This time of year, many people get out the heavy duty vacuums, mops, and such for a serious cleaning of home, garage, and office. The Pelarious Experts want you to tack on one more item to the agenda: Your Computer. We've prepared a checklist of "to-dos" that should be done periodically to maintain a healthy computer station.
1) Update your applications and operating system using Software Update (Mac) and Windows Update (Windows PC)
2) Sort your email In-box.
- Delete unnecessary emails
- Create new folders for organizing your emails
- Empty the email trash
- Re-evaluate filters, especially "Junk" filters
3) Delete programs you're no longer using.
4) Clean your mouse, mouse pad, monitor and keyboard.
- Try OmniCleanz from Radtech. It cleans all surfaces of your computer.
http://www.radtech.us/Products/OmniCleanz.aspx
5) Address ergonomic concerns at your desk.
- Adjust your chair height to a comfortable position with your desk.
- Adjust your monitor height so that the top of the monitor is just above eye-level.
- Adjust the room lighting to relieve eye strain.
- Consider adding a footrest to relieve back stress and knee tension.
6) Check the reliability of your computer bag. Ask yourself...
- Is the strap still sturdy?
- Is the padding worn down?
- Does it hold all the accessories you regularly need?
7) Remove unused peripheral devices.
- The Zip drives, floppy drives, jazz drives, scanners, and other peripheral devices may not be necessary.
8) Remove unused desktop icons, aliases, or shortcuts.
9) Test your backups. You should be testing your data backup regularly and now is a good time to do it again. Your backup solution is not complete unless you are able to recover data from it. Also, test your battery backup to ensure your system is safe during a power failure.
10) Change or rotate your passwords. It's a good idea to not use passwords for long periods of time. Read on to get Expert tips on creating good passwords!
Download this checklist.
