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Avoid Unnecessary or Accidental Multitasking
 Many problems are caused by conflicts between two different programs that are running. Information from Program A may overwrite just a tiny bit of information that is stored in memory for Program B. If Program B tries to access the information, you can get a freeze or crash.
The more programs you have running, the more likely you are to run into a problem.
Starting the same program multiple times can also lead to problems. Kids are often guilty of doing this. Keep an eye on the Task Bar. Often you'll see many icons for the same program residing there. Click on the icons one at a time and shut down unneeded windows.
Shut Down Properly
Always shut down via the Start button. (That should give you some idea of the logic of Windows. To stop, you have to click on Start.) Shutting down via the power button can cause loss of system or program information. Damage done by shutting down this way is usually cumulative. Each time it can result in lost information. Lost information can eventually result in freezes, crashes, or the inability to even start.
It's a little like putting a scratch in a record. When the needle reaches the scratch, it can result anything in a small skip in the record to a completely ruined record. On a computer, when it reaches a point when it needs the missing information it can result in a freeze, an aborted program, or the ability to start.
Give it a Rest!
In some environments, computers are left running all the time to save wear and tear on the hard drives. (Start up puts the greatest strain on a computer.) However in a school environment, that is usually not a good practice for two reasons. First, electrical surges or brown outs are one of the biggest enemies of computers. If you have a brown out while the computer is writing something to the hard drive, you can be pretty sure you are going to have a problem. If a computer is shut down at night, it won't be susceptible to electrical problems. The other reason is that with so many users doing so many things (some of them wrong), memory problems begin to creep into the computer and the only way to clear than is with a restart. Shutting down at night and starting in the morning is dental floss for your computer chips.
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