Congratulations on the purchase of a new computer! Whether it is a new computer for a company or for personal use, you want it to be as quick, stable and long lasting as possible. There are five vital steps you should take to insure this happens.
1. Defragmentation. Whether you received your computer with software already installed or you’re going to install the operating system and applications yourself, you need to run a defragmentation job immediately after installation so your PC actually runs like its new. Even with a fresh install of new programs there are a myriad of temporary files created causing the hard disk to become fragmented. Bypass the built-in, the ideal solution is to install a completely automatic defragmentation program right from the start. This will maximize your computer’s performance with no scheduling or any further attention from you.
2. Anti-virus protection. New computer viruses are showing up daily, and as soon as you open your new computer up to internet access you are setting yourself up. A good, solid anti-virus utility regularly updated against the latest viruses is vital so that computer viruses never need be a worry. If the program you choose doesn’t also guard against spyware, you should additional obtain an anti-spyware software as well.
3. Backup solution. But if a virus does get through, or if some other factor such as a hard drive failure occurs, your data can be completely lost unless it is backed up to some other medium. Today there are many solutions available from a second drive to online backup services. The most common reason for permanent data loss is lack of a backup solution. If put in right from the beginning, your data will always be retrievable.
4. Continuous Data Protection. While backups are critical, often data can be lost in between backups causing sudden panic. If the data wasn’t backed up, how can you retrieve it? For this you must install a continuous data protection solution that will catch files deleted accidentally, from a networked drive, a command prompt or by malicious code. Comprehensive programs also allow for file versioning, meaning that you can recover previous versions of files that have been saved over accidentally as well.
5. Firewall. A firewall protects your computer from invasion by hackers looking to steal personal information, utilize your computer for attacks on other computers, or other reasons. Firewalls are available from simple and inexpensive up to highly robust, more complex solutions. If your computer is going to be used for internet access (and what computer today isn’t) a firewall is crucial. Having firewall software up and operational right from the start will ensure hackers don’t invade your system.
