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Ahh...the weather is warming up. The dandelions, buttercups, sunflowers, and daisies are blooming. The Blue Jays, Orioles, squirrels, bunnies, and an occasional Cardinal can be seen either frolicking or foraging for food in my backyard.

Ahh...late Spring, not quite summer. Almost my favorite time of the year. Almost because the snow has melted and I don't get to snowboard.

Spring, a time to clean out the stuffy winter from the house and let in the rejuvenating breeze. What winter? You live in California.

At this time of the year, besides the house, I also like to do a little 'Spring Cleaning' on my desktops and notebooks.

I start by looking at the contents of my hard drive. Backing up my Outlook PST file (located under 'C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USER ACCOUNT]\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook'), Bookmarks (Firefox - 'C:\Program Files\Firefox\defaults\profile' ; IE - 'C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USER ACCOUNT]\Favorites'), and everything else in 'My Documents' ('C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USER ACCOUNT]\My Documents').

I uninstalled Applications that I don't use at least once a week. Then I do something every computer geek should do at least once a month (or every time the Hard Drives gets a little sluggish): Defragment the Hard Drive.

To defragment the Hard Drive, go to 'Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools' and choose 'Disk Defragmenter.' Alternatively, you can launch the 'Computer Management Console' and find the 'Disk Defragmenter' under 'Storage' (to launch the 'Computer Management Console', go to 'Start, Run' and type, 'compmgmt.msc').

Select the drive you would want to defragment, click the 'Defragment' button, leave the computer be, and go for a cup of coffee.

If you are a clean-freak like me, you would also want to clear out the dust-bunny colonies that have been growing inside your PC Case. Use Compressed Air to 'blow up' those colonies (make sure you do this outside the house) and then use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the rest. The really stubborn ones, you will need an anti-static cloth to get rid of them (make sure your are grounded).

For those 'hard-to-get' places (e.g. blades of the cooling fans, heat sink), use a Q-Tip. I personally like to run the CPU Heat Sink under a running tap to make sure that it is completely clean. Use detergent to clean off those sticky thermal grease. Leave the heat sink to dry. If you can't wait that long, use a Hair Dryer at Maximum Power. Make sure you remember to apply a thin layer of thermal grease to the underside of the heat sink before placing it on top of the CPU.

There, Spring Cleaning is done. Until next Spring.

	This article is by: YC (Guest Blogger) from the Technocrat Soapbox