As we ring in the new year, we may have a seemingly endless mental tally of things we want to improve in our life for the following year. So as we look to start new projects, don’t forget to focus on giving your computer the well-earned TLC it needs.
Your computer requires a lot of maintenance, things you ideally keep up on weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Regardless of how on top of it you’ve been, let’s walk through some things you can do in the new year to refresh your computer and your workspace.
Wipe down your keyboard, monitor, and mouse
Before we can clean up the data and software inside our computer, we have to take care of the outside! The first thing you can do is use some compressed air to dust your keyboard off. The compressed air can be applied to tricky to reach spots, like your keyboard, to get out trapped debris. You can also remove the dust from the rest of your keyboard using a slightly damp cloth.
After a bit of time, your monitor or screen has probably built up a decent amount of dust. Now is a good time to wipe down these monitors using a dry cloth. Be sure to wipe gently. A microfiber cloth will be your best friend for this!
Last but not least, don’t forget your mouse. The mouse may be the dirtiest of the three, as you probably use it constantly for your computer. Unplug your mouse or turn it off. Dust off any interior or exterior surfaces that need it. If you want to go the extra mile, use rubbing alcohol on your cloth to wipe down the outside.
Dust off your hardware
Not only do you need to clean the outside of your computer regularly, but the hardware inside your computer also needs cleaning. You will want to open your computer’s casing and use compressed air to get any dust out of your computer. Laptops can be tricky to clean, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions for disassembly.
Run disk clean-up
If you spend a lot of time on your computer, you’ve likely collected plenty of files taking up room on your hard drive. Running disk clean-up, or sorting through your files yourself, will help free up storage space and allow your computer to run more efficiently. Disk clean-up will eliminate any unnecessary temporary files and enable you to remove large files or attachments you no longer need. This should be done regularly to avoid accumulating a lot of temporary files or documents you don’t need constant access to.
Defragment your hard drive
When data is fragmented on your hard drive, it can eventually slow down, making it harder to access files quickly. Defragmenting your hard drive reorganizes and streamlines fragmented data to allow your hard drive to access them more efficiently and potentially free up storage space. Your hard drive likely defragments on an automatic schedule, but now is an ideal time to check in and run it manually.
Backup your computer
Backing up your computer is the most important thing to protect your data. Regularly backing up your computer is essential to maintaining your digital life. A good guideline is to follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups: have 3 copies of your data in 2 different types of storage with 1 offsite copy. To learn more about backing up your data, read our post on it here.
Check your security and antivirus software
Now is the time to make sure your plans are still active and updated for any security and antivirus software you rely on. This software may need updates, so make sure to check in on them.
Update your computer
Your computer needs many updates to run at its peak performance. Check for significant updates, operating system updates, firmware updates, and driver updates for your devices. While your computer likely does these automatically, it is always best to make sure you don’t get behind on any.
The new year is the perfect opportunity to set healthy habits for you and your computer. Try and accomplish some of these tasks in the next week, and set yourself a schedule for continued maintenance in the new year.
