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Time for Some Spring Cleaning

JC Crumpton • Jun 04, 2021

A little spring cleaning goes a long way in keeping things running smoothly

This is Randy Lawson, your intrepid and tenacious technology investigator, coming back at you this month with some more case studies. Summer is quickly approaching, and I realize that I still have some spring cleaning to do. With how important technology has come to our daily lives, that annual ritual of backbreaking labor is no longer relegated to making sure the rain gutters are cleaned out and all the smoke alarm batteries are operational.

Today, that means being certain that your home and business computers run at peak efficiency without any burdensome slowdowns. Giving your computing systems a good spring cleaning means getting everything orderly and running like a ship ready to sail the data seas.

Needless to say, when I first started out, I had no clue how much better everything ran with just a little tweaking here and a little cleanup there. Like you, I have come to depend on my computer for many different tasks in my life. Like you, I need someone dependable to help me get everything ship shape.

That’s why I let the crew at Joplin’s Technology Center take care of my spring cleaning needs. They have taught me some of the simple things I can do on my own: uninstalling apps that I don’t use; creating a more organized file structure, cleaning up the task bar, and blowing the dust and cobwebs out of my desktop.

Over the last year, I have noticed a large shift of people starting to work from home. Their commute is from the bathroom to the dining room table or home office. What if something happens to their laptop? What if something freezes up? Since they’re working from home, they no longer have the luxury of calling Lindsey down in the IT department to come see why the screen is all fuzzy and not working smoothly.

Some people are more like me and have a small business with no access to an IT department. That is when I pick up the phone and call Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin down at the Technology Center. They can help me with any problem that I have remotely. Other options are that I can bring my computer to them, or they can come to my computer. 

I keep my car in good working order. Get it serviced, the oil changed, the tires rotated. I depend on my car to get me from place to place, to take me to the cases I investigate. It needs to be operating at peak performance in order for me to get the most out of it. Now that computers are such an integral part of our modern life, why wouldn’t I want it to be performing at its best?

There are helpful suggestions that you can find online. Your child studying computer sciences may even be able to help you. But the folks at the Technology Center come highly recommended. Check out this review from Bob Barth: “Just a big shoutout to Matthew and his staff for superior customer service provided to me when my hard drive crashed. In a couple of hours, I was back up and running!”

Now that is a recommendation if I’ve ever heard one. Matt and crew know their stuff.

The Burdensome Bookmarks – CASE #2021-06

My name is Randy Lawson, technology investigator, and when it comes to computers and other gadgets and associated wizardry, I sometimes get lost among all the wires and bytes and lines of data. That is why I work with Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin of Joplin's Technology Center. And these are my adventures.


I love the internet. News when I want it and how I want it. Streaming services. Baseball. Football. Basketball. Music. But all of that can bog down the performance of your computer. Not like you would think though. But because it slows me down.


I have bookmarks for recipes, for news articles, for technology advances, for hundreds upon hundreds of things. Having so many sites bookmarked really slows me down. When it slows me down, my work rate suffers.


If you don’t keep them organized in some fashion, you end up scrolling through each one like looking through a rack of birthday cards at the bookstore for the perfect one. That takes time. For those of us that do a lot of work out of our home, time is money.


The crew at the Technology Center directed me how to make my bookmarks work best for me. I use Google Chrome for my web browser, and the crew taught me how to use the Bookmark Manager. I cleared the ones I didn’t use or want anymore. I hid some that I don’t use that often and made my bookmarks toolbar more compact and efficient. They also showed me how I could archive the actual webpage instead of bookmarking it, keeping my bookmarks designated for those things I use every day or every week.


Give them a call or send them a message to see what they can do for you.



The Dust Bunny Collection – CASE #2021-07

My name is Randy Lawson, technology investigator, and when it comes to computers and other gadgets and associated wizardry, I sometimes get lost among all the wires and bytes and lines of data. That is why I work with Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin of Joplin's Technology Center and these are my adventures.


Throughout my time investigating different aspects of technology, I have seen some pretty interesting and wide-ranging collections. But one of the oddest I discovered was in my own home office. A couple weeks ago, I had been washing the upstairs baseboards while I was running the Disk Cleanup tool in order that I might free up some space to help my computer operate more efficiently.


When I glanced over at the screen and saw that the whole process had bogged down, I decided to take the computer, keyboard, and monitor up to the Technology Center for a quick service. Be better to have the professionals do it anyway.


That appointment helped me understand that I needed to not only keep the furniture dusted in my office, it also would help if I kept the dust from taking up permanent residence in my computer. Matt opened the housing and gave it a quick burst of canned air. Who knew I had started an extensive collection of dust bunnies.


He told me dust can build up in the computer’s fan and cause it to have to work harder in order to keep the computer from overheating. And that could lead to a whole laundry list of troubles. He also pointed out to me that I should never use a vacuum for this task, only compressed air in a can.


As part of your spring cleaning endeavors, you can clean your screen with a microfiber cloth. This is a safe and effective method to clean the monitor without smearing or scratching it. Using the compressed air on the keyboards helps get rid of the accumulated debris and prevent further damage.


Be sure to stop by or contact the crew at Joplin’s Technology Center to help you get your computer spring cleaning tasks in order. Until next time.

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