Spring Cleaning? Don’t forget your PC!

With the hint of spring in the air, your energy levels are up, and so is your productivity. You’re on a roll at work and suddenly—it starts freezing. And we’re not talking about the weather.

PC users have at least one thing in common—we’ve all experienced the distracting error messages, load time lagging, buzzing and whirring that alert us to double-check our backup system just in case the dreaded “blue screen of death” appears. While these signs don’t necessarily mean your PC is going to quit on you anytime soon, they are symptoms of a straining hard drive and an overworked machine.

But it is spring after all… why not extend your spring cleaning regimen to include your PC as well? Follow these simple tips to organize your files, purge unnecessary data and back up important information so your PC is working efficiently and smoothly—and so are you.

Hoard no more
Just because you don’t have old newspapers piling up in your living room doesn’t mean you’re good at letting things go. Remember those photos you downloaded last year or that game that you never play anymore? Those are still on your PC if you haven’t deleted them, and they’re using up valuable space.

Go through all of your programs and files and delete (or back up before deleting) the ones you don’t need or use anymore. Remember, deleting a program from your desktop does not mean it was deleted from your computer—make sure you go through the Start menu to uninstall each of the programs that you want to get rid of. And if you accidentally remove something you need, all of the recent versions of Windows have System Restore, which allows you to restore your PC back to an earlier time to retrieve the deleted information.

Get organized
Now that all of those unnecessary programs and files are out of the way, it’s time to organize the ones you still have. Organizing your files will speed up your productivity by helping you find what you need a lot faster.  There are many apps you can find to help you automatically organize programs and files on your PC, a good one is DropIt.

Back it all up
Everyone knows how important it is to back up your data, but it’s easy to get lazy about it. While you’re organizing your files, it’s a good idea to check and make sure that all of your important information can be recovered in the unfortunate event that your hard drive crashes.

The volume of data accumulated by most businesses can be overwhelming, making it hard to know what you should bother to back up on your PC. It’s a time-consuming process, but you have to take the time to prioritize the types of files you have and assess which ones you couldn’t run your business without—namely financial documents, contacts, and confidential information.

After you decide what to back up, the next decision is how. BizTech offers automatic online data backup from MozyPro.

Speed it up

If, after all of your attempts at cleaning and organizing your PC, it is still going slow, give BizTech a call!  Often times, you will have a virus or malware that you didn’t even know was affecting your computer.  Our experts will diagnose and troubleshoot the problems, and get your device back on track.  We can even take it to the next step and internally clean your computer.  Dust bunnies inside your computer can lead to component failure, fan failure, and slow performance. Find out more about BizTech’s PC repair services.

Make it a habit
Just as you should practice spring cleaning once a year, the process of purging, organizing, backing up data and cleaning the inside of your PC should also be a regular occurrence. The longer you put it off, the more you’ll pay for it later. Stay on top of your organization and your PC will thank you by working better and lasting longer.

These tips are brought to you by the HP Technology at Work Blog