National Clean Out Your Computer Day:

On the second Monday in February, we celebrate a holiday dedicated to cleaning out the filth in your computers and unclutter the computer drives.

Twitter Hashtags:

#NationalCleanOutYourComputerDay

#CleanOutYourComputerDay

Why National Clean Out Your Computer Day?

In 1971, The Creeper, the first-ever computer bug, was written as an experiment. Following this, in 1981, IBM coined the term with the release of IBM Personal Computer. This computer was 21 pounds in weight. This led to the widespread popularity of computer devices, and by 1994, 11 million American homes had computers. Now, the website MP3.com came before Napster or Limewire. In 1997, it scored 4 million downloads a day! Finally, in the year 2000, it was realized that a hard drive full of waste slows down the computer. 80% of people have computers at home, and most of them never take a step back to clean them out. This day allows clearing everything out and speeding it up.

All computers need grooming now and then. This not only means internal cleaning of files but also externally cleaning computers. Did you know your computer, on average, has more germs than a public restroom? Gross right?

Here are things that have to be cleaned out on this day:

• Sorting the desktop: Too many files jam the computer, just like your brain slows down when you think 20 things at the same time. Declutter. Organize. Create folders and sort your data accordingly. Remove unused shortcuts- you don’t need them. Besides, the removal of shortcuts does not uninstall the applications. Want a neat grid? Go right-click, auto-arrange!
• Organize files and folders
• Delete Duplicates files, spam emails; you don’t need them. Copies, forwards, replies are simply taking up unnecessary space. For a faster computer, hit delete. Also, hit delete on things you will never use. Do you need that picture of the pizza you ate last week? I doubt it.
• Remove programs: Most programs on your computer have sat untouched since the beginning of time. Get rid of them.
• Defragging: In HHD computers, defragging drives more than 10% fragmented compacts data.
• Running system utilities: Run disk cleanup to clean your system and help it run better. For instructions, look for help or tech support on your computer.
• Backups: While cleaning the files, make sure you don’t discard the important ones. Back them up to the cloud before your cleaning spree.
• Help: If you’re not technologically forward, ask a friend, app, or an expert for help so that you don’t end up losing the wrong things.
• External: Sanitise and scrub areas with a dry washcloth and a little spritz of cleaners.

Why is it celebrated? Simply because it keeps us organized, makes our computer faster, and makes us aware of potential problems that our computers can face and deteriorate because of.

How Can We Observe National Clean Out Your Computer Day:

• Declutter your computer.
• Wipe down the screen and keyboard of your computer.
• Post on your various social media about National Clean Your Computer day. Use hashtags #NationalCleanOutYourComputerDay #CleanYourOutComputerDay

Interesting Facts on National Clean Out Your Computer Day:

Here are a few fun facts about computers you can savor to celebrate this day!

• The first computer weighed more than 27 tons and took up 1800 square feet.
• Every minute, a modern hard drive spins up to 7,200 times.
• The first computer programmer was a woman.
• More than80% of daily emails in the USA are spam.
• The first gigabyte cost $40,000.
• About 6000 new viruses are released each month.
• If a computer was as powerful as the human brain, it would do 38 thousand trillion operations per second and hold 3580 terabytes of memory.
• The password for the computer controls of nuclear-tipped missiles of the U.S was 00000000 for eight years.
• Till 2013, Netflix needed about 3.14 PB of hard drive space for its movies, which is about 3.3 million gigabytes.
• The first 1GB hard disk drive weighed about 550 pounds.
• Your keyboard may contain more germs than your toilet seat, says a study. 4 out of 33 keyboards were tested as potential health hazards, and one of them had five times higher germs than a toilet seat.

History of National Clean Out Your Computer Day:

The National Clean Out Your Computer Day was declared on the second Monday in February by The Institute of Business Technology.