| Workstation Maintenance |
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The fact that workstations are a key component of the office network is one which every employee in an organization is aware of. However, despite the knowledge of this fact people tend to fall behind in their duties and forget that workstations need regular maintenance in order to function properly. Failure to maintain a workstation properly may lead to a broad range of disastrous situations that could have been avoided if those responsible for workstation maintenance or who had the necessary access to perform it had done what was necessary. Different forms of maintenance tasks can be carried out on a workstation and they all provide some form of assistance in helping a workstation to function properly. One of the maintenance tasks that needs to be performed every once in a while is Disk De fragmentation. This procedure is needed due to the way files are stored on modern computers, splitting a single block of files over various non-contiguous locations of a hard disk. What this does is that files take a longer time to access which then slows down the workstation and increases the time taken to process requests. What disk defragmentation does, is to rearrange these files to a certain degree and ensure they are stored in contiguous locations if possible. This then reduces access time and frees up valuable resources on the workstation which can then be applied elsewhere. Antivirus scans are one regular maintenance task which cannot afford to be overlooked as well. Threats are constantly being delivered via the Internet and since a workstation is a gateway to a corporate network, it has to be secured against such threats. Maintenance of a workstation may range from scanning of received files to scanning of the entire computer on a regular basis. Some corporate networks which centralize e-mail and other applications tend to scan their servers on a regular basis, however employees may still be exposed to threats from downloads over the Internet, using external storage devices and a host of other issues which regular Antivirus scanning can easily resolve. Updates for applications being used on your workstation as well as operating system updates, should be regularly downloaded and installed. Notifications to install such updates may seem innocuous and unimportant but usually they are quite critical and may be required in order to patch security threats or prevent crashes and other undesirable consequences from occurring. |