We keep a PC running well with "PMO"
PMO - means Preventative Maintenance Operations
PMO, means Preventative Maintenance Operations as they apply to computer equipment and here specifically PCs (or "Windows" machines as they are commonly known), will be covered, where the "breakdown after continuous use, capacity of storage, and change, due to installed programs" are all anticipated and continuous corrective actions are taken to ensure that the equipment is kept in constant good order.
This, if carried out regularly and carefully, will prevent problems. PMO is regularly applied by the Corporate IT departments of many successful organizations. Even the simplest of these operations will prevent problems down the road.
So, we carry out preventative maintenance on computers, just like we would change the oil and rotate the tires on a car, for example.
A comprehensive PMO program, as applied by a corporate it department, comes down to the same basic principles a home user would apply if that user wants to keep his equipment running well at all times.
So, if we are discussing the concept of PMO, first we need to assess the scale of the operation: is this the regular maintenance that an IT professional is going to do as a regular part of the working day? Or is this what a home user will do to keep a laptop running well? Or is this the home desktop, working to support four or five family members, who all generate temporary files and their own documents while they read email and surf the Internet?
The answer to this question will determine the kind of maintenance that is required. For example, an IT professional will take regular backups and may even bring down a server from time to time to carry out regular maintenance. Of course, in commercial installations, the equipment is "redundant." Or, in other words, every single component is paralleled by an identical one, which is ready to replace a failed component in the space of a nanosecond to prevent any "downtime."
In our homes, we may not have quite such a sophisticated set-up, but we can apply the same principles to avoid "downtime."
Methods
The methods we use fall into four categories: Clean Up, File System Integrity, Defragmentation and Specific Program Maintenance:
- Deleting Temporary Files and Cleaning Profiles – We remove files which have built up through the operations of browsers and email clients and which are no longer required for the continued operation of these to work properly. These can be numerous.
- File System
- Disk Checks - We run checks on the file system, since the computer operating system will occasionally write files where it shouldn't.
- Duplicate File Discovery and Removal - Several programs offer de-duplication as an option. There are some warnings to be made about this, though, since the simple removal of similar named and sized files may harm the system. But, heeding the warnings and ridding the system of the same files in different directories will give you more space and may actually make the system run faster.
- Disk - Defragmentation - We will defragment the filing system, since the operating system does not automatically lay the files out on the hard drive in a logical and systematic order. This will have the effect of permitting a faster read of these files and directories if we do this regularly and often.
- Specific Program Maintenance - Compacting MS Outlook Personal Folders - it will frequently be useful to compact the MS Outlook email personal folders. This will avoid problems when they start to get bigger in size. (How many emails did you want to keep?)
Why PCs Start To Go Wrong...
Introduction
Troubleshooting a computer fault involves basic steps which fall into one or more of the following categories, usually in the order they are displayed below:
- hardware troubleshooting
- network troubleshooting (think about it - you could go offline, pull out the network cord if you thought that the problem is coming down the network!)
- errors in program execution due to the operating system... (Rare under Win XP SP2/3 but likely under MS Vista since they haven't fixed all the bugs yet...!)
- software troubleshooting... speaks for itself. Something just got installed - system going bad right away after? (Hint: Uninstall the program you installed)!
- viruses spyware and malware - use a good anti-spyware/malware package like Malwarebytes or ParetoLogic's Xsoft Spy SE in conjunction with a good virus scanner like AVG or Avast!
This article applies to Microsoft Windows computers. Although the basic principles may also apply to other operating systems too.
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