Keep your family happy by making sure your home computer is working

Sixty percent of the homes in developed countries have at least one computer at home. Your computer offers incredible assistance with your work, your children’s education, your family’s entertainment, communication, and even home management.

Given how much we’re depending on them working right now, it’s important that we take steps to ensure they are maintained properly.

Running operating system updates regularly, ensuring you have an up-to-date antivirus solution, cleanup old files, and ensuring your WiFi connection is configured correctly can all help.

Regularly update your computer

Problems with your computer’s memory can lead to errors, crashes, program failures, and a whole lot of other issues that may interfere with your computer working correctly. The worst part is that these problems can manifest with any computer, at any time. Thankfully there are ways to diagnose these problems.

Here are a few rules for you and your family members to follow:

• Shut down your computer every day, or at least once a week to get it back to a good, known state.
• Install the necessary updates as and when they become available. You should configure your computer to automatically install updates.
• Disable any unnecessary startup applications.
• Close any unused background apps or services that may interfere with your computer.

Install Anti-Virus software

A lot of threats to your home computer come from external sources. These threats can penetrate your network, destroy your data, and damage your computer in unpredictable ways. Investing in a good antivirus software can help you keep all infections at bay.

Antivirus software have really evolved into full security suites that for your home computer to protect it from viruses, trojans, rootkits, malware, spyware, spam attack, phishing attack, and many other cyber threats. Apart from preventing attacks from hackers and data thieves, a good antivirus will also ensure protection from auto executing code on removable devices.

By putting the necessary security layers in place, like a good AV product, it can help block malicious ads and limit unauthorized access to websites that can expose your computer to unwanted threats. It can protect your passwords and also help you monitor the online activities of your children.

While most security products will automatically get the latest definitions from online databases, it important to check these are successful. Always go with a trusted and well-known provider who comes up with real-time updates to handle the latest threats.

Make space by deleting old files

Having low storage space on a drive can reduce the performance of read/write speeds to your hard drive. This ultimately presents as applications or operating system functions running slower than normal. If you want to keep your computer running at top speed, it is a great idea to cleanup old files that you no longer use.

Instead of storing older files on your computer’s hard drive, you can invest in an external hard drive. You can set up a specific day each month to backup old files onto the external hard drive. Another option is to leverage a cloud storage provider like OneDrive or Google Drive. This way, if something was to happen to your home computer, all your files are saved somewhere safe.

Check your wireless connection

A weak wireless connection can lead to issues using your computer. Many people setup their home internet connection and then never revisit it. It is possible to log into your home router and look at the advanced settings.

Here you’ll find control over your WiFi power setting, the frequency (2.4/5GHz) and channel which could improve your internet performance on devices around you rhome.

If you’ve faced difficulties uploading your files to the cloud, the spinning cursor when trying to load a particular web page.. these could be helped by looking at your WiFi settings.

Here are some other tips to help with your wireless connection:

• Talk to your internet provider and find out the upload and download speed of your wireless connection.
• Make sure there is no obstacle or interference between your router and your computer.
• Check if you are using the latest hardware that will speed up your wireless network.
• Find out if you can tweak the settings on your wireless router to extend its range or increase the speed.
• See if you need to buy a second router to add another access point. This could work better for large spaces with multiple floors.

Get your computer serviced

Like everything else, your home computer also comes with an expiration date. But with a few upgrades and repairs, you can extend its life for as long as possible.

If you are getting frustrated with the loading speed of your computer or if you are running into too many errors or program failures, it would be better to call a professional who can service your computer for you. You can find many such professionals if you run a search on nearby computer IT services. 

A professional IT service technician can run a diagnosis to find out what is wrong with your computer. If something can be repaired or upgraded, they will be able to assist you and fix your computer.

Make the right choice to repair your computer and bring joy to your family

You have three choices when your computer goes slow or breaks down. You can go through the tech forums and find an answer to your problem, which will hopefully give you troubleshooting options to try. You can get in touch with tech support and wait till they figure out a solution. Or you can contact a professional who can visit you, diagnose the problem, and fix your computer for you.

The third option might be the best choice. Nevertheless, it is always better to ask around, go through a few reviews, and verify the credentials before choosing the right professional.