Editors Note: In this ongoing series, from time to time our Sony Style Backstage Agents will offer you a behind the scenes look at their experiences as well as provide easy to follow technical advice.
My name's Josh - I'm a Backstage Agent at our Sony Style store at The Woodlands Mall here in Woodlands, Texas. If you're not already familiar, think of Backstage as your personal, in-store help desk. Because of this, we speak with a lot of customers each and every day. We're here to answer questions, solve technical issues and even assist customers with learning how to use their VAIO to its fullest potential.
One of the questions I get most often from customers is how to keep their PC running smoothly and quickly. In fact, a customer came in yesterday with this exact issue. She felt her PC wasn't running as quickly as it used to and she came to Backstage looking for help. I told her she came to the right place and we got her VAIO running like new within the same day.
After it was all said and done and I thanked her for stopping in, I got to thinking - I bet our readers would appreciate a look at some of the simple things we do behind the desk to keep VAIOs running healthy and strong. Some of these tips you may already know but some you may not - either way, I hope you find them helpful!
- Defrag, Defrag, Defrag. Did you know that when saving a file, the operating system often breaks the file into separate bits and places it in fragmented sections throughout the hard drive? This is called fragmentation and it makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down event he fastest computer over time. This Disk Defragmenter tool rearranges fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently. While the defragmenter runs periodically in Vista, it's always a good idea to run it manually when things feel slow.
- Remove Unnecessary Files/Programs. Temporary internet files, cookies, system caches, thumbnails etc. can all very quickly build up and easily slow things down. You should clean these files up from time to time.
- Prevent Programs from Launching at Startup. As you add software to your notebook, some applications set themselves to automatically launch at startup. This can increase the amount of time it takes your PC to boot up.
These are just a few of the things you can do to keep your VAIO running smooth and fast. If you prefer to have us do it for you, either stop by a
local SonyStyle store and talk to the Backstage Agent or else contact our
Backstage Remote team and they'll help tackle any issue or question you may have remotely, over your Internet connection - all from the comfort of your home.
In the meantime, if you have any other PC tricks you've discovered to be helpful, share them with the rest of the community by posting it in our comment section below. We love hearing what our customers have to say.