Babel Machine

One of the inevitabilities of owning a computer is that performance will suffer over time. A speedy system can end up slowing to a crawl after a few months of adding new hardware, installing and uninstalling software, as well as general use.

Vista has a number of tools that can help maintain the performance of your computer. By using them regularly, you can keep your computer healthy and reduce the risk of crashes and data loss. A computer’s hard disk is among its most important components, so it will come as no surprise that the majority of maintenance tools included in Vista focus on cleaning up the disk and reorganising files so they can be accessed quickly and easily. Luckily, some maintenance tasks can be scheduled to happen automatically.

Read on to find out how to keep your Vista PC happy.

Tip 1 – Physical errors on your hard disk can not only lead to Windows crashing, but can also result in data loss. Should an area of the disk become corrupt, any data saved to it becomes unstable. Thankfully, Vista’s built-in Check Disk can be used to test the drive for errors in the way files are stored and move information out of any bad sectors. Go to Start > Computer, right-click on the icon for your hard drive and select Properties. Move to the Tools Tab and click the Check Now button. Tick both of the boxes and click Start. If you are checking the drive that has Windows installed on it, you will need to click the ‘Schedule disk check’ button and then restart your computer for the scan to continue.

Tip 2 – Although hard disks now have hue capacities, it is still a good idea to keep as much free space available as possible. As well as manually deleting files you no longer need, the Disk Cleanup tool can remove other unnecessary files. Click the Start button, then All Programs. From the Accessories menu select System Tools, then Disk Cleanup. Click the option ‘Files from all users on this computer’, then select the drive to be checked before clicking OK. Move to the More Options tab and you can start freeing up disk space by uninstalling programs you no longer need, as well as removing all but the most recent of System Restore points.

Tip 3 – This done, return to the Disk Cleanup tab and a list of unnecessary files in various categories will be listed. The different types of file are easy enough to identify, but after selecting an item in the list, you can click the View Files button to check anything you are not sure about. Work through the list of options and tick the box next to the relevant entry, then click the OK button to start the removal process. This will not remove all the temporary files completely, and if you want to do this press the Windows key and R simultaneously, type %temp%, press Enter and delete all the files in the folder that opens.

Tip 4 – It’s possible to store your Disk Cleanup settings. Click the Start button, type cleanmgr.exe /Sageset:100 (where 100 is any number between 0 and 65535) and choose your options. You will notice a number of other options are now available. Click OK. Now click the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. From the System Tools menu select Task Scheduler. Click ‘Create Basic Task’, enter a name and description, and click Next. Set your scheduling options. In the Action section, type cleanmgr.exe in the Program/script box and /Sagerun:100 (or the number you previously used) in the Arguments box.

Tip 5 – When creating and deleting files, your computer can become so disorganised that files take longer to open. By defragmenting the hard disk, files are reorganised so that all their component parts are next to each other on the drive, thus improving performance. Go to Start > Computer, right-click the icon for your hard disk, select Properties, then go to the Tools tab. Click the Defragment now button, followed by ‘Defragment now’ and your drive will be optimised. The defragmentation tool can also be accessed by clicking the Start button, followed by All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, followed by Disk Defragmenter.

Tip 6 – Remembering to defragment your disk regularly can be difficult, but it is possible to create a schedule so that the tools will run without the need for user intervention. Launch the disk Defragmenter. On the first screen make sure the option labelled ‘Run on a schedule (recommended)’ is ticked. Click the Modify Schedule button, then use the dropdown menu to choose how frequently the tool should be run. Most people will not need to defragment more than once a month, but if you create and delete a large number of files, weekly runs may help to maintain peak performance.

Tags: how to, maintenance, pc, tips, tricks, troubleshoot, vista, windows