Computer usage and maintenance-my 10 practices

Computer usage and maintenance-my 10 practices

I have already written a post for my list of must have softwares. I’ve now decided to share how I use my machine.
In this post I will post my usage and maintenance methods for personal computer. I hope this post will help you in getting great usage experience after following it.

I’m a PC Freak! I like my computer to be fast, quick and handy. I don’t much like to use mouse and love to finish as many things possible by Keyboard only. If you’re not already following, I recommend these regular computer practices.

1. I Use Shortcuts

I have shortcuts for all my regularly used tools. For example my regular shortcuts are:

Putty: Ctrl+Alt+P
Notepad: Ctrl+Alt+N
Winamp: Ctrl+Alt+M
Editplus: Ctrl+Alt+Num+
Query Brower: Ctrl+Alt+Q
WinSCP: Ctrl+Alt+V
Wordweb: Ctrl+Alt+W
Paint: Ctrl+Alt+Num1
Word: Ctrl+Alt+Num2
Excel: Ctrl+Alt+Num3
Gtalk: Ctrl+Alt+G
Firefox: Ctrl+Alt+F
Chrome: Ctrl+Alt+C
Epic: Ctrl+Alt+E

It’s quite simple to create shortcuts like this.

Start > Program > your-program > executable (Shortcut) > right click > Properties > Specify Shortcut

I think below picture will explain it better.

2. I Clean My Desktop

Normally my machine has a black background / “beautiful” picture (you cannot take your eyes off) with no desktop icons 
To remove all desktop icons I do:
Right Click on Desktop > Arrange Icons By > Uncheck Show Desktop Icon
Check Image:

3. I Use More Shortcuts

There are many basic and regularly used shortcuts I use regularly:
Minimize all windows: Flag+M
Switch between windows: Alt+Tab
Switch reverse: Alt+Shift+Tab (I think this is little less known)
On Windows Vista / Win7 system you get more animated Flat+Tab buttons.

… and I use even more shortcuts… seems like I need to dedicate one post for shortcuts 

[ad#ad-2-468-x-60]

4. I Do Save Power and Follow Security

When ever I go away, I lock (Ctrl+L) my machine and turn my monitor off. Well, it saves power too 

Also,

Right-click the desktop > click Properties.In the Display Properties dialog box > click the Screen Saver tab > click the Power button.

You can set your power options respectively.

5. I Hate Automatic Updates

I make sure my windows automatic update is turned off.
Go to System Properties [Flag+Break] > Automatic Updates > Turn off Automatic Updates.

6. I Get Back to Work Quickly-Hibernate

I do also enable Hibernate. Hibernation will save your current session in memory and shuts your computer. But it provides instant startup 
Start > Control Panel > Power Options Properties > Hibernete Tab > Check Enable Hibernate.
See Snap:

7. I Don’t Start Unnecessary Things

Remove unnecessary startup:
Start > Run [Flag+R]
Type “msconfig” and press enter. This will open ‘System Configuration Utility’.
On ‘Startup’ tab I uncheck unnecessary services.

8.  I Check And Stop Unnecessary Services

Also I make sure no unnecessary service consume my machine’s memory by disabling them. Eg. I Disable ‘Automatic Updates’.
Start > Run [Flag+R]
services.msc

9. I Don’t System Restore

System Restore is something that stores changes to my machine and enables restore it to particular point. But I disable it. It saves memory and risk of restoration of Viruses, in case. 

10. I Defragment

I also defragment my drives approx once a month.
Start > Run [Flag+R]
dfrg.msc

Do respond with your suggestions and review for my practices.