1125 – Time For Spring Cleaning: Tom talks Computer Tuneup

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of the Screw the Commute podcast, Tom Antion explains simple, non-technical ways entrepreneurs can keep their computers running efficiently without constantly relying on tech support. His core message is that computer problems waste time, reduce productivity, and distract business owners from making money and serving customers.
Main Theme
A poorly maintained computer becomes:
• Slower
• Unstable
• More prone to crashes and lockups
• More expensive to maintain
Basic maintenance can prevent many common issues.
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Key Recommendations
1. Restart the Computer First
Before doing anything complicated:
• Restart the computer when problems begin
• This often clears temporary glitches and “cobwebs”
Applicable to:
• Windows PCs
• Macs
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General Advice for Both PC and Mac
2. Monitor Hard Drive Space
Avoid letting the drive get nearly full.
Recommended:
• Keep at least 10–20% free space
Problems caused by low space:
• Slow performance
• Errors
• System instability
Suggested solutions:
• External drives
• Cloud storage
• Dropbox
• Delete unused files
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3. Upgrade to SSD Drives
Tom strongly recommends:
• SSD (Solid State Drive) instead of traditional spinning hard drives
Benefits:
• Faster
• More reliable
• Less wear and tear
He suggests hiring a technician for the upgrade if needed.
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Windows PC Tune-Up Tips
4. Remove “Bloatware”
Delete:
• Old games
• Toolbars
• Unused applications
Path:
• Settings → Apps → Installed Apps
Sort by size to identify large unused programs.
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5. Run Windows Disk Cleanup
Purpose:
• Remove temporary junk files
• Clear cached web data
• Delete unnecessary installer packages
Search:
• “Windows Disk Cleanup”
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6. Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs
Too many startup programs slow boot time and consume memory.
Open:
• Task Manager using:
Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Then:
• Go to Startup tab
• Disable apps not regularly used
Programs remain available when needed.
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7. Run Virus and Malware Scans
Use:
• Windows Defender
• Or third-party antivirus software
Run:
• Full system scans
Purpose:
• Remove malware
• Remove adware
• Improve performance and security
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8. Install Updates
Keep:
• Windows updated
• Security patches current
Benefits:
• Bug fixes
• Security improvements
• Stability enhancements
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9. Clean Dust from the Computer
Dust can block airflow and cause overheating.
Recommendations:
• Use compressed air cans
• Clean vents and keyboards
Important warning:
• Don’t block air vents by placing laptops on pillows or soft surfaces
Suggested solution:
• Use a lap desk with airflow underneath
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10. Increase RAM (Memory)
More RAM helps:
• Prevent freezing
• Improve multitasking
• Increase overall speed
He suggests having a technician install it if necessary.
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Mac Tune-Up Tips
11. Check Storage Management
Path:
• Apple Menu → About This Mac → Storage → Manage
Suggestions:
• Empty trash regularly
• Use “Optimize Storage”
Warning:
• Automatic trash emptying may remove accidentally deleted files
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12. Disable Unneeded Login Items
Equivalent to Windows startup apps.
Path:
• Apple Menu → System Settings/Preferences → General → Login Items
Disable apps you rarely use.
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13. Update macOS and Apps
Path:
• Apple Menu → System Settings → General → Software Update
Purpose:
• Security fixes
• Bug fixes
• Better performance
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14. Run Disk Utility First Aid
Path:
• Finder → Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility
Use:
• “First Aid”
Purpose:
• Repair disk issues
• Improve system stability
Tom recommends running it overnight or during downtime because it may take a while.
