Right from our HP desktop computer running Windows Professional to my powerful Dell Latitude E6520 running on Windows 10, I have been a Windows fan all the way.
Hope you aren’t trying to judge me…
Okay. We all have always used our PC to do a lot of work and entertain ourselves as well. It’s really cool having a good PC that performs any task thrown to it without hitches. That’s not the talk for today.
There are a whole lot of reoccurring actions that we do on our PC that end up messing up our work or completely turning us off.
Let’s imagine the feeling: After typing a document of about 4,000 words and you were about to hit the CTRL + S keys to save, your PC forcefully shuts down due to overheating. It’s so annoying, right?
What if you turn it back on after a while of cooling with hopes of the PC resuming the last state and you find out that it has restarted.
It’s extremely annoying, right?
Those are some of the worst things that could happen on your PC and your whole day will just be like someone who loosed a high paying job because of his inability to tie a tie properly.
It happens every day, we do stuff on our PC without knowing its repercussion or outcome, we take chances and just don’t care. If you are careless with your PC and nothing has happened yet, please stop, you shouldn’t wait till it starts raining before you look for an umbrella or a raincoat.
There are too many things we should stop doing on our Windows PCs so as to always feel good after and before working. Let’s see the most popular ones and gradually increase the number to cover more careless actions on PC.
Let’s see some dos and don’ts on our PC to keep it functioning well as well as saving us from
What You Should Stop Doing On Your PC
Removing The Laptop’s Battery & Using Just The Charger/Power Cable
I see a lot of people doing this all the time and a few having a bad luck after trying it. The question is, is it good to use your laptop without battery but plugged in?
Based on experience, it’s not a good idea. It’s only good to do that when you have no battery at all and the power supply is stable and okay for your PC.
Having a battery fully charged and the laptop plugged in is not harmful, because as soon as the charge level reaches 100% the battery stops receiving charging energy and this energy is bypassed directly to the power supply system of the laptop.
So, there’s no need using just the direct power/charger to power the system. If anything happens to the electricity, it will stop every single work and the PC will go off completely. It’s not even good to allow your PC to shut down abnormally.
So, the next time you are asked – can I use my laptop plugged in without a battery? It’s a no, if possible. Just using the power cable has ruined a lot of PC owners because the computer went off unexpectedly.
Using An Incompatible Charger On Your Laptop
Every new laptop comes with its charger and all laptops have chargers out there you could buy for replacement. Most times, we find ourselves using a charger that isn’t compatible with our PC.
It’s either the voltage is too high, too low, unstable or just something out of this world. Even if it successfully charges the PC, the risk of having an electrical damage is very possible. It could burn your PC’s motherboard or make your work fruitless.
Try to get the specified charger for your PC and stay away from fake chargers completely.
Using An Incompatible/Fake Battery On Your Laptop
As important as the laptop charger is, the battery is very important. Using an incompatible/fake battery isn’t just dangerous, it will negatively affect your laptop’s performance and your work.
I have seen cases where a laptop battery explodes and cause serious injuries because of incompatibility. Using a completely fake or incompatible laptop battery as a daily driver isn’t safe. You can comfortably shop for an original laptop battery for a replacement from any nearby retailer or online.
Instead of risking everything just because of some cheap laptop battery, save some more and get a good battery that fits your PC model. You won’t regret it at all.
Making Unnecessary Connections Via The USB Port
The USB port is to allow connections between supported devices and your PC. If you use the port to make naked or open connections that can easily get bridged, it could cause electrical disaster or physical damages to your PC.
Recently, a friend made a connection and inserted the USB cable to the PC. The connection worked properly but he forgot to cover the open wires before leaving. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice the wires(-ve and +ve) had touched each other, he closed from work and left the PC on.
The next day, the screen wasn’t displaying any light and the USB port was completely bad. The only solution was to change the board. He tried new and old screens, but none was displaying any light. All these happened because of his carelessness.
Don’t Block The Fan When Using The PC
The fan is actually meant to cool your PC and push out the hot air so as to keep the temperature okay during usage. Most people put the laptop in a position where the hot air isn’t coming out as expected and it then causes overheating which can also cause damages.
You should make sure your fan is working properly, not stuck with dust, and it’s being used in a ventilated environment. I have had several times when my PC will automatically shut itself down because of overheating.
If you don’t want that same experience, just take care of your PC.
Be careful When Moving Files From Removable Storage
This is one of those normal acts on the PC that could turn into something annoying. Whenever you are moving files from a removable storage via USB or a Micro SD card, be careful not to interrupt the transmission in any way.
I have personally loosed files during a transfer process. As the files are being moved, if anything happens in between that interrupts the process, the files may be lost and gone forever both on the removable disk and the computer as well.
The safest approach should be to copy and paste the files, so you will have them both no matter what happens. If you retry again after a hitch, the computer will always help you out with duplicate files.
Forcing Your PC To Power Down
We are all guilty of these in one or more ways. Even if it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t safe for your PC’s health to manually force it off by pressing and holding the power button till it turns off.
If you are so lazy to use the shortcuts or directly shut it down manually, then set the power button to shut the PC down when pressed. There’re too many ways to go about it.
Unless on serious scenarios, it’s not always a good idea to do it the hard way.
When Something Goes Wrong, Take It To A Professional
Nowadays when anything can be learned online, everyone is becoming a professional for all their gadgets. It isn’t bad, but you can’t be so good compared to those guys who have devoted their time to the work and becoming well equipped.
