Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Question 1

Scheduled backups - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 1

• Regularly scheduled backups - Hourly, daily, weekly
• Determine what to backup - All files, changed files, image all
• Onsite and offsite - Or in the cloud with OneDrive

Question 2

Scheduled disk maintenance - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 2

• Avoid hardware failure - Look for warning signs
• S.M.A.R.T. - Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
• Logical and physical disk check - Error-checking (chkdsk)

Question 3

Scheduled defragmentation - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 3

• Moves file fragments so they are contiguous
• Graphical version in the drive properties, command line: defrag
• Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Task Scheduler

Question 4

Windows updates - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 4

• Keep the operating system updated
• Security patches, new features, driver updates
• Download and install, download only, notify only, or disable

Question 5

Patch management - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 5

• A well-documented process
• Not every update can be a good thing
• Many different patches
  
  • Operating system, applications, device drivers
• The process - Testing, scheduling, implementing, fallback

Question 6

Driver/firmware updates - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 6

• Some drivers are updated more often than others
• Many drivers updated through Windows Update
• Use Device Manager to manage updates

Question 7

Antivirus updates - Windows Preventive Maintenance Best Practices

Answer 7

• The bad guys are good at this - Keep your signatures updated!
• Daily schedule or hourly checks - May already be automatic
• Updates are usually managed in the an virus user interface
• Large organizations will update from a central internal server