Basic Maintenance of Your System
Use This guide to help you with taking care of your computer.
Dust and Dirt.
Keeping your computer free from dust and dirt will ensure that your computer will have a happier life. Cases, Fans, Keyboards, Mice and screens should all be free and clean from dirt. For most surfaces and devices, a compressed air can and Q-Tips can be used to clean them. Monitor screens should be cleaned with alcohol. Laptop Screens should be cleaned with the manufacturer's recommended method. Usually laptop screens require only a damp cloth to clean them and you should never use any abrasive or active cleaning agent on any computer part. Clean your computers at least once a month for best practice. When cleaning fans, make sure the computer or laptop is off and that you avoid trying to spin the fan while you clean it with the air can. Spinning the fan will damage it. For mice, use alcohol on the outer surface and rollers. Use only water on the ball as alcohol will damage the surface of the ball.
Never submerse components in water. It will damage them.
You should periodically back up your data on your system. For faculty/staff, you should save files to a CD, your Z: drive, or to another backup device. Items that are of critical concern should have no less than two (2) backups. These items include legal information, electronic financial statements, etc. Regularly backup items that are in your My Documents folder and items on your desktop to Floppy to keep a copy in case of hard drive failure.
Other backup devices are available besides CD-RW and tape drives. Many companies have created devices called memory keys which can be plugged into computers via their USB port. These devices are inexpensive and hold up to 1 GB of data and are as small as a keychain. Check with your local computer/software vendor for details or contact the help desk for information on where to obtain one.
Windows Updates are operating system updates to your Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP system. They are delivered to your computer and installed for you. The website for scanning and downloading/installing updates is http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com .
As part of windows 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft provides an automatic update feature on your computer. Windows "critical" updates can be downloaded automatically. Windows 2000 users can configure this setting by going to the Control Panel and then double clicking on "Automatic Updates." Windows XP users can configure their systems by right clicking on the :"My Computer" icon and choosing properties. Then you can click the Windows Updates tab to configure your settings.
In order to change the settings for Windows Update, you must have local administrative privileges to do so.
Windows 2000 users
1. Notify before downloading. When selected, this setting tells
you that updates are available and you need to download them. It is your
option to begin downloading.
2. Download the updates automatically and then notify me to install.
When selected, this option will automatically download the updates and then tell
you that they are ready to install. This is the most commonly used option.
When the updates are downloaded and ready for installation, the icon shows in
the bottom right corner of the screen on the taskbar (Start Menu) in the system
tray (next to the clock) When you put your mouse over the blue-green globe the
message "New updates are ready to install" will appear. Double click on
the icon to begin the install procedure.
3. Automatic Download and Install. When selected, this option will automatically download the updates and schedule the install on the day and time that you specify.
SGU NETWORK USERS. The SGU network is set up to do option 2 automatically on your desktop or laptop.. You will only need to install the critical updates when you see the globe in your system tray.
Other Windows updates, such as driver updates and Windows Recommended updates must be downloaded and installed from the http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com website. Please download the recommended updates when they come out. You should check at least once a month for recommended operating system updates. Some updates require that they be installed separately, so you may have to return to this web site periodically to complete the updates.
Your virus scan program is very important and must be kept up to date.
Virus scan programs are subscription-based services which must be paid for by the user or organization. You may also purchase the latest version from a computer vendor or retail store. Usually, purchasing a virus scan software program entitles you to a 1 year update subscription which usually updates your software (if a minor release) and also updates your virus definition file which is used to scan for known viruses, trojans, worms, etc.
Some virus scan programs automatically update when they find that the computer is connected to the Internet. You can force the virus scan program to update manually if you need to. The screen below shows an example of Norton Antivirus 2003 "Live Update" which can be found in the Norton Antivirus program folder. The "Live Update" button is in the top left. Click it to activate it and to begin the "Live Update Wizard" (below)
Other Virus Scan programs have similar methods of downloading updates. Once you download the updates, you should scan your computer to make sure that you have a clean system.
Best Practice: You should check at least once a week to make sure that you have the latest virus definitions and program updates. If your subscription has expired, please purchase the newest version of the program or purchase a new subscription from the software company. You may also contact the help desk to see if the software is available for purchase
PLEASE NOTE:
You are responsible for keeping your computer up to date. If your computer has a virus and does not have current antivirus software and definitions, you will be assessed a charge for the clean-up.
SGU FACULTY AND STAFF: Norton Antivirus is installed on your computer and updates are sent automatically to your computer.
"De-fragging" a hard drive can help to improve performance of your computer. Fragmentation is the process a hard drive uses when saving if a space needed for a file is not large enough to store the whole file. The system will use up what space is available for that file and then find another space for the rest of the file. This causes the file to be fragmented and with many fragmented files, the system has to work harder to find all the pieces of the files.
The Windows Disk Defragmenter can be located in the Program Files/Accessories/System Tools area on the Start menu.
Best Practice: You should run the disk defragmenter at least once a month for smooth operation. Run it more often if you are constantly saving and deleting things from your computer, especially programs.
Use the Analyze button to analyze each hard drive to see if you should defragment it. Use the Defragment button to begin defragmentation. The red lines on the Analysis are the fragmented files (files that are cut into pieces and scattered on your hard drive).
The Disk Cleanup tool can be very useful. It has the capability of finding old files and compressing them, cleaning up temporary program files, and deleting temporary internet files (cache) that are saved from Internet Explorer.
The Disk Cleanup tool can be found under Program Files/Accessories/System Tools.
Once you run the program, it will ask you which drive you want to clean up. Choose the appropriate drive and then click the OK button to begin scanning.
Once the scanning is complete, you can choose which items you want to do.
Program files, Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files should be deleted. Other items can be checked but may not have performance enhancements.
© 2003 St. Gregory's University Shawnee, OK 74804
(405)-878-5100
Last Modified on:
02/12/2004