Top Tips For Tidying Up Your Tech

With Clean Up Your Computer Day on February 9th fast approaching, we’ve put together our Top Tips for Tidying Up Your Tech to help you get the most from your devices and systems, from both a personal and a business perspective:

1. Your Desktop

Not the place for your critical documents or any precious personal files. At least if you don’t want to risk losing them.  Have a look and make sure you aren’t keeping anything on there you can’t afford to lose.

2. Online Storage

Set up a OneDrive account or something similar to keep your personal files. No need to worry about backing up, and you’ll be able to access them from any device with an internet connection.

3. Know What You’re Backing Up

Thankfully most businesses have a backup routine, but do you know how much of the space required for your backup is taken by personal photos and music? If you back up online then you’ll be paying by the gigabyte.

4. Share Rather Than Attach

If you and colleagues can access the same network folders then it’s always better to email a link to the file rather than attach the file. Not only is it more secure, but you’ll also minimise the risk of creating multiple duplicates and keeping track of which is the most recent version.

5. Consider SharePoint

Great for keeping your organisation well organised with everything from document libraries to project sites, version control and compliance.  Find out more about SharePoint.

6. Tidy Your Inbox and Kill the Spam

Use the tools in Outlook to create folders and apply rules that help you file relevant messages, or if you’re feeling brave, deleting on mass.

Oversized mailboxes – and the regular warnings that come with them – become less of an issue if you switch to Microsoft Office 365 which offers a whopping 50GB inbox.

Using an effective mail filtering service will help to reduce the volume of rubbish that gets into your mailbox in the first place.

7. Modernise

Many of the issues that affect performance on both the PC and the network are the result of ongoing patching and updates. They’re essential, but over time they create ‘clutter’ that you can do very little about.  

Read about how one of our customers Andy Thornton (a bar/restaurant furniture and lighting manufacturer) modernised their IT and what benefits they’re seeing.

And if you’re still running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, the answer is simple. Upgrade.  These products have either reached end of life support or are about to, and the risks of continuing to run with them are substantial.  Remember you can talk to us if you’re still running with either and you’re not sure what to do.

8. Disk Cleanup Wizard

The Disk Cleanup wizard is one of the Administrative Tools that you’ll find in the Control Panel and it allows you to identify and remove temporary files, downloads, old install files and applications that are no longer used.

9. Know What’s Going On

Network monitoring can help to ensure that everything is neat, tidy and running as it should, which is why thousands of our customers rely on TSG SystemCare.

You’ll spot who’s hogging your connectivity and identify if there’s any unlicensed (AKA dodgy) software running on your network.  My colleague Mike Tudor recently wrote a great blog on this subject called ‘I know what your network did last summer‘.

10. Windows 10

When it launches later in 2015, Windows 10 looks like it’s going to have some neat features that will help you keep everything organised and reduce clutter.

If you use Outlook on your Windows Phone, new features such as left swipe will make it really easy to delete all that unwanted mail.

And Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant, should help you find anything you’re looking for.  Stay tuned to the blog this week for much more information on Windows 10.