Many of you who are familiar with my other articles will notice this is a bit off the regular path for me as I usually write articles dealing with home based businesses and setting up websites. The reason for this article on computer maintenance is this. If you are doing Internet Marketing of any type then you are going to be using a computer. And if your computer breaks down, then your business breaks down along with it. So with that in mind, today's article deals with keeping your computer up and running smooth and trouble free. Many people use a few of the methods listed below, but if you use all of them regularly you will go a long way towards keeping your computer up and running like it was meant to. You should be able to find these programs by doing a search through Yahoo or Google. I don't believe I can put the download addresses in this article without being in violation of EzineArticles guidelines for published articles.

1 ) Anti-Virus Software: One of the most important ways to keep your computer happy is good anti-virus software. There are way to many viruses out there today. You can find many free anti-virus programs on-line with a little research. One I recommend is AVG Free Version. AVG will auto update it's definition file as long as your computer is on-line. AVG will also run virus checks in the background, with a minimal effect on you system resources. You can download it from the Grisoft Web site, just use Google or Yahoo and type in AVG Anti Virus Free Edition download.

2 ) Anti-Spy-ware Software: Anti-Spy-ware is also available for free on-line. Two I recommend are Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. Spy-ware and malware can slow down your computer tremendously as well as popping up unwanted ads all over your desktop, even when you are not on-line. These 2 free programs, while they work very well, have one drawback in my opinion. Auto updates are not available. Which means it's up to you to remember to check for updates on a regular basis. Both programs do have a "check for updates" option right on their main page. You should have them check for updates at least once a week. Spybot and Ad-Aware can be downloaded from their web sites. Watch when you search for Spybot on Yahoo or Google as their are many impersonators using various forms of the Spybot name. Their web site should read safer-networking somewhere in the url. If you type in spybot search and destroy you should get directed to the correct web site. With AdAware the address should read lavasoftusa in the url. Look for the AdAware SE Personal Edition as the newer versions are a bit bloated.

3 ) Disk Cleanup: The disk clean tool up will help you to keep unneeded or no longer used files off your computer. You will have a gradual build up of unneeded files over a period of time in your temp folder, cookies folder from Internet surfing, and various other places on your computer. You can access the Disk Clean up tool in your accessories folder under system tools. Run this once at least once a month.

4 ) Windows Update: Make sure your Windows Update program is set to check periodically for updates for you operating system and the drivers and such for your other installed programs. There are new updates made available on a regular basis from Windows. Many of these will fix security problems and other issues pertaining to you computer.