General speaking a computer, like an automobile, can give years of service as long as it’s serviced regularly. Typically disk utilities such Microsoft Scandisk and Defrag are adequate and should be performed every six months for the computer to operate efficiently.
Other utilities such as Piriform’s “CCleaner” (available at www.piriform.com) or other comparable product should be used regularly to clean the computer to maintain system health and speed.
No computer should ever run without some form of anti-virus application on it. Norton’s Anti-Virus, McAfee and AVG are just a few of the many anti-virus programs available.
Malwarebytes, (from www.malwarebytes.org), is another program that may be used in conjunction with the above mentioned anti-virus applications to clean the computer of spam and malicious software and should be performed on a regular basis.
It should be noted that all of the programs mentioned above will load in system memory at start-up but should not scan during business hours. Reading the manufacturer’s instructions will help configure the software correctly so it will not interfere with the computer’s operations during normal business hours. Other tips and tricks and answers may be obtained by going to the manufacturer’s web site.