Many of us have a Windows XP computer that we just love. But perhaps it’s gotten a bit sluggish lately or maybe your programs freeze or stop working. It could be time for maintenance.

The easy solution to computer maintenance… hire me and I’ll do it for you.

• I charge a very minimal $125 to do a complete backup for you.
• After you have a backup, I can run a full set of maintenance for you for a very low price of $100. Tips are welcome.

For all you DIY people, here are some tips I emailed a friend who didn’t want to bother me with actually dealing with the problems.

1. Make a backup of your photos and important things on an external hard drive. I think you might have done that already or we talked about it before. *Very Important, do this first and don’t do anything else unless you do this. 🙂

2. Run some 6mo-1yr maintenance on your computer.

3. Uninstall programs you don’t use anymore. (Some programs came with our computer and we haven’t ever used them. They’re just taking up space. Uninstall! Other programs we probably won’t ever use again… uninstall them, especially if you have CD’s so if you ever do need them you can put the program back. -Archive files you don’t use onto the external hard drive and delete it from your computer hard drive (you’ll still have a copy if you do need it) -Install and run a program like http://www.superantispyware.com to clean out any spyware/Ads/etc. -Install and run a program like Glary Utilities to “tune up” your computer. http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html -Defragment your hard drive. this normally helps to speed up your computer once you start to fill up the hard drive.

4. Manage your startup programs -Download and run a program like “starter” http://codestuff.tripod.com/products_starter.html -Explanation- many of the programs we install on our computers assume we will be using the programs often so they install little helper programs which start when you turn on your computer. The problem is, we rarely use those programs and when 20 programs all install a “little helper program” you can imagine that it will begin to slow your computer down. Our solution is to use this program to go through all the little helper programs which start with your computer and disable the ones you don’t really need. * Note, if you find a piece of software or hardware like a printer or scanner stops working after you do this, re-enable the little helper program that you think goes with the software or hardware (but this almost never happens).

Hope this helps, Aloha!

arlen