Max ignored the warnings. His friend Tunde nagged him to pay attention to them, but he turned a deaf ear, saying it wasn’t anything serious and that he would do it later. His computer wheezed like an old dog, but he just clicked “ignore” on the pop-ups demanding a clean-up. One morning, with a dramatic cough, the computer died. Panic flared as Max saw years of photos, memories, and unfinished work frozen on the black screen.
What would he do now? Call Tunde? If he did, he just might tell him, “I told you so.” He didn’t want to hear that, but he also knew Tunde was the best person to help him fix this, so he called. He learned a hard lesson that day: a messy computer can hide a digital disaster waiting to happen. Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today.
Would Max repeat this mistake again? I think not. This is what happens when your computer becomes a virtual graveyard of forgotten files and neglected updates. Today is the day to declutter. No more excuses!
What is this Computer day all about?
National Clean Out Your Computer Day (COYC) was first promoted in 2000 by the Institute for Business Technology and is now observed every second Monday of February annually. It is a day that prompts you to take out time to do some housekeeping on your computer (you can also extend it to other devices).
Alright, now I know what it is. What next?
You observe it, that’s what’s next.
Prerequisites:
- Get your computer
- Must know your way around your device
- Set aside at least 30minutes for this task
The following is a step by step guide on how to clean your computer:
1. Hardware
You use your devices regularly hence dust and bacteria are gradually making their abode there. Are you willing to host them? I think not. So let’s get it all cleaned up.
- Turn off your computer and unplug everything.
- Wipe down your screen/monitor with a cleaning fluid designed especially for that purpose
- Use a cotton swab and alcohol or compressed air to clean out your keyboards. If you’re cleaning your laptop, pay extra attention to those spaces in between lines of keys to get the dust and bacteria out. Also pay attention to the crevices around your laptops.
- For your fan and air vents, use the can of compressed air on them to get the dust off. Further use a soft brush to remove particles the air didn’t get rid off
2. Your desktop
If your desktop looks anything like the image above, we have some work to do. Select the icons you still need and organize them into folders deleting the ones you don’t need. A clean decluttered desktop is not only pleasing to the eye but improves your computer’s performance and make it easier to get to what you need in record time.
3. A visit to your files
Begin to identify duplicate, junk, residuals, caches, temporary files, unused/outdated photos, videos, audios, applications, pre-installed apps that you do not use, software, the works and click the delete button or key.
4. Organize
Now, organize the remaining relevant files into properly named folders and sub folders(that you can remember).
5. Backup
Backup your important documents, photos, etc. to an external hard drive, cloud storage service(e.g Google drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, etc.) or another device.
6. Emails
How many unread emails do you have? Today is the day you check the kind of emails you have been receiving and begin to unsubscribe from newsletters, advertising emails, etc that you do not follow or have grown weary of.
7. Updates
This is the time where you check for updates to your OS, antivirus software and other programs installed on your computer. Updating would improve your computer’s security and performance.
8. Virus scan
Run a full scan with your antivirus software to check for any malware or viruses that just might be lurking on your computer. If any threats are detected, take appropriate action to remove them.
9. Disk cleanup and defragmentation
Run disk cleanup and disk defragmentation (read about it here) tools to optimize your computer’s performance. These tools help remove unnecessary files and organize data more efficiently. This also allows the drive to access the files more quickly and efficiently, resulting in faster performance overall.
Note that modern operating systems, such as Windows 10, often perform automatic defragmentation in the background, so manual defragmentation may not always be necessary. Additionally, SSDs typically do not benefit from defragmentation in the same way as traditional hard drives, so it’s generally not recommended to defragment SSDs.
Conclusion
Whew! That was intense! You’re all done that’s what matters. Welcome to the club of tech savvy individuals like us at JIN TECH who take extra steps to get the most of our computers to build the kind of lifestyle we want for ourselves.
You should make this a habit now. In the meantime, visit our website to stay updated with our lifestyle app coming soon. Thank you for reading through. Don’t forget to share this to any Max you know and to your many friends. Also, leave a clap(s) as well as your thoughts in the comment section.
