How to Automate Common Maintenance Tasks in Windows 10

Just like with any operating system, keeping a Windows PC running well requires some maintenance. The good news is that  you can automate most of the important maintenance tasks, and keep Windows humming along like it was freshly installed.

Windows 8 and 10 Feature Scheduled Automatic Maintenance

First things first. Windows 8 and 10 automatically perform basic system maintenance tasks according to a schedule you can customize. These tasks include things like software updates, security definition updates and scans, disk optimization and defragmentation, and some other diagnostic tasks

You can7;t turn this automatic maintenance off, but you can change when it operates, and whether or not it can wake a sleeping PC to run its tasks. By default, Windows runs these tasks every day at 2 AM and wakes up your PC to do so if necessary.

To manage this tool, head to Control Panel > System and Security > Security and Maintenance. You can also hit Start, type ;maintenance; into the search box, and then click the ;Security And Maintenance; result.

In the Security and Maintenance window, expand the ;Maintenance; section, and then click the ;Change maintenance settings; link.

In the Automatic Maintenance window, you can change the time that tasks are run each day, and disable the ability for Windows to wake your PC from sleep to run those tasks. Note that even if Windows wakes your computer to run these tasks, it will put the system back to sleep when its done.