A computer is a dynamic machine. This means its content is constantly being updated since we access websites and email, download and install new programs, uninstall applications no longer in use, and an infinite number of other operations.
All of these operations slowly lead to problems in the use of the computer, mainly due to failures in which programs do not stop running and end up debilitating the system’s resources.
Sometimes, temporary or obsolete data remain on the hard drive, reducing its capacity.
On rare occasions, the computer may become infected with a virus or malware that slows the operating system’s execution or limits its monitoring capacity.
Even the actual operating system needs to be updated according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The most important reason for these updates is that they allow us to keep our operating system safe from the dangers that come with its use.
To deal with these problems, it is important to do preventative and periodic maintenance to the computer’s software. The basic maintenance operations are:
- Hard drive analysis and freeing up disk space.
- Defragmentation of the hard drive.
- Registration of the system’s restore points.
Hard drive analysis and freeing up disk space
This is an option that all operating systems have and it allows you to clean unused, temporary software that accumulates in the system and makes programs run slowly. The types of files eliminated by this tool are temporary files from the cache memory, Internet files, logfiles, files left over from programs that have been uninstalled or installation files that are not in use.
Some operating systems have an additional tool to analyse hard drive usage in relation to free space and space occupied by files saved on the computer.
Hard drive defragmentation
During normal use of a computer, applications and software are installed on the hard drive. These installations are not done in an ordered manner; rather, they occupy any free space on the hard drive.
Moreover, when some programs are uninstalled, the files are erased or their physical location is moved, causing free and occupied spaces to be distributed randomly throughout the hard drive. For example, one program does not occupy one specific area, rather the program’s files are scattered in different areas of the disk.
A hard drive or hard disk is basically a spindle of magnetic platters with arms (incluiding reading/writing heads) of mechanical movement, and its read and write speed for data increases when the mechanical arms have fewer movements to make.
Reunifying all of the files into a contiguous space means the mechanical arm does not have to make excessive movements to read a program’s data, which allows a faster processing speed for the user.
This type of reunification is done by defragmentation, in other words, by gathering the sectors of the program that are in different areas into one area and erasing obsolete content, and freeing old spaces
for other uses.
System restore
To restore a system is to return the state of the system to a point in the past when a restore point was created, without affecting your personal files, such as documents, email, photos or applications in general.
It is highly recommendable to do this on a regular basis. The accumulation of actions such as installing and uninstalling, accessing web pages, storing or erasing data, executing files and applications or careless use of the operating system’s files can cause system errors in its execution, making it work more slowly and, in the worst case, paralysing its execution.
Windows operating system has the possibility of administering restore points, eliminating them or doing a system restore from a previous restore point. Following the steps Control panel → System and security → Recovery→ Open system restore, you can open the window to access a previously generated restore point.
