{"id":1494,"date":"2010-02-12T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2010-02-12T19:36:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-13T02:36:00","slug":"10-best-ways-to-use-your-pc-while-youre-sleeping-or-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/12\/10-best-ways-to-use-your-pc-while-youre-sleeping-or-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Best Ways to Use Your PC While You’re Sleeping or at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Mark Edward Soper<\/a><\/p>\n

As much as we like to multitask, there’s only so much a processor can handle at once. And some processes, like games, monopolize CPU clock cycles, making it inconvenient to run other processor-intensive utilities in the background. That’s why we keep our home PC powered on while we’re at sleep or at the office. Forget about energy savings–a powerful PC is meant to be utilized!<\/p>\n

From scheduled FTP downloads to converting digital photos and more, here are the ten best ways to keep your PC busy so it won’t miss you when you’re gone. Downtime be damned!<\/p>\n

Record TV Shows and Movies<\/h4>\n

Sure, you can record TV shows and movies while you use your PC, but what do you do if you have two or three programs all battling for your attention? If you can’t catch your favorites on Hulu<\/a> or Boxee<\/a>, or if you don’t have a TV tuner than can handle multiple programs, take advantage of repeat broadcasts of many programs; catch the game live, and record your favorite news programs or movies later.<\/p>\n

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If your favorite movie station insists on having a marathon of your favorite movie, you might as well record the 2AM showing and watch something else in prime time. If you use Windows Media Center, you can use either the program guide<\/a> or the movies guide<\/a> to record movies.<\/p>\n

Patch Applications and Run Windows Update<\/h4>\n

Windows Update enables you to decide when to download and install updates for Windows and for Microsoft Office and other programs supported by Windows Update\/Microsoft Update. The default setting is in the middle of the night, but if your PC is busy with other tasks then, consider a time like Wednesday morning after you head off to work (Wednesday morning is also a perfect time to catch Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday updates). Need a reminder on how to adjust your settings? Here’s how to do it with Windows XP<\/a> and with Windows Vista (and Windows 7)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Scan Your PC with Anti-virus and Anti-malware Software<\/h4>\n

Although most current anti-virus and anti-malware programs can run while you use your computer for other tasks, you’re still better off to check your machine for problems when you’re not using it. Depending upon your favorite software, you might be able to schedule scans from within the software, or in some cases, you might need to run Windows Task Schedule\/Scheduled Tasks service separately.<\/p>\n

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To find out if your favorite programs have built-in scheduling, you might need to switch to the program’s advanced mode or advanced menus.\u00a0 For example, to schedule scans with Spybot S&D, you must switch to the Advanced mode and open the Settings tag to locate the scheduler. However, you might need to update to the paid versions of some scan programs to have access to scheduling functions.<\/p>\n

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Depending upon the speed of your anti-virus and anti-malware scanners, you might be able to schedule them on the same day or night. If possible, schedule the scanner’s update process to run before the scan program itself.<\/p>\n

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Check Your Hard Drive for Errors with Chkdsk+Defrag<\/h4>\n

While malware and spyware can deep-six your computer’s performance, so can problems with your hard disk’s structure. Use the dynamic duo of chkdsk and defrag to check your hard disks for errors and defragment files to keep your storage in good shape.<\/p>\n

Chkdsk can be run from the command prompt<\/a>, and by using command-prompt switches when you schedule chkdsk to run, you have a great deal of control over how chkdsk works. If you want to repair disk errors on the C: (system) drive, you’ll need to schedule chkdsk to run at startup.<\/p>\n

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You can shut down and restart Windows automatically using Task Scheduler<\/a>, enabling you to run Chkdsk on the system drive at startup. You should run Chkdsk before you run Defrag on a given drive to assure that files are not being moved to corrupt portions of the disk.<\/p>\n

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In Windows 7, you can select multiple drives<\/a> for defragmenting, which realigns small file fragments into larger contiguous blocks. This enables faster file reads and writes, especially on drives with frequent changes, such as the drive you use for temporary or swap files or drives with frequent modifications to data files.<\/p>\n

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Backup Your PC!<\/h4>\n

You can configure most commercial backup programs as well as Windows’s own backup programs to run on a schedule. To make scheduled backups work properly, keep the following in mind:<\/p>\n