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Overall Takeaway
Tom’s central point:
• Simple maintenance prevents expensive downtime
• Entrepreneurs should spend time making money, not fighting computers
He emphasizes that:
• Most of these tasks are easy
• They do not require advanced technical skills
• Preventive maintenance saves money and productivity
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Additional Mentions
Tom also promotes:
• His automation book
• His mentor program
• His internet marketing school:
o Internet Marketing Training Center
He describes it as:
• A licensed digital marketing school
• Certified by the Virginia higher education authority (SCHEV)

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Episode 1125 – Computer Tuneup
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1125 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about computer tune ups. And no, don't worry, I'm not any kind of techie and I'm not trying to make you one either. But there's lots of things you can do to keep yourself from having to hire techies, because you let your computer just get out of whack on you with simple things you could have done to keep it tuned up. All right, let's see. Hope you didn't miss episode 1124 that was called your Bluetooth Survival Guide that tells you all about Bluetooth, which is like a short range wireless that lets you use wireless headphones and play your TV through your headset or your earbuds and all just those kinds of things. But it has its own quirks, and I cover them and what to do about them in episode 1124, and to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. That would be screwthecommute.com/1124 for Bluetooth survival guide. All right, pick up a copy of my automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Version 3.0 is the latest. However, in version 3.0 is a program called Short Keys, which I've been promoting like crazy for years, and you're crazy if you're not using it, but it's no longer a program. As I mentioned in the book, it's now a browser extension, but it's extremely powerful and saves you millions of keystrokes. And then check out my mentor program, greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:02:05] All right, let's talk about computer tuneups. I'm going to have both PC and Mac. Okay. Because I've been forced to be on a Mac since the podcast came around when I was a PC guy forever. And you might say, well, why are you bothering with this stuff? Tom we just call and get our computer fixed or buy a new one? Well, here's the here's the deal. If you just let your computers just rot away without doing some of these little tune up things, it's going to get slower and slower. It's going to lock up on you all kinds of bad stuff. And here's my my deal. The more time you spend fighting with your computer, the less time you have to make money and to take care of customers and develop new products and services and, uh, other things, just vacation and time with your family. If you're fighting with your computer and paying the tech guys all the time. That's just ridiculous. And here's the first one for both Mac and PC. The first thing you do is as soon as things get wonky, you restart the darn thing. And a lot of times that cleans out all the cobwebs in there. I actually talked about that on the last episode on the Bluetooth. You just start over and then see if that clears up your problem and then go about your business. But if it doesn't, there's other things that you should be doing. And then the next thing that I'd always check is your hard drive space.
[00:03:34] If you get too close to your hard drive being full, then it messes all kinds of things up on your computer, see? So you don't want to get within ten, 15, even 20% of having a full hard drive because it's just going to cause you problems. And there's ways around that with external drives and backing stuff up to the cloud and Dropbox and all kinds of stuff, especially stuff you don't use all the time. And also, another thing for both the Mac and PC is you could switch to an SSD drive, SSD drives, and this is something you would get a geek to do. This isn't what you would do, most of you anyway. And you know, hard drives are physical disks that spin around like crazy and they wear out SSDs, solid state drives. They're faster and they're more reliable. Now. They are more expensive. But you, you know, the the storage and stuff is getting cheaper all the time, but you'll have a lot less trouble if you switch to an SSD drive or get that installed when you buy a new computer. And then you won't have to worry about hard drives wearing out. Okay, so I'm going to start with PC and get to the Mac, but I'm going to move quickly and just tell you simple things you could do. I already told you a couple. Restart your PC and check your hard drive space. Okay. All right. So the first thing, none of these are in particular order, but other than restarting and checking your hard drive space.
[00:05:09] All right. So on a PC, uninstall your bloatware. These are old games toolbars on, you know, apps that you haven't used in a hundred years. And to do this, you go to settings and then apps and then installed apps, and then you sort them by the size, you know, the gigantic ones and see, do you even recognize what they are or have you used them? If not, delete them. Get rid of them. All right. Next thing is clear out junk files and you can just search on a PC for windows disk cleanup. And that removes these temporary files. If you ever saw the number of temporary files on your computer that are absolutely worthless to you. You'll. You'll flip a flip out, but get rid of him. This helps get rid of him. You have cached web data that you might not need. You have installer packages. Every time you install a program, there's usually an installer package that, once the program is installed, is not needed anymore. But if it's just sitting there taking up space, get rid of it. And that's what windows disk cleaner cleanup will help you do. And then another real big thing is stop startup programs. See, there's tons of stuff that you don't use every day that starts as soon as you turn on your computer. And so to get to your task manager on a PC, you go to control shift escape, and that opens the task manager and then you click on the startup tab.
