Thank you!

Thank you as well for watching.

Thank you!

@@frankwestphal8532 you deserve it my friend 👍

Thank you! I'm actually impartial on hibernate now, because computers will come out of it so fast if they are running SSDs, and they're pretty good now, about re-establishing connections that were active at the time of sleep or hibernate. I agree that if a person doesn't have the chance to shut down, sleep and hibernate both have their place with SSDs. I just try not to encourage people to rely on those features, because 1) the OS or data can become corrupt if the transition out of sleep or hibernate is interrupted for some reason, and 2) if the computer is on a different network when it comes out of sleep or hibernation, sometimes the network adapter(s) cache(s) will not be fully flushed, and the computer will either have no network connectivity, or inconsistent network connectivity. A restart will typically fix this because it force flushes the network adapter cache, and that forces new active connections to be created. For the most part, devices are pretty good about creating new network connections on their own now, but if a person does not need to sleep or hibernate their computer, shut down and clean starts always avoid possible data corruption and network issues when switching between networks. With all that said, I agree with you that when life happens they are good fail-safes. Just try not to rely on them.

True about possible loosing data. I always make sure everything is saved before doing these. I've been bitten by that a few times but not in the last year or so. Maybe it is more robust now? Better safe than sorry. Keep up the great content! @@frankwestphal8532

Thanks for watching, and great questions here... A couple things in response: Disk defragmentation is done automatically by the OS starting in Win 7 and beyond. Also, SSDs don't' need to be defragmented. So you don't have to worry about it anymore. Disabling startup apps that you don't want running automatically, is good thing to do for sure. It reduces system resource consumption a little bit with each app that's turned off. Clearing browser cache and cookies certainly won't hurt, but the impact on system resource consumption would be minimal, so I wouldn't bother doing it. As far as anymore software tips, I would say periodically go through all your installed apps in "control panel > programs and features" and verify you recognize everything. If not do a quick search, and if you don't need that software, uninstall it. We just want to keep the software environment as clean as possible and know what's running on our computers. Also, Malwarebytes Free antimalware is an excellent periodic cleanup tool, to ensure you don't have malware. And as far as disk space goes, on your system drive "C: drive", you don't ever want it to have less than 500MB of storage left on it, but that is the bare minimum. I like to have at least 10GB available at any given time, but 500MB is the actual line that I've seen a number of times in my work, where the Operating System will start having serious issues running. And if removing data from the disk is not done, the OS will very quickly not be able to boot up anymore. I did a video on the system disk being full and there's a great free tool, WinDirStat, that makes it really easy to identify and delete junk data. Here's the link if you want to watch it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mpmHesxh1tmwmn0.html NOTE: On any disk that is not the primary system disk (the one that's running the OS), you can max the disk out without having OS issues, but it's good to have some room on those too.

@@frankwestphal8532 Wow! Thank you so much, Frank :) What a comprehensive response. You made my day. There are still nice people out there :) My computer is 2T and I have 150 GB left however I am in the red. I have always thought that you are not supposed to be in the red that this is when the computer slows down but I guess the red is just a warning that you are nearing your capacity and not that you are pushing your computer to its limits. Good to know. Also, it looks like that the other things I worried about are not really that important when it comes to the longevity of the computer or how fast it is. What about shutting the computer down? I could not find any consistent advice on that. My computer is always on unless I go on holiday. At night I put the lid down. I don't know if it sleeps or hibernates during that time. Is it Ok what I do? Should I shut it down more often? How often? Thank you!

Thank you!

Hi, and thank you for watching. All computers have an internal disk or multiple disks, but older ones will have a mechanical disk (or disks) in them, if they haven't been upgraded to solid state disks (SSD). If a system does have a mechanical disk, it is actually much better to power off when not using the computer, because mechanical disks have moving parts like an electric motor, and read/write arms that move. All of those mechanical parts have a specific lifespan (measured in hours) and everytime the computer is on, that lifespan is getting shorter with each hour of lifetime consumed. Eventually, all disks will fail, but mechanical disks, in particular, will last much longer if the computer is powered off in between uses. Also, mechanical disks have a greater risk of data corruption if the computer is moved while the disks are running. My best advice is to upgrade to an SSD, but if you don't want to do that, definitely power off in between uses because your disk (and your entire system) will last much longer.

@@frankwestphal8532 ok. thanks for the good content

Yes, for 3 reasons: 1. Some laptops will continuously charge the battery and that will shorten its lifespan. But on a Dell business class laptop like the Latitude, charging is shut down when the battery is full, and this is true for other business class laptops as well, and probably a lot of consumer class laptops too. If you have a surge protector in place, and you know that the battery charging will be shut down when the battery is fully charged, then it's ok to leave it plugged in, but still powered off. 2. If there is a power surge and the computer is plugged in (without a surge protector), even if not in use, it could be still be damaged (fried motherboard). 3. If it's not plugged in, it has also probably been shut down. All components have a specific lifespan measure in hours. So if the computer is left on, and running, those hours are being consumed for nothing. Always shut down when not in use. And because SSDs start up so fast, there's really no reason to sleep laptops anymore if you're running an SSD.

Hi, and thank you for watching. I would not risk using petrol, but I have not tried it. If you can't get 91% rubbing alcohol you could use 70%, or a very high alcohol content liquor, such as everclear. A can of high pressure air spray cleaner would work well too. When using any liquid to clean ports, just make sure to have the port upside down so that the liquid goes in, and immediately falls out from gravity. You want to make sure that the liquid does not get into the internal components, such as the motherboard.

@@frankwestphal8532 ok thanks..❤️