Final clean up of the equipment

When cleaning the equipment you must ensure you clean the software and hardware. I will discuss below how to do this.

Cleaning the software can be an easy task, there are a range of utilities on your computer for you to do this and others you must download.

Such as:

• Disk Cleanup - This tool can be found on your computer, its functions is evaluating the data you have on your system and suggesting data you can delete to save space.
• Disk Defrag - This tool gathers all the scattered data on your hardrive closer together to enable files to load quicker etc.
• Disk Compression - This utility compresses data into a smaller size saving space.

To clean the hardware of your computer the best method is the use of compressed air, this can be used to clean the wiring, circuits etc. There is no moisture so it will not damage your equipment, I will include an example of this in use below.

Installing DVD drive

Installing a DVD drive requires alot of basic steps in health and safety. Firstly we must turn the power off and place the computer tower on an anti static mat so we do not damage the motherboard. I then had to remove the casing and attach the DVD drive.

I have added a picture below taken when i did this task:

Range of utility software currently available

When doing this task there was a range of utility software available to me on the Microsoft Windows i will name some and give a brief description of each and what they do.

Disk Cleanup
The Disk Cleanup tool allows the user to free up disk space on there hard disk by selecting files that we can delete that have no use to us such as temporary internet files. After it selects files we can delete it gives us options on what we can delete.

System Restore
System Restore records changes we make to the Windows system files and registry. If we delete something vital which will cause the computer to be instable and crash we can then use system restore to undo those changes and return those files back to how they were.

Disk Defragmenter
When we install a program onto our computer the files realted to that program can be broken up over multiple locations on our hard disk which is called fragmentation. When this happens our computers become very slow when we use the disk defragmenter utility it rearranges the files closer together so the program can be opened much quicker.

Back up tools
Back up tools is another useful system utility which allows us to copy files/folders to be stored as a backup incase the files are lost or damaged from a virus or have become corrupt.

Task scheduler
This software allows the user to create task which automatically operate without human interaction when they are set. Its used widley to save alot of time with regular task such as virus scan etc.

setup a schedule to start an application of your choice every time you logon

(Proof of creating a scheduled task can be found on the observation sheet)

Many of us use scheduled tasks this is because it saves us time having to open the same program over and over again each time we log on. By adding a program to scheduled tasks you can have tools such as disk cleanup, or virus scan.

There are many more benefits than those above such as once the task has been set it will continue to do it everytime you log on. However you need to control the ammount of tasks you set up to run or it can seriously hault your computers performance for example if you choose high CPU programs such as defrag, virus scan and disk clean up to start on log in the computer will be extremley slow and the RAM may not be able to run anything else as it cant cope with the ammount of CPU beeing used at once.

Below is an example of begining to setup a task.

install and configure a software firewall

(Please refer to Observation sheet for proof of installation and configuration of a software firewall)

We all use firewalls to keep hackers and worms from accessing our computers. As the internet is a public network any computer connected to the internet can connect to another computer so we must have a firewall to stop people or viruses gaining unauthorised access to our computer.

Benefits of a firewall is it will shield your computer from unauthorised access from hackers which attempt to steal your personal information such as bank details, pin codes etc. Firewalls run in the background and have little to no effect on your computers performance which is also a great advantage.

Below is an example of a software firewall

install and configure AVG anti-virus software

(Please refer to the observation sheet as proof of installation and configuration of AVG)

AVG is an anti-virus software program many people use it as it is free to download and is reliable at protecting your computer against viruses, trojans and other malicious software.

AVG's main advantages is that it is free but it also has regular updates to eliminate new viruses which have been created therefore making it less likley that your computer will get infected.
However AVG is not the smallest of programs when running anti-virus scans it can take up alot of CPU therefore slowing your computer down if your doing other tasks. (When running scans etc)

Below is an example of AVG

installing Flash Player 10

(Please refer to observation sheet as proof of installation of flash player 10)

Many if not all of us use our computers for multimedia purposes such as watching/creating videos, playing games etc therefore we need software such as Flash Player this is why majority of us have this software.


The benefits to us and our computers is Flash Player gives us the ability to view media content that is Flash based (Such as videos, games and animations) This software effects our computers by making games, videos etc run faster, smoother and in better quality.