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If you don’t ’stop’ a USB device before unplugging it from a PC, you’ll screw things.
The only problem is Windows’ failure to recognize your USB flash drive after being unplugged iand if immediately plugged in again. If that happens to you, wait a few seconds between unplugging and plugging. If that doesn’t work, reboot Windows. And if that doesn’t work, run the Add Hardware wizard from the Control Panel to make Windows “see” the USB device.

Cookies track everything you do on the Internet.

Cookies can perform limited tracking when you’re browsing Web pages. And some persistent cookies can trace your movements from site to site. For instance, cookies from Double Click, a company that feeds targeted Web ads to users, track your surfing to any Double Click-enabled site to make sure that you don’t see the same advertisement over and over. If you’re worried about cookies, turn them off in your browser (although doing so will render many sites virtually unsurfable). In IE, choose Tools, Internet Options, click the Privacy tab, and click Advanced to override automatic cookie handling.

Hibernate

If you’re uneasy about just switching off the PC, change the Power Options settings. From the Control Panel, open Power Options, click the advanced tab, and under ‘Power buttons’ select Hibernate. Now whenever you push the power button, Windows will save itself in its current state. Turn the computer on later, and Windows will pop up, just as you left it, in a lot less time than the system would take to boot.If you’re using Windows XP, right-click the desktop, choose New, Shortcut, type shutdown -s -t 00, click Next, give the shortcut a name (for example, Shutdown), and click Finish. Next time you need to shut down, click the shortcut icon.

If you don’t periodically run your laptop batteries down to zero, you’ll lose battery life.

Newer laptops use lithium ion batteries that have no memory,.They don’t need to be discharged to maintain their life, he says. Lithium ion batteries prefer a partial rather than a full discharge. Nonetheless, every 30 charges or so, you should run them down to zero. This measure isn’t to preserve the battery but to recalibrate the fuel gauge–the indicator on the laptop screen that shows how much battery juice and time remain.
Gently wipe each disc with a moistened, soft cloth. Use a motion that starts at the center of the disc and then moves outward toward the edge. Never wipe a disc in a circular motion.

Inside the Box:

Before cracking open the case, turn off the power and unplug your PC. Ground yourself before you touch anything inside to avoid destroying your circuitry with a static charge. If you don’t have a grounding wrist strap, you can ground yourself by touching any of various household objects, such as a water pipe, a lamp, or another grounded electrical device. Be sure to unplug the power cord before you open the case.

Use antistatic wipes to remove dust from inside the case. Avoid touching any circuit-board surfaces. Pay close attention to the power-supply fan, as well as to the case and to CPU fans, if you have them. Spray these components with a blast of compressed air to loosen dust; but to remove the dust rather than rearrange it, you should use a small vacuum.

If your PC is more than four years old, or if the expansion cards plugged into its motherboard are exceptionally dirty, remove each card, clean its contacts with isopropyl alcohol, and reseat it. If your system is less than a couple years old, however, just make sure each card is firmly seated by pressing gently downward on its top edge while not touching its face. Likewise, check your power connectors, EIDE connectors, and other internal cables for a snug fit.

While you have the case open, familiarize yourself with the CMOS battery on the motherboard. For its location, check the motherboard manual. If your PC is more than four or five years old, the CMOS battery may need to be replaced. (A system clock that loses time is one indicator of a dying CMOS battery.)      

9)          Look for Trouble

Give your PC a periodic checkup with a good hardware diagnostic utility. Two excellent choices are Sandra Standard from SiSoftware and #1-TuffTest-Lite from #1-PC Diagnostics. Go to PC World’s download page to download the free version of Sandra.

Adding and removing system components leaves orphaned entries in the Windows Registry. This can increase the time your PC takes to boot and can slow system performance. Many shareware utilities are designed to clean the Registry, but my favorite is Registry Drill from Easy Desk Software..

Windows stores files on a hard drive in rows of contiguous segments, but over time the disk fills and segments become scattered, so they take longer to access. To keep your drive shipshape, run Windows’ Disk Defragmenter utility. Click Start, Programs (All Programs in XP), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. If your drive is heavily fragmented, you could boost performance. Defragging may take hours, however. Disable your screen saver and other automatic programs beforehand to keep the defrag from restarting every few minutes.

Disk Defragmenter won’t defragment the file on your hard drive that holds overflow data from system memory (also known as the swap file). Since the swap file is frequently accessed, defragmenting it can give your PC more pep. You can defragment your swap file by using a utility such as the SpeedDisk program included with Norton SystemWorks 2004, but there’s a way to reset it in Windows.

In Windows XP, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced, and then choose the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again and the Change button under Virtual Memory. Select another drive or partition, set your swap file size, and click OK. If you have only one partition and no way to create a second one, and you have at least 256MB of RAM, disable the swap file rather than moving it: Select No paging file in the Virtual Memory settings. If you have trouble booting, start Windows in Safe Mode and re-enable this option.

10)             Hard-Drive Checkup

Windows XP offers a rudimentary evaluation of your hard disk’s health with its error-checking utility: Right-click the drive’s icon in Windows Explorer and select Properties, Tools, Check Now. (Windows can fix errors and recover bad sectors automatically if you wish.) If the check discovers a few file errors, don’t worry, but if it comes up with hundreds of errors, the drive could be in trouble.

Many hardware and software designers humbly assume you want their program running on your PC all the time, so they tell Windows to load the application at startup (hence, the ever-growing string of icons in your system tray). These programs eat up system resources and make hardware conflicts and compatibility problems more likely. To prevent them from launching, just click Start, Run, type msconfig, and press Enter. The programs listed under the Startup tab are set to start along with Windows. Uncheck the box at the left of each undesirable program to prevent it from starting automatically.

PC Maintenance: Four Tips for Longer PC Life.

Keep your PC in a smoke-free environment.
Tobacco smoke can damage delicate contacts and circuits.

Leave your PC running.
Powering up from a cold state is one of the most stressful things you can do to your system’s components. If you don’t want to leave your PC running all the time, use Windows’ Power Management settings to put your machine into hibernation rather than completely shutting down. In Windows XP, right-click the desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and select the Power button. Choose the Hibernate tab to ensure that hibernation is enabled, and then select a time beneath ‘System hibernates’ under the Power Schemes tab. (Note that this option is not available on all PCs.) Computers running older versions of Windows may or may not provide similar power-management features. Look under the Power Management icon (Power Options in Windows 2000) in Control Panel to evaluate your machine’s capabilities.

Don’t leave your monitor running
The best way to extend your display’s life is to shut it off when it’s not in use.

Whenever you move your system, even if it’s just across the desktop, make sure the machine is shut down and unplugged.

Display Full Path in Title Bar Open any folder window, and you’ll see its name in the title bar. Need to see a bit more information there? You can opt to display every folder’s complete path right in that bar. any Explorer window, select View, Folder Options. Click the View tab, select Display Full Path In Title Bar, and click OK. Now take a look at the title bar of any open folder window (or glance down at its spot on the Taskbar).