Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind, we’ll fill the hard drive with our drafts and sing of auld lang syne. With appropriate apologies to Robert Burns, over the course of a year many computer acquaintances can be forgotten.
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Disable Automatic Defragmentation in Windows Vista Or dropped. Or misplaced. Or whatever. Creating an annual checklist to keep your Windows system lean, mean, and clean is a good idea:
Review all data files on your computer and archive as necessary:
Perhaps the biggest annual task is doing a comprehensive review of the data files on your computer. If you have been doing monthly archives, you can now add other files to the annual pile and shuffle them off to archive media.
Review your Web browser’s favorites list and delete items you don’t use anymore: You should also plan on firing up your Web browser and reviewing the items in your favorites list. Chances are good that what you considered your favorites a year ago no longer qualify as such. Keeping your favorites list pared down helps you find what you need faster, and that can be a huge benefit.
Visit manufacturers’ Web sites to check for updates: Take some time to visit the Web sites for the manufacturers of you system hardware. Check for new drivers for printers, scanners, cameras, and so on, that have been released during the previous 12 months. Updating your drivers can improve speed and reliability.
Review your security precautions and update them as necessary: It’s a cruel, cruel world out there, and some of the perpetrators of cruelty are not content to remain “out there.” Some of them want to get up close and personal with your computer. Your job is to stop them. Believe me — you don’t want to encourage such relationships. You should, at least on an annual basis, make sure that you review your security precautions. Make sure you do your review with an eye toward major security changes in the past year and how you can be prepared for the coming year. Chapter 18 can help get you started.
Update your program inventory: I recommend doing this on an annual basis. Work habits change; tools come and go. You need to make sure that your Windows system always reflects the way you currently use your computer.
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Disable Automatic Defragmentation in Windows Vista 