Given that there has been a dramatic reduction in the incidence of news about viruses and worms, is it still necessary to perform all that maintenance on your PC Software.  This is a question that we are getting quite frequently these days.  The easy answer is a definite ‘Yes’.   Most software and website industries are continuing to evolve quite rapidly – even right through the recession.   Accordingly, these more complex applications require much more maintenance and they are increasingly complex to restore in case of disaster or loss of data.   This is much more than just re-installing the application system itself, it gets into the master application files and their status at the time of any problem. 

Therefore, the entire PC industry is much more vulnerable on a case by case basis than ever before – especially to total data loss.   In the past if your PC was lost or stolen it was a simple process to locate the CDs and reinstall the applications.  Now, it is a challenge just getting down on paper all that needs to be restored – let alone the data file status.   Many people simply do not have an accurate picture of all the websites and programs that they use on a regular basis.  Some do not even keep an organized login and password diary.

The bottom line is that PC Software Maintenance is more critical than ever.  Beginning with applications you can work your way toward the OS itself.   Most people do not regularly assess their key applications and delete the unnecessary and redundant or prior-version files they no longer need.  Then the cleaned data files should themselves be backed up.  Even this can be much more complex than many people realize. 

Website usage and login data also needs to be recorded and double-checked for security.   All the support and utilities and secondary applications need to be saved and backed up as well.  Finally, your browser and all your temp files need to be cleaned and saved and your cache emptied.

Virus protection software along with your spyware and malware protection systems should be run and saved regularly.   This is not adequately served by simply allowing these applications to auto-run as many of them are set up to do.   You need to manually start the update subsystems on a regular basis – at least monthly.

Lastly, the Operating System needs to be maintained and backed up weekly.   Monthly you should initiate a manual run of your Windows System Registry software.  This will keep your system running fast and efficiently.   That file should be backed up as well.  You can purchase and download a top registry software package that does this.  They also perform the other registry fix functions that accomplish any needed Registry Repair.

This review will, hopefully, validate that the need for PC Software Maintenance is still on the critical list.