based system, then there is built in software, such as the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool, that you can use, along with the hundreds of different third-party solutions that are able to provide much greater insights into your RAM, CPU and other performance related components within the system. When you use a diagnostic tool, it gives you the opportunity to take a peek under the hood of your system, to learn about the different areas of the computer. So you can determine what’s doing what. If you have persistent errors or blank screen issues, then you could better analyse the culprit component with such tools.

Depending on the root cause of any issue, you may or may not be able to fix it. In certain situations it may be better to consult a professional or send a damaged component back to the manufacturer for a replacement.

3. Make Sure Your Computer Is Up-To-Date

This is a very important aspect of any computer, as this, not only has a positive effect on the overall health of the system, but it also ensures your safe while browsing the web. Microsoft are constantly releasing new patches for their operating systems, and if you fail to apply these updates, you could be putting yourself at risk. Just ensure that automatic updates is enabled on your system, so that any new update is automatically downloaded and installed on your system. To do that, just go to Settings -> Update & Security -> Advanced Options, and ensure the appropriate settings is selected there.

4. Empty the Recycle Bin

Once you click on File -> Delete, you may think that file has been erased from your computer. But the truth is, that it hasn’t. Once you erase a file, it’s immediately sent to the recycle bin. It’s here where the files are held, so that you can restore them whenever you want. The recycle bin is a very useful tool, however it can consume a considerable amount of hard drive space, if it isn’t regularly emptied. Emptying the recycle bin is a very easy process, just right-click on its Desktop Icon and select Empty. This will permanently remove all contents from the bin.

5. Always Consider Efficiency

Is this something you’re currently doing? As this is something that has become increasingly more important over the past couple of years. Fuelled primarily by the pandemic and change in working environments. Speed is now an important asset, as businesses are looking to move into spaces so that they can capitalise. At least until the bigger companies are able to pick up the slack. However, it’s not solely about building new businesses, but also about optimising costs, which is why it’s important you consider new ways of doing everyday tasks.

6. Run Security Scans

Any antivirus tool that you use today will be able to detect most system threats, such as adware, malware and the countless other malicious file types. But these tools do have their flaws, so it may be in your best interest to run regularly manual scans of your computer. Depending on the size of your hard drive, this could take several minutes to several hours – so that should be something to factor in, at least from a business perspective.

7. Remove Redundant Programs

It can be quite difficult to uninstall a program you’ve had for so long, and have used for a considerable length of time. You’d likely be consumed with the thought that you may need it again, some time. But there are many benefits to freeing up hard drive space. The most important one is, faster, more optimal system performance.

So, go ahead and browse through all your old programs and remove those you haven’t used in a very long time.

—AUTHOR INFO—

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website https://www.compuchenna.co.uk.