Essential Questions
- What kinds of things can I do to make sure my computer stays at peak performance?
- What’s the return on investment of routine maintenance versus repair or replacement?
Big Ideas
No device is going to continue to operate at peak levels without some maintenance. Devices that don’t receive maintenance can quickly develop outdated components, including software, firmware, and drivers, that can slow down the computer and even make it useless. IT support specialists can save themselves a lot of work and potential headaches by performing routine maintenance tasks and preventative measures, many of which can be scheduled and automated. If you follow suggested maintenance, like routine backups, you will have resources at your disposal if something should go wrong and you need to reinstall software or replace data.
Connection to Student Lives
How often do you or your parents have to have their car serviced? What about other equipment in your home? What’s it like when something breaks down and you have to call a repair person? Or try to get your broken equipment to a repair service? It can be frustrating, time consuming, and expensive, especially if you find out the repair could have been avoided by performing simpler, routine maintenance.
Working on the Help Desk is not just setting up computers and fixing them when something goes wrong. A key job on the Help Desk is to perform routine maintenance to try and prevent things from going wrong. There are simple maintenance tasks that can be completed in Windows, Linux, and macOS, and some of them can be scheduled and automated to help prevent you from the frustration and headaches that come when multiple devices no longer work.
Framing Problem
What are the routine maintenance tasks I should perform on a computer, at least on a Windows PC? Which of these can be scheduled and automated to make me more effective and efficient?
Cornerstone Assessment
Students document their ability to perform routine maintenance in Windows. They should run Check Disk, Disk Defragment, check for OS and software updates, configure antivirus software, make sure all drivers are up to date, and schedule data backups. Students should use Task Scheduler in Windows to run some maintenance tasks automatically.
DPI Standards
- NCCTE.2020.II22.01.04 - Use appropriate Microsoft command line tools.
- NCCTE.2020.II22.01.05 - Use Microsoft operating system features and tools.
- NCCTE.2020.II22.01.09 - Use features and tools of the Mac OS and Linux client or desktop operating systems.
A+ Standards
TOPIC 6D: Maintain OSs
Knowledge
- What is meant by disk fragmentation and what can be done about it
- Explain the three different ways to run the Check Disk utility
- How to run Disk Defragmenter, why and on which OS you would do it, and the types of drives you can use it on
- The command-line tools (df, du, fsck) to check the health of a disk and file system in Linux.
- How to use Disk Utility in the macOS to verify or repair a disk or file system
- How to describe an efficient patch management program that validates a patch before it is rolled out to all computers in an organization
- How to check for updates to the OS or software in Linux
- How the update process works in the macOS
- Steps to prevent a macOS computer from malware infection
- Different types of backups and their importance including issues of security in an offsite backup
- How cron might be used as a Task Scheduler in Linux
Skills
- Run disk performance tools, such as Check Disk (chkdsk) and Disk Defragmenter
- Check for Windows and software updates, manually or on a schedule
- Configure antivirus software, at least on Windows
- Check to be sure all device drivers on Windows or Mac are up to date and to update them, when necessary
- Schedule data backups
- Use Task Scheduler in Windows to run maintenance tasks automatically
Vocabulary
Maintain OSs
Fragmentation
Capacity
Damage to a disk
Check Disk (chkdsk) Windows utility and autochk
Defragment
Patch Management
- Patch
- Update
- Hotfix
Driver
Firmware
cron task schedule and cron table (crontab)
Weekly Map
Monday
Introduction to topic: Common Maintenance Tasks and Tools
Review content resources and weekly structure with whole group
Online Pre-assessment (available for student practice, as well)
Tuesday
Hands-on exploration (independently, in paris, or by stations); Document success
Small group and independent exploration of resources
Wednesday
Hands-on exploration (independently, in paris, or by stations); Document success
Small group and independent exploration of resources
Thursday
Hands-on exploration (independently, in paris, or by stations); Document success
Small group and independent exploration of resources
Friday
Hands-on exploration (independently, in paris, or by stations); Document success
Team progress check with supervisor or sharing of progress with whole group
Online post-assessment
Lesson Ideas
There are several tasks and associated apps that students should learn about and practice during the week. Similar to the past two weeks, students can approach these tasks in pairs or through stations using a checklist or task list. They should focus on maintenance tasks in Windows and run Check Disk, Disk Defragment, check for OS and software updates, configure antivirus software (or save this for the Security unit), make sure all drivers are up to date, and schedule data backups. Students should also know which tasks can be automated using Task Scheduler and to configure those tasks. It would be helpful to at least be able to explain how to complete similar maintenance tasks in Linux and macOS.
In addition to skills, be sure students can describe how to establish an efficient patch management system, perhaps develop a patch management standard operating procedure for the Help Desk that is captured in the knowledge base. They should also be able to explain how to complete data backups in different OS and different versions of Windows even if they only have access to one version. Be sure they understand the security concerns related to offsite backup.
Potential Resources
The Official CompTIA A+ Core 1 & Core 2 Instructor Guide for Exams 220-1001 and 220-1002
- Topic 6D: Maintain OSs (pp. 388-405)
- Activity 6-6: Discussing OS Maintenance (pp. 406-407)
Professor Messer at ProfessorMesser.com and YouTube offers numerous free videos of various lengths for many of the topics for the CompTIA 220-1001 A+ Exam. They are easy to understand, narrated videos with visuals. If you are teaching a CompTIA course, the site notes “You’re welcome to use them as much as you’d like, provided you embed the videos with the associated YouTube link or link directly to my site. Please click the “Contact Us” link at the top of our web page and let me know how you’re using them.”
- Professor Messer’s 220-1001 Core 2 CompTIA A+ Training Course videos on ProfessorMesser.com. Search or scroll to find the topics you’re interested in.
Entry Level I.T. Training from Technology Gee
Microsoft Support
- Defragment your Windows 10 PC
- Update Windows
- Turn Microsoft Defender Firewall on or off
- Update drivers in Windows
- Backup and Restore in Windows
Other Articles and Resources:
How to backup your PC automatically on Windows 10 for Windows Central (contains advertisements)
How to schedule tasks in Windows 10 by Madalina Dinita for windowsreport (contains advertisements)
How to view all the tasks that are scheduled on your Windows PC by Daniel Parchisanu for Digital Citizen (contains many ads but is linked from Microsoft Support)