How to clean your computer

The heart of your computer is called the Registry. When the Registry is screwed up strange things happen. It's best to keep the registry clean and organised.

You can do this with a free piece of software called CCleaner. CCleaner will also get rid of all those files and logs that you don't need and clear away your Internet cache - this is just a record of where you have been on the web.

We do not recommend CCleaner in any way and Webgloss holds no responsibility if it destroys your computer. We can only tell you that we use CCleaner every day and it has never harmed any of our computers.

You must decide for yourself if you wish to take the risk of using CCleaner and we must reiterate that we do NOT recommend any software for your use.

If after reading and understanding all of the above you still want to download and use CCleaner then this is where you can get it:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Here is a handy article on how to use CCleaner:

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-9855787-12.html/

If you're now regularly cleaning your Registry and the rest of your left over files and logs it may be time to think about making your computer run even faster.

When files are stored on your computer they are allocated a suitable space according to their size. This space could be anywhere on your hard drive. When you delete files from your computer they are not actually deleted (unless you use software or settings that shred your files). Instead they are marked as being obselete and the next time your computer needs to save a file to your hard drive the space marked for overwriting is included in its free space. The files marked as obselete then may or may not be overwritten.

The result of all of this is that your hard drive is a messy mix of files that should be there, files that are marked as obselete and empty space.

The empty space is all over the place. Defragging your hard drives is a method of closing the gaps.

After defragging, the files on your hard drives are closer together and this means that, when you ask your computer to access files, your computer doesn't have to look in so many different places. It therefore takes less time and runs faster.

So defragging your hard drives once a week is an excellent idea.

You can download a free defragger called Defraggler that is a thousand times better than the ones shipped with Windows.

You must decide for yourself if you wish to take the risk of using Defraggler and we must reiterate that we do NOT recommend any software for your use. If after reading and understanding all of the above you still want to download and use Defraggler then this is where you can get it:

http://www.defraggler.com/download/

Here is a handy article on how to use Defraggler:

http://docs.piriform.com/defraggler/

We mentioned it earlier. One day your computer will not work anymore.

If you have faith, your computer has always worked and you just think it won't happen, then that's great.

But it will happen.

If you have nothing on your computer that you care about keeping, then that's fine. When the day comes, you can just go and get it fixed or pop out and buy a shiny new one.

BUT if you have ANYTHING on your computer that you would miss if you no longer had it, then when that day comes (because it will come) you may well be just a tad upset.

We have had phone calls from Webgloss clients who run well organised, efficient and successful businesses. These phone calls are not pleasant. Normally cool, calm company directors have turned on their computers, nothing has happened and they are no longer cool, calm and in control! They have staff who have attended risk management seminars. They train their employees well and they have insurance. But they leave the IT stuff to others because it seems complicated.

It really isn't complicated to plan for when your computers stop working.

We are asked what they should do and we reply that they should get hold of their backup and plug it into a spare laptop or computer so that they can carry on working without disruption whilst their main computer is being fixed.

Unfortunately the ones who phone us do not have any backups. They have work that must be done that day and they can only do it by getting at files that are on their computer.

If you run a business it is as essential to back up your data every day as it is to keep accounts - possibly more essential!

Perhaps your office has servers and all your computers are connected. The IT chap who fixed your email two years ago happened to mention that all the servers are backed up so no need to worry? Do you know how often the servers are backed up? Which data they back up and which they don't bother with? At what time of day they are backed up? What if they back up at lunch time and you worked on a huge project all afternoon? The next morning your computer breaks - they may not have a copy of that project!

You need to take responsibility for backing up your own files.

On the day that your computer does not work anymore you will be REALLY glad that you backed up your data.

Yes, it's possible that your data can be retrieved from your broken computer. It is also possible that it cannot be retrieved. It takes time to retrieve it if it is possible and often you need that data to carry on working productively.

A simple solution is to purchase an external portable hard drive, plug it in every day when you have finished working and copy all your working files to it before you leave the office and then TAKE IT WITH YOU.

An example of an external hard drive (which of course we are NOT recommending) which can be purchased at the Amazon website is:

Freecom 250GB Toughdrive Inch Drive

We do use this drive at Webgloss but we also use three other different makes of external hard drives just in case one breaks (yes - they break too!) and duplicate our backups fourfold. We also archive our backups and ensure that we have backups with us off site at all times. You could say that we are paranoid about backing up. We're not though. We just do it. Because once you do it regularly EVERY DAY you can forget about it.

Once you start backing up please ensure that you test your backups by checking that your data really is on the external hard drive. You could also use back up software if you want to back up more efficiently.

This page is about computer maintenance but we thought we'd mention the fact that every business has a duty to protect its client data. If a virus corrupts one of your clients' computers after you have sent it inadvertently in an email then you may have to prove that you took all reasonable steps to prevent infection.

Anti virus protection may be downloaded free of charge from AVG. This software has had excellent reviews and, although we have purchased Norton Security, McAfee Security and Zone Alarm Pro Security, the one we actually use at Webgloss is now AVG. It prevented more viruses than McAfee and we'd need to write a book to tell you all the nasty things that happened when we used Norton!

click here to download AVG

Once again, we accept NO responsibility if using AVG destroys your computer, scrambles all your data, causes your premises to catch fire or does anything untoward whatsoever as we in no way recommend this product and you need to decide for yourself which product, if any, you should use.

Webgloss unequivocally DOES NOT recommend any of the above actions or products. Anyone reading this page must make their own decisions concerning the software they use and whether they choose to back up their data. Without reservation Webgloss will not accept any responsibility for what happens as a result of doing any of the above.