Time To Refresh That Operating System!

One of the biggest problems most people face in any computer environment is the age of the hardware and software installed. When you have those funky errors that pop up every time you start your computer, to random blue screens of death. We have all seen these and they usually compound themselves into much bigger problems if not looked into attentively.  The key to maintaining your computer in a “Healthy State” is updating and routine maintenance. One of the most commonly overlooked items is Microsoft and apple updates. If you check your control panel on click or the about this mac icon you may notice your computer needs updates sometimes numbering in the hundreds! These are one of the easiest and most helpful ways to keep your computer running well. Run the updates grab some coffee and read the paper while the computer does the work. Reboot a few times and voila you have an up to date ready to go OS. If you have not enabled the choice to automatically download updates and install them do so. You can always stop them from running if you are in the middle of something but it will remind you like the kid in the toy store saying pay attention to me.

Running basic updates for the OS is the most common of updating methods now, however, it’s time to figure out what else needs updates. I love utilities that help make my job and my customer’s lives easier. There is a wonderful utility called patchmypc it does everything I like to touch on in terms of updating and it auto tasks it so you don’t have to sit there and find everything yourself and run the update. This program has saved me countless hours and is worth a free download at minimum! Now if you want to do this make sure you have the time to update all your installed programs like QuickBooks, act, your antivirus, Adobe products like Acrobat etc. Make sure you have Flash up to date and it works in all your browsers from Internet Exploder to Google Chrome and Firefox.  Staying on top of this is vital to keeping your pc or mac virus free and less likely to crash from out of date incompatible drivers.

Backing up your computer is a necessity these days and you have many options I have touched on in previous blogs.  But preparing yourself for the eventual necessity of formatting and reloading an operating system is scary to some but again necessary sometimes. Instead of spending countless hours tracking down how to fix all the little issues your pc or mac is having it is MUCH easier and ALMOST always the best idea to get that new computer feel again. Nothing like a well-oiled OS that speeds along after so many months or years of running so poorly. There is no need to put up with this any longer you have options.  Read up on how to reload your OS from your pc manufacturer they will usually have restore partitions on their products that make is VERY user friendly.

Checking to see if your hardware will run your current software is something most people overlook. How much memory do you have installed? And what are the recommendations from the OS provider for “minimum and best” spec point of view? If you’re trying to run Photoshop 64 bit on a P4 with 512 Megs of ram you’re not going to have a great user experience. Look at the optimum specs and treat those specs as a minimum. This is one of my rules of thumb if my computer or a customer’s pc specs don’t meet the best results category I won’t recommend they install it until they get the hardware to keep up with it. This way you are almost assured a pleasant and optimum experience when using it.