How a Busy CEO Can Maintain His Computer?

Nowadays every business is data driven and computers are used for handling all the daily office tasks. A sudden hard drive crash or virus attack can devastate a company within a few hours. Therefore, it is very important to take good care of your PC or laptop so that your data remains safe. When you run a big organization many confidential and business critical data get stored in your computer every day.

So, how does the CEO of a company should maintain his desktop or laptop PC to ensure smooth performance of the machine for a longer period of time?

1.  Audit your PC: A good doctor first identifies the cause of a disease and then prescribes medicines. Therefore, you should first audit your system to know what it contains. There are some free auditing software programs available in the market and you can use any one of them to inspect your PC properly. The software will tell you if there are any malicious objects in your PC.

2. Take backups regularly: No matter how costly laptop or desktop you may use, nobody can guarantee you that your hard drive will never crash. Besides, hackers always try to steal valuable data from the top company professionals’ PCs to discover secret future business plans. Therefore, you should always take data backup regularly in multiple places. For example, you can use a portable hard drive and a cloud storage system for daily data backup. This way, the same and updated data stays in 3 separate places. So, even if your computer crashes, you can recover the data from cloud or external hard drive.

3. Update the OS: Whether your use a Windows PC or Mac, you must update your computer’s OS regularly. OS can be updated automatically or manually and it is wise to set it in automatic mode as you will get updates as soon as they are released.

4. Install antivirus software: This is probably the most basic suggestion, but very important nonetheless. The OS may come with some basic security features, but that does not mean it can’t be hacked. Every CEO should invest in a top rated antivirus to make sure that hackers don’t get any access to confidential data. Moreover, antivirus software protects your PC during online transaction as well and since the CEO of a company may send or receive thousands of dollars every day, it is important to install antivirus. Update the security software regularly because outdated software can’t detect the latest malicious elements.

5. Clean the junk and temporary files: Windows is a brilliant OS, but it is also a junk file magnet. Cookies, temporary internet files, clipboard files and many more are regularly stored by your PC. You may never use these files, but they take lots of space and make your computer slow. Therefore, run a disk cleaning utility program once in a week. Being the CEO of the company, you should run the disk cleaner every Saturday so that the useless files stored throughout the week get cleaned and your PC runs smoothly from Monday once again.

6. Don’t visit shady websites: As a business owner, you may need to visit various client websites and check the price competitors are offering for their products and services, but never visit any shady website. If you open a site that seems suspicious, don’t share your personal information and leave the website immediately.

7. Never store important files in C drive: If something goes with your Windows PC, then C drive will obviously get affected because it stores most of the OS related files. So, when you will format the PC, the C drive files will be deleted. Therefore, don’t save any company data in the C drive. If you store files in any other drive (D, E or any other), then you will not lose any data.

8. Uninstall the programs you don’t need: When you don’t use a program for a long time and stop updating it, it simply occupies a space in your hard drive and decrease the drive space. Besides, unused software often makes the computer vulnerable.

9. Restrict the number of start-up programs: You can select which programs will start automatically as soon as you will start your PC. If your computer runs 5-6 programs as soon as it starts, then you must prohibit this. Running 5-6 programs in the background from the start is not a good thing as these programs make your system slow. So, only keep the essential apps like Skype and antivirus in automatic start mode and prohibit rest of the unnecessary programs from automatic start.

10. Clean the dust: Depending on the PC model you own, it can very easy or complicated to clean the accumulated dust. Dust particles can damage various hardware parts in your PC and must be cleaned as soon as possible. Just remember a few things while cleaning your PC. First of all, never use a cloth or a vacuum cleaner to remove dust from your desktop or laptop computer. Use only compressed air cans specifically designed for cleaning computers. Use branded LCD cleaners to clean the monitor and don’t use any common lubricant on computer fan as it will do more harm than good. If your hardware gets damaged due to negligence and you can’t access your hard drive, you can take help of professional data recovery service provider. The company can recover data from any type of device efficiently.

The job of a CEO is very challenging as he needs to keep track of everything in his organization and at the same time decide the future course of the company. Following the aforementioned desktop and laptop maintenance tips won’t take much time, but will certainly ensure the longevity of your computer and keep your data secure.

By Bruce Cullen, Owner and founder of eProvided.Com data recovery, located in Denver Colorado. Bruce worked in the data recovery field for over 15 years. You can find Bruce on Twitter @Bruce_Cullen.