The popular saying “Health is wealth”. A lot of people think it has to do with our body only, but that is a wrong notion.Taking good care of everything around us is part of good health. Let’s take a simple example: You have a car and you jump into every pot hole on the road without proper care and you expect to enjoy the car like the other person who drives carefully and minds the pot holes, I am sure that is not possible. I am not saying the car cannot develop fault because it’s a mechanical device, but that occurrence will be minimal.
Today we are going to look at how to take good care of our Computer devices, such as Desktop, Laptops, Palmtops, and Notebook etc.
Taking care of our computer is very easy and may not cost you much money unlike car maintenance. Following the below recommendation will help and give your computer system a longer life span with ultimate performance and utility.
1. USE AN ORIGINAL OPERATING SYSTEM / ANTIVIRUS
The first thing to do in other for your computer system to be effective and safe is to have an original license Operating System and Antivirus programme installed i.e a licensed version. Many Nigerians today use a system without having a good antivirus, of course some use antivirus with cracked or fake serials key and keygen to prolong and activate the antivirus. The job of such programme is to help make the Antivirus programme look and work like an original and sometimes it even updates.
From experience I have discovered that the Software works well at the initial face but later stops working and over 90% of the keygen, crack and fake serials key have virus, backdoors and sniffers hidden in it which will further expose your computer. Important information such as password can be stolen and they can even destroy the operating system.
My advice is that your get a good and original antivirus and make sure you are running an original Operating System, it comes with brand new computers or you can get it from Microsoft approved stores for about $200. More details: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-8.1-Pro/productID.288401500
2. UPDATE YOUR COMPUTER
This is another important aspect that helps to keep your system safe and effective without it going slow or “hanging”. A lot of computer engineers out there will install a system for you and deactivate the automatic update, this is 100% wrong, some do it because it consumes internet data, but it is very important and only core professional users who know how to handle manual update are allowed to deactivate the update.
The update is vital in the system operation: this was programmed for the system to get up-to-date security features for optimal performance, once activated it will regularly check for update when the computer is connected to the internet, for more details about update and to check if your system update is currently activated, visit your operation system website.
3. PROPER SHUTDOWN
This is another issue that almost all computer users are found guilty of doing, especially the core professionals, even I. Before now, I manually shutdown my system when I am in a hurry or when the battery is low, so I just use the power button to shut down. Sincerely I learned this the hard way; this caused a great damage to the operating system and damages the cells of the battery.
The lack of proper shut down will end up destroying a computer slowly, so if you really value the data you have on your computer, please once the battery is low; put it off the normal way. Say no to POWER BUTTON SHUT DOWN.
4. PROLONG HIBERNATING / SLEEP
Hibernating or sleep is the process of putting off a computer system without stopping the current programmes. This was created by the designer to help in a situation where you want to rest or take a short walk away from the computer, or other reasons, but over time, many user resolve to this instead of shutting down.
Take for example you are working on a graphic suite such as Corel Draw or Photo Shop of about 80 pages and you discover that the computer battery is low, it will surely take you a longer time to save such work, so you can quickly hibernate the computer. But we often over use this and it has a side effect on the operating system, as a matter of fact, it is one of the major factor that leads to System Crash. Hibernate only when necessary, remember too much of everything is bad except God.
5. USE OF KEYPAD
Sometimes it surprises me the way and manner some people strike a key when typing, many user uses the keyboard as if they are hitting a nail with an hammer, they strike the keys so hard that is produces sound, this is very bad and the more you do such it will damage the keys and if you are using a laptop, be ready to get another one because it will also damage the mother board of the computer, remember that the keyboard is directly above the mother board.
Please be careful when typing and if you notice a key is bad or stiff; kindly change the keyboard rather than damage the mother board.
6. MOVEMENT
The way you move your computer system is very important and it has to be done with proper care, mostly for laptops, palmtops, notebooks etc.
Putting your system under a hard/heavy load is very bad and can cause physical damage to the computer; it can break the screen, affect the touch functions or even cause hardware failure. It is recommended to keep the system safe. Carry it in a laptop bag/carrier and not just any bag you feel like. For instance, some even carry it in a nylon “poly bag” which is more dangerous.
7. BACKUP
Saving your data on flash drive or CD is not a recommended form of backup in this age of computer, if you truly value your documents, then you should be ready to keep it safe. You shut down normally and keep to all the aforementioned but what if anything happens and your PC is damaged? How do you secure your data? What if your external hard drive is corrupt with virus or the CD got broken and flash drive is missing? Presently the most secured way to save your data is to use the Cloud System.
For some, this may not be the first time you are hearing about cloud saving, even if you don’t use it. What then is cloud saving?
Cloud saving is the process of saving documents on the World Wide Web in a secured location allocated to a user or group of people either for free or a fee.
It is simple to use cloud saving, once you can check your email, you can save on the cloud. Below are some of the best and of course free ones for you.
Dropbox: This is my favourite when it comes to cloud saving, it is also one of the very first to offer free accounts and I have been using it for the past 5years, I have changed my computer so many times but I still keep the documents safe. Recently the largest email company YAHOO partnered with dropbox to further help users save their document directly from their email.
Dropbox offer a free account of 2 gigabyte and guess what? If you invite your friends to use the service, you get rewarded with more space to save, if you install with the same account on your smart phone, you also get more space to save. For more detail about dropbox visit www.dropbox.com
GoogleDrive: It is no longer news that Google is the largest search engine and it has so many other products such as Blogger,
Gmail, GooglePlus etc. just like Dropbox, GoogleDrive is another very good product that also allows you to save online.
GoogleDrive offers you a better plan with 15 gigabyte for the free account and a very cheap monthly package if you want to extend up to 30 terabyte for about $300. So for general PC user you can enjoy up to 17 gigabyte free of cloud saving by using Dropbox and GoogleDrive together on the same computer.
SUMMARY
If you love your computer and you know the importance of your data, there is nothing stopping you from following the above steps. If you need further help or more explanation about any of the above or other related issues about your computer, do not hesitate to ask or send a contact us via our contact page.
Thank You.
