Laptops serve as the central hub for many of our most important digital possessions, from crucial spreadsheets, to homework, to the latest movies and shows, to personal photos. Yet, despite relying on them so heavily, we rarely treat them with the care they deserve. We casually toss them into soft beds, leave them plugged in for hours even though the battery is 100%, and even ignore the early warning signs of slow performance.

These habits are a recipe for disaster, and each one can hasten the eventual end of your device’s lifespan. The sudden death of you laptop won’t just be frustrating; it can also constitute a massive (and unexpected) financial drain. And this is the kind of issue that always seems to strike at the worst possible time too — right before a flight or a major deadline. Don’t panic — there are things you can do to avoid replacing your machine every two or three years.

Making your laptop last longer doesn’t require a computer science or engineering degree. A few habits you can adopt might even end up double its lifespan. In this guide, we have compiled a list of 10 things to do to help keep everything running smoothly.

Many people seem to treat their laptops just like their smartphones. They don’t bother shutting them down for months, and simply close the lid at the end of the day, expecting them to wake up perfectly fine each morning. This habit is a silent performance killer. Over days of not shutting down, you PC’s background applications, leftover processes, and minor software glitches can start hoarding memory, also known as a memory leak. This can slowly eat away at your laptop’s processing functionality, leading to a state where even simple web browsing feels sluggish.

We recommend that you give your laptop a much-needed deep sleep by rebooting it. Think of it as if your brain is getting some sleep after a grueling workweek. When you shut down your laptop and restart, it flushes out the Random Access Memory (RAM), terminating any resource-hogging process and activity that might be quietly running in the background. If you are wondering about how many times you should restart your laptop, Microsoft experts suggest that once a week is the sweet spot for maintaining a snappy PC.

In real life, this habit might take some time to develop, so it might help to try using Windows’ built-in Task Scheduler for performing automatic restarts at a set frequency.

After awhile, a laptop’s battery life can degrade, and one of the most common things that can make a lithium-ion unit reach the end of its lifespan prematurely is extreme charging habits. A common mistake is treating the battery like a gas tank that needs to be constantly topped off to 100% or using it till there is no battery left. In both extreme cases, you are subjecting the internal cells to immense chemical stress, which accelerates degradation and shortens a battery’s lifespan.

To ensure that your laptop’s battery remains healthy for a long time, you need to change the way you charge your device. It is highly recommended to maintain the charge level strictly between 20% and 80%. Pushing past 80% subject the battery to higher voltage, which wears the cell faster. Similarly, dropping below 20% causes the battery to permanently shrink. This is why learning which habits to ditch when charging devices can save you from an expensive battery replacement.

Whether you are at work or in your house, instead of leaving your laptop permanently plugged into the wall, you should unplug the charger once the battery percentage reads 80%. And you should only plug it back in when the battery drops to 20%. Many modern laptops include built-in battery management tools to make dealing with this easier, too.

If you work on your laptop daily, you probably understand the comfort of using it on a bed or a couch compared to a desk. However, did you know that this is the quickest way to suffocate your computer’s internal components? When you use a laptop on top of fabrics, pillows, or even your own legs, they can trap the heat generated by the processor and block the air vents located at the bottom.

When your laptop cannot expel heat and take in outside air, the internal temperature rises. This forces the cooling fans to work harder and triggers thermal throttling. During this process, the computer slows down the process to prevent a breakdown. This is why maintaining optimal airflow is recommended. For that, you should always operate your device on a flat, hard surface like a wooden desk or a dedicated laptop stand.

If you still prefer working from a couch or a bed, it is advised to get a flat lap desk or an electronic desk that can adjust its height with the push of a button. This investment elevates the laptop and provides an optimal working condition, preventing unnecessary repair expenses on your laptop.

Software update notifications are frequently viewed as annoying interruptions that pop up right when you are in the middle of an important task. Most of us would probably avoid them or dismiss them and continue with our work. However, hitting that “remind me later” button can leave your laptop exposed to significant risks. System updates are not always about flashy new features or changing the interface. They are primarily meant to patch critical security flaws.

Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways and loopholes in the existing system to deploy malware that can compromise both your personal data and physical hardware. One way to ensure that you are guarded against such practices is to turn on automatic updates. By enabling automatic OS updates, you create a shield that can tackle these exploits. Additionally, after hardware components such as your graphics card or motherboard receive firmware updates, they often run more efficiently and reduce unnecessary power draw.

Timely software updates should be looked at as routine maintenance for your car. Just as you should not ignore the illuminated engine light, you shouldn’t ignore a system update prompt either. You can easily set system updates to install during off-hours, so that your work isn’t affected.

Most of us use antivirus software to protect our Windows computers from malware and virus attacks. Cybercriminals and hackers are not just sending obvious and detectable virus files anymore. They are now using fileless techniques and stolen credentials to log directly into unprotected systems. A laptop that is not protected by an antivirus software or even with Microsoft’s built-in defense system, won’t even realize that it has been hijacked. And according to CrowdStrike, 79% of initial-access attacks are now malware-free.

