Clean Up Your Computer Month: 6 Easy Steps to Optimize Your Digital Workspace and Safeguard Your Data

We all know January marks the beginning of the New Year, but did you know it’s also Clean Up Your Computer Month?

Clean Up Your Computer Month is a great opportunity for individuals to optimize their digital workspace, enhance productivity and begin 2024 afresh.

With just a little bit of TLC, your device can help you navigate easier, safer, and at little to no cost at all.

Our computers are important machines that can improve our personal and work lives, so here are six healthy habits you can employ to keep your devices shipshape.

Healthy Habit No. 1 – Clean

Cleaning computers doesn’t have to be daunting. On the physical side of cleaning, benefits include a safer and faster experience. You can use a can of compressed air to remove dust from your device or get professional help.

The cleanup of your machine should also include deleting unnecessary files or duplicates from your desktop, downloads and document folders that are often used as dumping grounds for files and downloads you no longer need. You can use disk cleanup tools and software to identify all unneeded and larger files.

Pro tip: run a disk cleanup and defragmentation to remove unnecessary system files, free up disk space for an optimized hard drive, and increase device performance.

Healthy Habit No. 2 – Organize

An untidy desktop can slow down your computer down and make it more difficult for you to find docs and apps you actually need to perform your job or other activities.

Declutter your desktop by keeping shortcuts only for applications you use regularly. Make sure you also uninstall any unused programs you come across to free up even more storage space and improve your system’s performance.

Healthy Habit No. 3 – Update

Updates include bug fixes, security patches and performance improvements. You can optimize your computer and keep it safe from threats by ensuring that all of your software, drivers and apps are up to date.

Make sure your antivirus software is also up and running with the latest patches.

Healthy Habit No.4 – Review app permissions

Applications installed on your computer may also be accessing information that can infringe on your privacy. You can check and revoke permissions for a particular app on both Windows and macOS computers.

Healthy Habit No.5 – Review your passwords

Password security should not be overlooked when you begin the cleanup process of your device. Review and strengthen passwords that do not meet the latest security standards. You can use a trusted password manager tool to generate and safely store unique passwords.

Healthy Habit No.6 – Organize and review the digital you

Your device is the gateway to your digital identity. Whether you’re storing physical copies of personal data on your device or using it to access online accounts with sensitive information, make the most of Clean Up Your Computer Month to manage your account and review security features too.

Use dedicated tools such as Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection to discover manage and even reduce your online footprint with many privacy-focused features and 24/7 data breach monitoring among other perks.