How do I reduce the amount of computer maintenance I'm supposed to do?

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Summary: Computer maintenance need not be a huge burden. Setting a few utilities up to run automatically can reduce the amount of manual work dramatically.

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Leaving your computer running overnight is one common and easy way to deal with this issue. It's certainly what I do.

But it doesn't have to be the only solution.

But I also have to ask: NINE MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS? For starters, it sounds to me like you're doing more maintenance than you need to.

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Before I get into the list of programs you need to be running, we need to talk about automating these tasks versus doing it manually. Computers are great at doing repetitive tasks automatically, so there's very little reason you should ever have to sit down and spend your own time running a bunch of maintenance programs.

Even if you turn your computer off at night.

Now, the confusion will come from the fact that different programs use different techniques to automate. For example, your anti-virus program should have some kind of a scheduler to let you specify exactly when, and how often a scan should be run. Other programs may have different schedulers that do effectively the same thing.

And for some programs you'll simply need to use the Windows Task Scheduler.

Another point of confusion is the question: when should I tell it to run, and what if the computer happens to be off at that time? Obviously, my solution is to leave the computer on all the time, and have these tasks run at night while I'm sleeping.

The alternative is to make a schedule for yourself. Make sure, for example, that you turn the computer on first thing in the morning before you have breakfast, so that the utilities can then run while you're doing that. Or perhaps at the end of the day, leave the computer on in the evening when you might not other wise be using it, have the scans run then, and then simply shut down the machine when you go to bed.

I hesitate to have automated scans run during the day when you're using the computer, since it can impact performance depending on how well the scanner is designed to operate, but that's also an alternative.

If the computer happens to be off when a scheduled scan is supposed to run, what happens depends on the tool or scheduler itself. Some will simply skip that run, others will allow you to actually specify "if the computer's off when this is supposed to run, run it as soon as you can".

But the absolute key is that once you set this up you should rarely have to do anything manually. The scans should just run without your involvement.

Now, about the specific tools you should be running in this fashion:

• Backup: get an external hard drive and have your computer back up to this automatically once a day. Personally, I do a full backup once a month, and an incremental backup daily, but you may elect to do something different. (In lieu of an external hard drive, if you have more than one machine networked together, and they have the disk space, you can backup each to the other. But I recommend the external hard disk.)

• Anti-Virus: have it scan your entire machine once a day automatically, and also turn on "real time" scanning, so that new viruses are caught as they arrive. Most anti-virus programs include a fairly powerful scheduling facility.

• Anti-Spyware: pretty much the same as anti-virus. Daily scanning is actually less important, since most spyware scanning is real-time, watching for what software is doing.

Honestly, you could stop right there. Everything else you've mentioned is either unnecessary or optional.

"Cleaning": I don't know what you mean by cleaning, as it could mean so many things. In my case, it's limited to running a defrag once a week (automated of course), and emptying the TEMP folder "when I think about it" (this could also be automated).

"Adaware": you listed this separately from spyware, but that's what it is. If you mean the product Ad-Aware, that's an anti-spyware product, and you need only one. If you mean "adware" as distinct from "spyware", in reality they're one in the same, and that single anti-spyware program will get them both.

A couple of things I did not mention:

• Tune-up programs: should never be run regularly or automatically - or in some cases at all. (There's a lot of debate as to how much they really help.) If run at all, they should be run as-needed when you are experiencing a problem that you believe they may help.

• Registry Cleaners: should never be run automatically, they can do too much damage. If you run these at all (and again, the jury's out on whether you should), you should do so only manually, when you suspect they will solve a specific problem.

There may be other things specific to your situation that may, or may not be necessary, of course.

Ultimately, I do have to agree with your initial assertion: if you're spending more time maintaining the computer than using it, something's not right.

Hopefully, some of the above suggestions will help reduce the load.

Related:

• What backup program should I use? Backing up your computer's data is critical. What program should you use? There are many, but the best is which ever one you actually will use.

• Viruses: How do I keep myself safe from Viruses? Computer viruses are a fact of modern connected life. Anti-virus software is required, and both it and the database it uses should be kept up-to-date.

• Spyware: How do I remove and avoid spyware? There are some important steps to take to deal with the ever-present concern of how to remove and avoid spyware.

• How do I schedule Disk Defragmenter to run with the Windows Task Scheduler? You want to defragment your hard disk periodically. Task Scheduler runs programs periodically. Put those together to defragment your disk regularly.

• What's the best registry cleaner? Registry cleaners are widely available. When do you need one? Why? In general, a registry cleaner isn't needed and when it is shouldn't be used frequently.

Article C3471 - August 9, 2008

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