Is it your autoresponder? Your hosting account? Your JV partners?

All very important but I reckon the most important is right in front of you now. Your Computer. Without it you can’t do a thing with the rest. Yet how many of us just take it for granted?

In my 30 years plus as a computer/network support engineer I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of users who actually look after their computer. And I’m not one of them!

I’m as guilty as everyone else, it’s too easy to turn it on and away you go.

We all know we should make backups, don’t we? Not often enough though eh?

Rule 1: Make a backup every time you create something new or change something. With DVD writers it’s just too easy, no excuses these days.

Having said that I’m guilty as well, I do give my computer some maintenance, just not as often as I probably should.

Rule 2: Maintenance. Defragment your drive. Apart from freeing up space it will make your PC run quicker. Even if you don’t actually defragment it at least run the analysis phase once a week, then you’ll be aware of the state of your drive/s. There are a lot of other things you can do as well. I won’t list them, you can see what they are in this brilliant, FREE piece of software, Easycleaner by Toniarts. Here’s a screen shot.

Now a lot of people, so called computer professionals/geeks will tell you not to run registry cleaners, after a sharp intake of breath! They usually do this because it makes them seem really knowledgable and because they will then charge like a wounded bull to do it for you! Am I cynical about today’s computer industry? You bet!

Playing with the registry can be risky and if you don’t know what you’re doing DON’T play with the registry editor, you can murder your computer! I haven’t come across a reputable registry cleaner that has caused a problem and Easycleaner is no exception. Having said that, there are no guarantees. But, having said THAT I’ve been using Easycleaner for about ten years without any problem.

I don’t want to tempt fate but he really should charge for this software, it is really good!

It has an UNDO function which will, funnily enough, undo what you’ve done to put you back to where you were.

Now, after all that I haven’t mentioned why you should run a registry cleaner. A lot of the operations that you do on your PC affect the registry, in that an entry is made in there. As things get deleted and altered the registry doesn’t. Windows is happy to put them in there but not so good about taking them out! So, the registry gets bloated. It’s basically a database that is loaded when Windows starts up, notice how Windows takes longer to load as time goes on? Due in no small part to the bloated registry.

Ideally, you should carry out all these operations once a week and you’ll find your computer will maintain a decent level of performance.

Rule 3: There is no rule 3.

Do the above, use FREE Easycleaner and you and your computer should live happily ever after.

PS. I don’t get anything for recommending this program. It’s part of my policy to provide value to my readers and where I find something of value which I use myself and can vouch for, whether or not it’s free, I’ll recommend it. I also promise that I will try to recommend more free things than the other kind.

PPS. In the near future I will be launching a site which will only contain free stuff, ebooks and software for a start, so stay tuned. I just need a little time to sort through it all.