Maintenance Tips To Keep Your Computer Healthy

There are several tools and utilities available today that can help you keep your Windows Vista computer healthy, and also recover it from failures. Some of these tools are shipped along with Vista, and a few are third-party tools that you can use to perform regular preventive maintenance of your system.

Let’s take a look at some of these tools and their uses.

Windows Vista Tools

The following are some of the tools shipped with Windows Vista that can help you maintain a healthy PC and recover it from problems.

Disk Cleanup

As you work on your PC, you hard disk gets filled up with loads of junk information even without your knowledge. This junk information usually comprises temporary Internet files, old program setup files, uncompressed system files—that are rarely used, and deleted files. To keep your hard disk healthy, you must regularly clean these files. You can easily do this with the help of the Windows Vista Disk Cleanup utility.

Disk Defragmenter

As data is frequently added and removed from the hard disk, it tends to get fragmented. A fragmented hard disk increases the load on the hard disk header when it tries to read stored information, and the data access speed slows down. To get rid of fragmented data on your computer, you must regularly use the Disk Defragmenter tool to consolidate this fragmented data. The best thing about the Windows Vista Disk Defragmenter tool is that you can schedule it to automatically defrag your hard disk at regular periods.

Automatic Backup and Complete PC Backup

Depending on your Windows Vista edition, you may have access to two Vista backup tools, Automatic Backup and Complete PC Backup. You can use the Automatic Backup utility to make regular backups of all your data files including Word documents, e-mail, and worksheets on an external media, such as Writeable CDs, Tape, and Pen drives. Complete PC Backup is an image-based backup utility that you can use to backup everything that is on your hard disk including your operating system, programs, and data files.

System Restore

Windows Vista System Restore is a useful utility that helps in restoring your system configuration to the time when it was error free. By default, System Restore in Vista is enabled on your computer. It works by taking snapshots of your system configuration, registry files, and other system setup information. If an incorrect program installation or change in system settings causes problems on your system, you can use System Restore to revert the configuration to the snapshot that was taken before the changes were done to the system settings.

Third-Party Tools

The following are a few essential third-party tools that you can use to perform preventive maintenance of your Windows Vista PC.

Registry Cleaner

The registry is an essential component of your Windows Vista PC because it is a storehouse of all essential configuration information required to run the system. Registry errors usually occur due to the accumulation of loads of junk information within the registry. To prevent these errors, it is recommended that you regularly clean your registry with the help of a reliable registry cleaner tool.

Antivirus and Antispyware

Malware infections, such as virus, Trojans, spyware, and adware can adversely effect the performance of your computer by not only slowing it down, but also generating several computer errors. To prevent these infections, you must regularly scan your PC with the help of efficient and updated antivirus and antispyware tools.