Spring Cleaning Your Devices for Students

The close of the semester is a great time to spring clean your devices.

You should always back up your files, but sometimes that falls to the wayside in the busyness at the end of the semester. Now is a great time to make that much needed back up. Plug your mobile devices into your computer to back them up, or back them up to the cloud. You can back up files on your computer with Office365 to OneDrive or to a personal portable hard drive.

You should also delete any unneeded files (and make sure to empty the trash bin when you’re done to permanently delete the files) to free up space on your computer. This is also a great time to go through your email account and delete any unneeded emails, like all those issues of Campus News that aren’t relevant anymore.

You should also clean out your network folders, especially your public folder, which is accessible to anyone on campus. At the end of each academic year, all the content in your network public folder will be moved into your private folder.  This has become necessary due to a growing academic integrity issue resulting from students reusing materials from other students’ public folders.  Remember: public folders should not be used for storing course materials as everyone on the network can see these files.  Instead, please use your private folder, to which only you have access.

Running updates on your computer is also a good thing to do for spring cleaning. It’s easy to just click “install later” when it’s time for your device to update its system, but this may be slowing down your computer. Optimize your device’s performance by installing those put-off system and application updates now.

If you’re in the process of spring cleaning, you might have found some old devices that you don’t need anymore. Donating these is a great way to help the environment and declutter your home, but make sure the device is properly wiped of all personal information before it leaves your ownership. Visit the EPA’s website for suggested places to donate your old electronics.