Weekly PC Maintenance Tasks

There are a few things that should be done on a weekly basis for sure. The first, and probably most important, is to run a virus scan. I would highly recommend setting up some type of automated schedule in your virus protection software so you don’t forget to do this. I personally like to do Friday at lunch for my work PC. This way I am not disrupted by the scan too much.

Another task I would recommend doing weekly or biweekly is defragmenting your hard drive. This will keep your hard drive running efficiently at all times and keep fragmentation at a minimum.

Monthly Computer Maintenance Tasks

There are things that should be done on a monthly basis as well. I like to run a spyware scan monthly to make sure my computer stays spyware free. This is something that could be done more often if you would like. I would recommend Ad-Aware as a good, free spyware scanner.

Another good task to do monthly is cleaning up your disk when it comes to unused programs, folders, and files. I like to delete temporary files and cookies, check to see if I have any unused programs I can delete, and check to see if I have any old docs, videos, pictures, etc that I can delete. Cleaning up your disk monthly can help keep your disk usage low and your hard drive running efficiently.

One last thing I like to do monthly is to clean my registry. This is something that I would consider optional. This is a debated topic as some people say it does wonders and other people think it is not worth the risk. The risk being you could delete a needed registry key. Most registry cleaners backup your registry before cleaning, which should cut down or even eliminate any risk. I personally have not had any problems when using a registry cleaner. Also, I have tested it using performance monitoring tools and noticed that it does help performance a bit. I personally use Registry Booster. However, there are many good registry cleaners on the market.