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PC Tune-Up Calendar

Making upgrades to your hardware is only half the battle when it comes to having a faster machine. Maintenance is essential, too. It isn't fun, but consider the alternatives. Don't floss your teeth? Hello, gum disease. PC tune-ups work in much the same way. Ignore your computer, and you'll suffer the misery of system slowdowns, lost files, and malfunctioning components. Here are the periodic tune-ups we recommend.

Daily

Virus Scanning: Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses roam the Net, intent on destroying your data. For less than $50, programs such as McAfee VirusScan, Symantec Norton AntiVirus, and Trend Micro's PC-cillin operate in the background and do a fine job of keeping your system free of malicious code. Always upgrade to the next version of your antivirus program when it becomes available: Engine upgrades are critical to stopping the latest viral threats.

Backup: A rewritable DVD drive is ideal for daily, automatic backups. DVD's large capacity makes it a worthy backup buddy for behemoth hard drives, and its thin discs are easy to store. Backup tools such as Dantz's $85 Retrospect Professional, LIUtilities' $50 WinBackup, and Stomp's $79 BackUp MyPC support DVD burners. (They also back up to second hard drives.) An exception is the basic backup utility included with Windows XP (see Figure 1).

Weekly

Automatic Hard-Drive Scanning for Viruses: Enable your real-time antivirus protection and allow your program to check for virus signature updates as often as possible. But real-time protection is a slimmed-down measure in comparison with a comprehensive drive scan. Schedule a scan once a week to catch any viruses that may have slipped through. Programs such as Norton Antivirus 2003 will help you set up a schedule (for example, when your PC will be on but not in use).

Windows Update: This Internet tool--run it by clicking Start, All Programs, near the top of the menu--enables Microsoft to scan your PC and recommend updated drivers, system files, security applets, and other updates. To choose the files you want to download, mark the appropriate check boxes; then ignore the rest.

Monthly

Disk Cleanup: This Windows utility removes temporary Internet files, clears the Recycle Bin, and dumps other disk trash. Find it at Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools. Disk Cleanup (Figure 2) is useful for smaller (20GB to 40GB) hard drives that are running low on free space.

Scheduled Tasks: With this Windows tool you can automate housekeeping chores such as Backup and Disk Cleanup. The Scheduled Task Wizard makes it easy to run maintenance utilities daily, weekly, or monthly--or even at boot time. Once a month, you should review your scheduled tasks to see if they're still appropriate. For instance, it doesn't make sense to set Disk Cleanup for the first of the month at 7 a.m. if your PC is turned off at that time.

Quarterly

Disk Defragmenter: Located on Windows' System Tools submenu--and willfully ignored by many users--Defrag can maintain optimum hard-disk performance and stability by putting each file's sectors in the proper sequence, permitting more-efficient access. One caveat: Be sure to keep at least 15 percent of your disk space free so that Disk Defragmenter (and your system) can perform at maximum efficiency.

Yearly

PC Cleaning: Carefully remove dust from inside your PC. Use a soft brush attachment on a home vacuum or a minivacuum. Use canned compressed air (with the straw) to clear dust in tight spots. But don't blast air into floppy, CD-ROM, or other removable-media drives; the heads and other internal components are easier to damage than you might think. Special tools (like those from Discwasher) are available for cleaning optical drives.