[00:06:50] Now again, folks, none of this is geek work where you're going to damage things. And now again, if you can't even hardly turn on your computer. Okay, go get somebody else to do this for you. Wake up a kid from his nap in preschool. Get him to help you. All right, but you go to your start up tab and disable anything that you don't use regularly. Now, the programs are still usable when you need them, but there's no reason for them to be running all the time. If you only use them once a week, or once a month, or once a year. All right, so that's your start up tab. Then run a virus scan in windows. You have free Windows Defender, or you might have a third party app, McAfee or some other thing, but run a full system scan. This could take a little while and then get all the malware and the adware and all the crap removed from your computer. All right, so that's a virus scan and then make sure you run your updates and. And I know that can be a pain in the neck on a PC. Takes a while, but they fix bugs. They. There's always security fixes that have to be added or you have potential getting, you know, hacked. So keep your updates run. And then here's one. People never think about clean and dust your computer. Get one of those little things. You can get them at Walmart or Best Buy anywhere.
[00:08:25] That's that's a little compressed air can with a little tube on it and blow out your all the, the keyboard and the little air vents around the side because see, if your computer overheats because those things are blocked, it slows down the processor so that it doesn't, you know, kill itself. And another thing, make sure you're not. If let's say you're working while in bed and you're sitting up, but you got your your laptop resting, resting on a pillow. Well, that just totally covered all the air vents. And now it's going to overheat on you and run slower, right? So get yourself one of those, uh, you know, bedtime desks that has a hard surface on the top and like pillow on the bottom. And then that way airflow can still get to your PC and increase your memory too. Now, this is also something I probably wouldn't want you to do yourself, but that's called RAM Random Access memory. And the more you have, the faster your computer will run and be able to handle stuff instead of locking up on you. All right, so there's a bunch of PC stuff. All right, Mac, people that are sleep. Wake up out there. It's your turn. Pcs, people. You go back to sleep. All right, then I'm going to have a link in the show notes for Mac stuff, because I'm not nearly as good on a Mac as I've been for 100 years on a PC. But again, restart the thing if you're having any goofy stuff.
[00:09:59] SSD drive you could upgrade to. Especially if you check your how much space you have left and it might be time for a new hard drive, then SSD is the way to go. Okay, so, um, to find your hard drive space on a Mac, you go to the Apple menu about this Mac and then storage and then manage. And there's several different options there. One would be empty trash automatically now that when you got to watch for, because you might put something in the trash that you really didn't mean to, or you accidentally did, and you want to retrieve it. So if you are that type of person that might put something accidentally, don't say empty trash automatically. Just force yourself or put a, a thing on your phone that once a week you go and you click on your trash bin and empty your trash manually. But if you just keep throwing stuff in there, especially big files or audio and video files, all that has taken up space on your computer. And so you got to empty your trash. You also have something like optimized storage. And again, this could take a while to run this. So make sure you're not doing it in the middle of a busy day. But if you click on that, it'll go through your hard drive. And there's things like that on the PC too. That'll like rearrange stuff. So it's easier to, to access that's, you know, just slopped all over the place.
[00:11:29] You know, it's almost like organizing your kid's room. You know, there could be crap laying all over the place and then you go in and organize it and it's faster to find stuff and all that. Okay, now login items. This is similar to startup items on a PC, and you go to the Apple menu. You go to System settings. Sometimes it's called System Preferences and then general. And then look for login items and then toggle off or click the minus sign on things that you don't use very often. Again, they're still there and usable, but there's no reason for them to be running all the time if you don't use them very often. All right. Okay. Again, upgrade your your Mac OS and upgrade your apps and go to Apple Menu System Settings General and Software update check for updates. You know, again, just like on a PC, you're going to have updates that have security fixes and bug fixes and all that stuff. And then a run your disk utility, first aid utilities. And usually you can find this by going to your finder and then applications and then disk utility. Or if it doesn't say disk utility, go down and it'll say utilities, and there'll be a drop down box to all the different utilities you have. And again, when you run this one, this first aid thing that's going to be in the top bar across the top of your screen. It could take a while. So again, don't do it in the middle of a busy work day.
[00:13:16] Do it, you know, before you leave at night or something. Let it run. So those are the things you can do on a Mac and I did, I am putting a link in the description of somebody that's really into Macs. That's a real professional that'll still tell you simple things to do. I couldn't do all of them, but most of them you can do yourself, and it keeps you from losing a whole day or two days or three days with a computer being down and all that lost productivity, plus the amount of money you got to pay to either haul it into the repair shop or have them come out and make a house call, which is even more expensive. So just these little things that anybody can do that they don't have to be a geek can really help you out and keep you making money rather than fighting with your computer. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If you want help with this and a million other things it takes to make money online or be in business, check. Uh, greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org. The only licensed, dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world, and certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Clean up that computer and go make money.