The Feb. 18, 2009 issue of Church Leaders Intelligence Report provided an excellent article on “Making the Most of Your Computers.” Here is the critical part of the article:
At the recent AICPA Not-For-Profit Financial Executives Forum held in Anaheim, Randy Johnson, executive vice president of Network Management Group, Inc. offered his top-ten tips on extending the life of your desktop tools.
Happily, most of these tips do not require additional out-of-pocket expenditure. Consider asking for the advice or participation of someone well-versed in information systems and technology if you don’t feel comfortable implementing these tips.
- Back up files no longer needed and delete them locally.
- Remove programs no longer needed, and make sure to remove program file folders not removed by "uninstall."
- Convert drive to NTFS, if not already; this increases the size of read/write blocks and significantly improves speed.
- Defrag the drive (twice!).
- Install the latest SP release for Windows and Office, if applicable.
- Determine that you are not running multiple spyware/virus software.
- Run MSCONFIG and remove auto start programs you do not need.
- Keep the Tray lean and mean; remove programs you do not run regularly, like Hot Sync for Treo and others.
- For Microsoft Vista, remove gadgets like the weather, stock quotes and CPU activity. This is critical if you are running on a single CPU system/older system upgraded to Vista.
- Upgrading memory to two or three gigabytes is the only additional out-of-pocket item, but it will significantly improve performance.
Nonprofit Times 2/11/09
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