• Dean
• News
• Events
• Academics
  • Architecture
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Urban Planning & Design
  • Advanced Studies Program

• Admissions
• Library
• Research & Publications
• Professional Development
  • Executive Education
  • Loeb Fellowship
  • Career Discovery

• People
• Gallery
• Alumni
• Inside the GSD
  • Dean's Office
  • Student Services
  • Registrar
  • Finance Office
  • Computer Resources
  • Fabrication Laboratory
  • Building Services
  • Human Resources
  • Internal Publications

Maintaining your computer

This page covers some important working habits and strategies that help prevent computing problems, software and hardware related issues.

Computer Maintenance

• Basic Maintenance
• Mac Maintenance
• Windows XP Maintenance

Basic Maintenance Practices

Work locally: Do all work off the local hard drive. Your local computer could have more than one hard drive, or be separated into parts, but it is all part of the computer on your desk, as opposed to remote servers, or removable disks. Do not open files directly from floppy disks, or the network drives. Copy your work from disk, to a work folder on your hard drive known as the 'User Temp' folder. Then open it. It will work much faster and more efficiently. Then copy it back to the source when you are done.

Shut down properly: Make sure to exit, not just close, all software when done. Then shut-off computer properly.

• Windows OS, be sure there is nothing still open on the lower task bar, then go to Start > Shut Down.
• Mac, go to Apple > Shut Down.
• Don't ever press the power switch as a means of shutting your computer!

Organize your data files: It is best to create folders (Mac) or subdirectories (Windows) to store your work. Do not keep work at the top C:\ level, but use folders. Keep your work data files separate from the software itself. This allows you to backup work easier, replace software easier, and find work quicker. If you have more than one hard drive, keep data on one, and software and operating system on the other.

Keep your hard drive clean: Remove any software that you don't need. Everything adds up! If you keep lots of old files on your hard drive, after a while it becomes difficult to sort the junk from the current files. Keep archiving old things, delete temporary or outdated files.

Mac Maintenance tips

• Use 'Documents' folder to store your documents. Do not put your documents inside other folders.
• Do not edit or modify any files in 'Library' folder
• Keep your Mac updated - use 'Software Update'
• Do not move applications from the Applications folder to another location
• Remove any software that you don't use.

Windows XP maintenance tips

• Keep your Windows OS updated - run Windows updates automaticaly
• Clean Hard Disk regularly - use 'Start\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Disk Cleanup' utility to safely remove temporary and other redundant files
• Use 'Disk Defragmenter' tool to defragment your hard drive on regular basis
• Make sure that you use 'Add\Remove Programs' in Control Panel to uninstall programs