Just like your home or car if left unloved your PC will fall into disrepair and things start to go wrong. This guide will walk you through a few “Best practices” focusing specifically on windows 10.

In this wiki we will be using a few 3rd party tools that I have experience with, there are alternatives out there, feel free to explore and experiment with them.

Every computer should have an anti-virus of some kind, the cyber world is full of threats that will remain unseen, sometimes for long periods. This wiki won’t go into depth on how to use them all, but rather give you an overview of some options available.

Windows defender

Windows defender was first released for Windows Vista and has come on leaps and bounds since then, today it shouldn’t be underestimated as a safety measure for the average Windows user. It now offers some other device admin tools like device “Health and performance” checks.

It’s worth noting that if you install a 3rd party anti-virus that Windows Defender will deactivate this will stop conflicts and false positives, this is true of every anti-virus, you should never have more than on installed for a long period of time.

Malwarebytes

Another everyday anti-virus I recommend is Malwarebytes, it’s a no fuss, un-intrusive anti-virus trusted by millions of people, and best of all it’s free. But to pay for live protection.

Kaspersky

If you want the best of the best of anti-viruses then Kaspersky the one, as of 2016 it held the largest market share in cyber security software on the market. Although a fantastic doesn’t have a free version. It’s worth noting that Kaspersky has been responsible for catching the most notable cyber security threats such as Stuxnet, Reign and the Poseidon Group.

Anti-virus summary

Windows defender is the default anti-virus and will do in most cases, if you feel you need a bit more protection Malwarbytes is a great piece of software, if you think you still have a virus and neither are picking it up you can always download the free trial version of Kaspersky Total Security and run a scan to see if it picks anything up.

CCleaner

A great tool for cleaning unused files and optimising your file system is CCleaner, with the click of a button you can empty your recycle bin, clear temporary internet files and fix/remove unwanted or invalid windows registry entries. It will also clear cookies and other files left by internet browsers.

-cleaner

-reg cleaner

-tools

–start-up programs

–browser plugins

–disk analyser

–duplicate finder

Defragment and optimise drives

In days gone by defragging your PC was a task that would have to have been done often, however with the Windows operating system becoming more intelligent and automatically scheduling the task, and hard drives becoming faster in general it’s a task that isn’t really required any more, but it’s worth noting.

-HDDs

-SSDs

Speccy

This small piece of software is great for seeing what your computer is made of, it can show you what temperature your components are running at, it can show you what condition your drives are in using S.M.A.R.T.