Once a system is virus-infected, the virus can compromise the processing power, critical files, and reduce the operational lifespan of a computer. This is why using a reliable antivirus software is an absolute necessity, especially in a world where everyone’s digital footprint has massively increased. Antivirus software actively scans incoming files and blocks those that they find suspicious, which are matched with signatures provided by software vendors to identify malware. They can also help you stay protected when you are online and protect you from visiting malicious websites.

Without antivirus software, your PC is just a click away from being infected with malware that will permanently damage your hardware. Make sure to download the antivirus software from the official website, and also download one that is reliable and provides all-around protection.

Even if you meticulously wipe the kitchen counter or take care of the carpet using a vacuum cleaner, its easy to forget that you also need to clean devices like laptops. Throughout the day, laptops can go from being on top of a desk, to a bed, to the floor, to the kitchen counter, and beyond. Pets will jump in to have a look at what you are doing, or maybe you end up typing with hands covered in chip crumbs. Debris will naturally settle on the keyboard, and get sucked into your device’s vents.

Over time, this buildup will create a thick layer of grime that can restrict the necessary airflow, forcing the laptop to get warmer faster, due to the trapped heat. To avoid the slow, heat-induced death of your laptop, you must clean it often to avoid dust particle accumulation. A quick wipe of the screen and keyboard is nice, but removing debris from vents is essential. However, out of desperation, you shouldn’t grab your vacuum cleaner to clean the laptop fan, as it would create dangerous static electricity.

On top of it, for a thorough cleaning procedure, you would need some special items, as mentioned by Dell, so that your laptop lasts longer. Making a habit of cleaning your laptop, especially the vents with compressed air every few months, will drastically help lower the temperature.

One of the strengths of carrying a personal laptop is that you can work from anywhere. You can open your laptop on a sunny park bench and attend your calls, or use it inside your tent in a freezing mountain. But just because you can take your laptop anywhere does not mean it is built to operate under extreme weather conditions. Laptops have delicate lithium-ion cells and logic boards inside that are highly sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Anything out of its comfort zone can cause the internal components or hardware to fail.

To avoid a bad outcome, you must ensure proper thermal regulation. It is vital to store and use laptops in environments strictly between 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 95 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid permanent battery capacity loss. Exposure to extreme heat accelerates chemical reactions in the battery, while freezing temperatures can cause components to become brittle. Also, you should not boot your laptop straight away after it has stayed in the cold or heat for a long time. Allow it to come to room temperature beforehand.

It is also recommended that you place devices like a printers that give off heat at a bit of a distance from your laptop to avoid it being affected.

In an era of massive video files, high-resolution photos, and hefty software sizes, it is incredibly easy for limited laptop storage to fill up before we realize. SSDs are a more common form of storage these days, since they are lightning fast and more reliable than older hard drives. However, SSDs are also prone to issues when pushed to their maximum capacity. Filling an SSD right up to the brim will slow down your entire computer.

To keep your system snappy and happy, experts strongly recommend keeping at least 15-20% of your total storage completely free. This space can be used by your SSD for wear levelling, which is a process where the drive performs maintenance tasks to enhance the overall efficiency of an SSD. The memory can use this available space for error correction and replacement of invalid data with valid ones.

Over-provisioning allows for improved performance, increased endurance and lifespan, better reliability, and optimization over the long run. If you don’t have enough space on your SSD, you can simply move old files to an external hard drive and allocate that space to your SSD.

Few laptops get used every day. Sometimes they go long spans without any use. Maybe you are taking a vacation, or switching to a desktop computer, or just have it as a backup device. In such situations, the instinct may be to charge the laptop to a 100% and leave it inside the closet or drawer. Many of us wouldn’t even bother about the battery percentage, and store it with a dead battery. Unfortunately, both choices are harmful to the cells inside your laptop.

Leaving a laptop with a fully depleted battery for weeks can push it into a state of deep discharge, which can result in it becoming totally unresponsive. On the other hand, storing it at full capacity can lead to battery swelling and cause permanent capacity loss. The golden rule here is to charge the device to exactly 50% before long-term storage to prevent problematic situations.

If you ever find your battery unresponsive, then you might have to replace the battery, which is the only way to begin the repair process. Taking the extra few minutes to ensure proper laptop battery percentage before putting it away makes it ready for any task in the future.

Most laptops have an assortment of ports built-in, to allow connecting various external hardware. You have the power charging port to charge the laptop, an HDMI port for connecting to a TV or a monitor, then you have the USB port for connecting various devices like a phone, webcam, microphone, and so on. But because these ports are open and constantly exposed, they can collect lint, dust, and debris. And every time you insert a USB cable or plug, you may be compressing the dirt inside even more. This can lead to slow charging speeds and even connection failure.

Maintaining these ports is essential and requires a delicate touch. You can use compressed air to regularly clear debris from the charging ports and all ports of your laptop. This can help you prevent electrical issues or protect the ports from breaking. However, do not use metal objects inside the port to clean. Poking around with metal can easily short-circuit the motherboard. Only use the right techniques and equipment to clean the ports so that there is no permanent damage.

Delicate components of a laptop, like ports, should be handled carefully but cleaned regularly to avoid any issues.