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With a new tranche of students preparing to start university and others who are at university returning after the summer break it is time to ensure students laptops are ready and able to meet the challenges of the coming year. Prior to the start of the university year it is advisable to perform a range of checks and maintenance tasks to ensure the student can start the year confident their PC will be up to the challenges of the year ahead and  capable of  interacting with the university’s IT systems, as well as having sufficient memory and hard disk space to accommodate those papers and reference materials. Not to mention supporting the possibility of music and film downloads that may not necessarily be university related.

The tasks to be undertaken may be split into two, namely tasks for new students and tasks for existing students. 

New students.

1 Ensure the PC or laptop meets the universities minimum performance criteria. It is advisable to ensure the computers capabilities are  better than this minimum criteria as they will need to accommodate not only the universities needs but also the students social needs (generally more demanding than the universities) and give scope for additional capabilities subsequent years or courses may require. Universities generally include information on their minimum PC requirement in their welcome packs or if not will provide this on their website.

2 Ensure the computer has browser(s) capable of handling all aspects of the universities website. It is always a good idea to have a second browser on your machine to ensure you have an alternative. Here again universities will often provide a downloadable application or widget that will confirm your browsers capabilities meet their requirements.

3 Ensure the computer has plenty of hard disk space available to accommodate the scholastic and social needs of the coming academic year. It is recommended you perform the following regular disk maintenance tasks by:

• deleting temporary files and download folders to release disk space
• uninstalling  programmes that may  no longer be required to release disk space.
• perform a disk defragmentation
• NOTE: Many PC manufacturers create 2 logical partitions on the disk, however many people are unaware the second partition (D:) exists. If it does then ensure you use it rather than filling up the C: drive. 

4 Ensure the computer has sufficient memory to limit the impact of numerous downloads and application additions, many of which may eat into the memory availability, especially if they are activates that launch at startup or have auto update capabilities that will run in the background. 1Gb is  a minimum requirement for newer operating systems  with 2Gb a recommended minimum.  Remember that additional memory is a very cost effective may to re-invigorate a flagging computer.  It is recommended you perform the following regular memory maintenance tasks by:

• Disable any startup programs that may not be required.
• Ensure your desktop does not have large numbers of shortcuts or files on it. Use the Quick Start Tool Bar rather than the Desktop 

5 Ensure you check all of the above and possibly any additional requirements the university may have that are additional or are course related. NOTE:  Many universities and colleges provide downloadable applications or browser tools that will verify that your PC is suitable for the coming years challenges.

Existing students 

1  Ensure the computer has plenty of hard disk space available to accommodate the scholastic and social needs of the coming academic year. It is recommended you perform the following regular disk maintenance tasks by:

• deleting temporary files and download folders to release disk space
• uninstalling  programmes that may  no longer be required to release disk space.
• perform a disk defragmentation
• NOTE: Many PC manufacturers create 2 logical partitions on the disk, however many people are unaware the second partition (D:) exists. If it does then ensure you use it rather than filling up the C: drive. 

2  Ensure the computer has sufficient memory to limit the impact of numerous downloads and application additions, many of which may eat into the memory availability, especially if they are activates that launch at startup or have auto update capabilities that will run in the background. 1Gb is  a minimum requirement for newer operating systems  with 2Gb a recommended minimum.  Remember that additional memory is a very cost effective may to re-invigorate a flagging computer.  It is recommended you perform the following regular memory maintenance tasks by:

• Disable any startup programs that may not be required.
• Ensure your desktop does not have large numbers of shortcuts or files on it. Use the Quick Start Tool Bar rather than the Desktop 

  3 Ensure you check all of the above and possibly any additional requirements imposed by additional course related requirements.