Regular PC Maintenance

PCs & Laptops For Dummies

One way to prevent trouble is to be a stickler for maintenance. While it's possible to use a PC and never maintain it, you'll find your computer-human relationship boosted by following these key words of advice:

Keep your PC's files and the system backed up.
Check the mass storage usage in the This PC window to ensure that you don't exceed capacity on any drive.
If you suspect mass storage problems, run the Check Disk utility to scan the drive for errors.
In Windows 10, you don't need to regularly run disk optimization utilities; it's done automatically.
Do not defragment an SSD (solid state drive), thumb drive, media card, or any flash memory.
Clean your PC and vacuum the keyboard. Use the proper material to clean the LCD monitor. Avoid using caustic chemicals (ammonia, alcohol) to clean a touchscreen monitor. Keep dust and pet hair out of the console's vents.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.