To be frank, whenever your PC has an issue that seems bigger than you, especially related to the hardware, please try to visit a repair shop as soon as possible.
I have had issues with water entering my PC after I slept off. Since I wasn’t aware of the amount of water that entered, I just cleaned the keyboard and kept the PC outside to dry for a long time. When I felt all is well, I inserted the battery, turned it on and everything was okay.
I left it charging for a while but when I returned to check the work I left it to do, the PC was off completely and wouldn’t turn on. Then, when I took it to a friend’s shop for repairs, I ended up changing some stuff on the PC because of my ___
Try To Safely Remove Removable Storages From The PC
It’s very normal to see PC users always inserting and removing removable media to and from the PC without making sure everything is safe.
Ejecting a storage device unsafely from your PC could corrupt it or cause it lose open files. Although it’s kinda rare to feel the negative part of it if you are careful, anything can happen when you list expect it.
The computer has an option to safely eject any removable storage once it’s not being used by any program. You can always manually close running programs and then safely eject the removable disk. It doesn’t take much time to safely eject a removable media but it will take more time to get another or even replace the lost files.
Not Using An Anti-Virus/Malware Checker On Your PC
I have seen a lot of people using a PC to do most of their work but will decide not to install an Antivirus program for no just reason. I was also among this group of people.
It might not be so bad but when it happens, you will be the one preaching to others not to ever use a PC without an Antivirus.
Why wouldn’t you use an Antivirus? There’re free ones with very serious malware detecting capabilities and others too you can pay for. A good number of them will save you from malware online, offline and protect you from autorun trojans in removable media.
Don’t wait until a ransomware visits you before you become careful. Anything can happen if you don’t personally secure your PC.
Please, download, install and update your Antivirus program. You can also use the default windows malware detector/defender to keep you safe from malware and other viruses.
Using Your PC Without A Password
Like on our smartphones, using it without a security lock exposes the entire device to unauthorized users. Anyone could gain access and pry on sensitive information.
Locking your PC with an easy to remember password will help reduce the number of alien access to your PC. You will always feel safe leaving your PC in a public place. Even if it’s stolen, it will give the thief a little time to fix. You can even make it more secure by using a BIOS/Boot password, hard drive password etc to make sure every loophole is shut up.
How do you feel when you see a PC and you just need to ask the owner to unlock it? Keep your PC secured too
Never Updating Your PC Software Is A Bad Idea
It is also very possible to see a lot of PC owners using their Windows PC for years without updating a single part of the software or even the core Windows files. Microsoft might not force you to update, but when something goes wrong, you will be so stuck.
No matter how large the update size is, always endeavor to keep your PC updated. It brings new features, fixes bugs, increases performance, adds more security and even updates drivers for your PC to function well. If you update your brain with information all the time, why leave your PC behind.
There’s also an option to install just the important updates and leave the rest until some other time. No matter what, keep updating your PC to stay safe from recent threats and malware.
Plugging Your PC Overnight For No Just Reason
I usually do this but instantly stopped when I saw how an unstable voltage at night burnt a PC that was left to download some newly released movies.
Most times, it’s better to use a surge protector when your PC will be left plugged in for quite a long time.
Unless you are sure or completely in control of how the electricity behaves, you should endeavor to check your PC and the lights as much as possible to make sure all is well. If you find yourself unable to wait while it’s plugged in, unplug it and allow it to use the battery power for safety reasons.
Most times nothing seems to go completely wrong, but, most times isn’t all the time.
DON’T: Access free public wi-fi while working on sensitive material.
With so many of us working remotely or sending a few work emails over the weekend from a cafe, it’s tempting to grab your laptop and log on to free public wi-fi. After all, it’s everywhere and the boss isn’t going to wait until Monday for a review of that project. However, places that offer free wi-fi like the neighborhood coffee shop, the airport or the hotel, can open you up to fraud.
“Don’t access your email, online bank or credit card accounts when on public Wi-Fi,” says fraud expert Frank Abagnale.
Deleting System Files .SYS, .DLL, or.EXE
Deleting these files can render the computer inoperable, or prevent certain features from functioning (example: deleting system files related to the sound driver can disable your ability to listen to music, etc.) Don’t delete any files ending with.SYS,.DLL, or.EXE, in particular from these directories: Program Files, System32, Windows, Users.
Not Always Saving A Document Until It’s Completed
It’s something that a few careless people do, but serious-minded people will always find themselves hitting the CTRL + S key to periodically save their work.
I learned this the hard way when I was blogging without internet access and my laptop asked me to accept a prompt. I didn’t read it but just clicked the okay button. I thought it was something cool, but I couldn’t stop my PC from restarting and my entire work was gone completely.
The rest of the story is just that I learned my lesson and I would like you to learn from my experience or all of us will become experienced teachers. LOL
Always Read Prompts/Notifications Before Accepting Or Declining
No matter how busy you are, try to read any prompt or dialogue box/notification that pops up on your PC before you accept or decline it. Some may have very important actions to run while others will just ruin your work unless you allow it for a later period.
Take your time to understand what the computer is requesting before you decline or hit the OK button. It’s a kinda computerized look before you leap approach.
If you could stop doing all these on your PC, you are actually saving yourself from a whole lot of hectic periods due to carelessness. If you feel we are missing something really important on the list, kindly add your feedback via the comments box and we would be happy to add it to the list.
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