Need Help With the Wellness of Your Computer?
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If you need help with the health of your computer, we've got you covered with state-of-the-art tech support and computer repair services. Our Personal Technology Experts® know computers inside-out. Support.com offers a better solution. We can help you right now, 24/7, over your broadband Internet connection. There’s no need to invite strangers into your home, or be locked into someone else’s timetable.
Something that many struggle with is the health or wellness of their computers. The computer is a necessary tool for most homes as well as businesses, but it is a beast when it is not behaving correctly, like slow startups, restarts, shutdowns, sluggish navigations, stumbling on the Internet, complaining that some little add-on or driver is missing and you don't know if it is safe to install to get to the website or particular view you are looking for, slugging around with thousands of piled up temporary files that haven't been or can't be deleted as they should have been, and genuinely acting just tired.
It is time for a tune-up, repair, and getting on a regular maintenance program, because, as is the nature of computing, computer systems will get out of tune, just like a car. Computers, while having become much more forgiving for the computer challenged, hardware and software are not bullet-proof, and can be damaged with rough or genuinely ignorant use. For instance, computers need to be safely shutdown, and not just powered down. And while the computer is running, things happen, like power surges, running too hot because of an interior fan going out causing overheating that can ruin the hardware, or hundreds of temporary files and pieces that are created and stored on the back end of computing (what you don't see) to bring up what you do see. Then through some malfunction of the operating system, they don't get deleted when you close your view or program, thereby adding more junk files for your computer to wade through from all over your hard disk next time you want it to do something, and the list goes on.
Daily/Weekly as noted, just before final shutdown for the day:
- Daily: Clear any temporary files off of your drive/s using start/ all programs/ accessories/ system tools/ disk cleanup
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Daily: Update your activated anti-virus application and scan system for malware. (Only ONE anti-virus application will properly function on any single computer, more than one will create conflicts). If any threats are:
-- not found, close the anti-virus application and go to next *step.
-- are found, note this information very carefully and completely, delete all threats in the results window, go to virus vault/ quarantine in the anti-virus application, delete all listed threats from there and close AV application. Restart computer now, which typically does the final kill on the quarantined threats. Call your technical support as soon as possible to ask about your noted threat/s found to make sure they are/ or are not critical to computer system condition requiring immediate attention, as particularly nasty malware regenerates itself if it is deleted. If immediate attention is required, arrange for a virus removal and protect service right away and do not use the computer. - Weekly: Manually check for Windows Updates to your Windows Operating System here. Only security updates will come up at first, install those. If MS Office is on the computer, those security based updates will also be included in the Internet Explorer Windows Update process. If the updates installation requires restarting, choose restart later since a step ahead is to shut down the computer.
- Weekly: Defrag your computer system.
- Daily: ALWAYS shutdown computer using the start/ shutdown process, and proceed immediately during severe weather no matter what time of day it is to prevent hardware nuking by severe power spikes. Do not leave the computer running unattended and online at night, malware will FIND YOU.
- Special Recommendation: Get a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). UPS units are generally available in the marketplace and can be acquired online. Implementing a UPS is much safer than a surge protector that many do not have sufficient rated protection for sensitive compute electronic systems during a surge or dip in a power event. All the time it takes to toast a computer or a monitor is a one second power spike. The UPS provides a clean, even, pure power supply to anything plugged into its ports, and also includes a battery backup for power surges and dips when they do happen - the systems plugged into it do not experience any surges nor dips in power thereby offering the greatest protection to them. During power outages, the UPS will trip into battery backup for the rated length of time for which that particular UPS model was built to, allowing the user to have sufficient time to do a safe shutdown. With hardware and software systems becoming more complex and lightning fast but slower to shutdown properly, it is becoming critical to include a UPS in the mix of computer equipment to prevent both hardware and software damage from junky power supply having spikes and dips in power. NOTE: Power returning to normal level after a dip is recognized by electronics equipment as a power SPIKE.
In our technical experience, especially for computer challenged friends and customers who all want to operate and maintain their systems intelligently, are all on a regular maintenance - a computer wellness plan - with understandable instructions on what they can very easily and cost effectively do on their own to maintain their systems. When a rare and more serious issue occurs through no fault of their own, the support necessary at that point is minimized, more easily repaired, and saves them a great deal of down time and money in every way. As for cars, the simple and proper maintenance of the computer system will reap computer wellness, great time/ cost savings while keeping it agile and dependable during the life of the computer. If you have any problems with your computer maintenance or computer wellness plan, please call us, we would be happy to help.
All of our Personal Technology Experts® are full-time employees living right here in North America. Before they can help you, they must first earn their title by passing a series of incredibly rigorous tests. By doing this, Support.com assures you that you’re getting the best customer support possible.
From driver problems to stubborn viruses to a slow computer, if you have a problem with your laptop, desktop or peripheral device, don't wait another minute—Support.com can help you right now.
Call Support.com and get the technical support you need.
