Home / Windows 7

Windows Maintenance

Your personal computer is a curious combination of digital data and temperamental machinery. To keep your system running smoothly, it pays to perform some regular maintenance tasks. In particular, it's important to do the following on a regular basis:

  • Download and install the latest updates from Microsoft. These updates ensure that your hardware and software will remain stable and secure.
  • Download and install the latest versions of drivers used by your system's devices.
  • Check your disks for file system and media errors.
  • Defragment your hard disks to optimize file access.
  • Perform regular backups of data and system files.

In Windows 7, many of the essential maintenance tools run automatically-or will do so after you have performed some essential setup steps. We describe most of those setup chores, and the options associated with them, in this tutorial. Backup, because it is particularly vital and because it presents a more extensive set of configuration choices.

Action Center

By default, Windows monitors your system and notifies you if any security or maintenance issues merit your attention. Immediately after the system has detected a noteworthy event, you might see a balloon message in the notification area-near the lower right corner of your screen in the default screen layout. For example, if a backup fails because of lack of space on the target disk, you might see a balloon notification to that effect.

Clicking the balloon gives you a chance to take immediate action.

Balloon messages alerting you to important security and maintenance issues are generated by Action Center, a new feature in the Windows 7 landscape. If you overlook or ignore the balloon, you can deal with the problem later by means of the Action Center icon, which is also in the notification area.

Balloon messages alerting you to important security and maintenance issues are generated by Action Center, a new feature in the Windows 7 landscape. If you overlook or ignore the balloon, you can deal with the problem later by means of the Action Center icon, which is also in the notification area.

Clicking the icon in its troubled state reveals the nature of the problem (or problems, if more than one has accumulated) and tells you what you can do.

You can take corrective action by clicking an imperative statement in the middle of this message (for example, Check Backup Disk Space), or you can learn more about the condition of your system by clicking Open Action Center.

If Action Center has an important message to deliver, that message is flagged with a prominent red bar, and a button or link provides you with the means to address the problem.

Action Center, which you can also reach via the System And Security section of Control Panel, is both a troubleshooting tool and a maintenance tool. It lets you review and address any current issues affecting the security or stability of your system. It also provides links to Backup And Restore, Windows Update, and various troubleshooters.

Messages served by Action Center fall under two broad headings: Security and Maintenance. You can expand and collapse each of these headings by means of controls at the right.