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Spring Clean & Speed Up Your Computer For Free
By John F | April 16, 2008
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Spring is just around the corner, although in the UK last week it snowed. Along with cleaning your home or even your car, you should be thinking of spring cleaning your computer. All those files and programs that you no longer need are clogging up your computer and causing it to slow down. Spring cleaning will ultimately speed up your computer. Follow the four simple steps below to give your computer a tidy-up for free.
The first step is to remove any unwanted programs you no longer need. You should know what programs they are. Programs you downloaded for the trial period and never really used, or downloaded and used once or maybe twice. Don’t be a hoarder! Get rid of them, as they are taking up valuable space on your hard drive.
I would suggest using CCleaner to remove any unwanted programs, or if you haven’t got CCleaner [why not, it's an ace free program], use the add/remove option from the Windows control panel.
The second step would be to clean up your desktop. How many icons or shortcuts do you have on your desktop? Do you really need them on your desktop? Organising files stored on your desktop into folders is a simple process that will enable you to find files or folders quicker whilst cleaning up your desktop clutter. How much easier and nicer will your desktop look after you have removed all of the clutter?
The third step would be to defrag your hard drive. Yes, it takes ages, and yes it’s a boring task. However it’s a necessary job that will ensure that your computer hard drive[s] are kept running at their optimum speed. Depending on how much you use your computer, defragging your hard drive [oe-er!] should be completed at least once, if not twice per month.
I would suggest O&O Defrag program as it is much more through than the in-built Windows defragment program. When defragging, it’s best to not be using the computer as it could take a while depending on how many and how big your hard drives are. Schedule a defrag when you’re away from your computer for best results.
The fourth and final step would be to remove any temporary files from your computer. Cookies, browsing history and cache files can store up on your computer and cause it to slow down if you don’t clean these files out now and again.
To do this go to the control panel and find the Internet Options icon and under the general tab you should see five buttons to delete files, cookies, passwords, forms and history. Click on each button to delete what you wish to remove. There is also a delete all button, if you wish to delete all. Or by using CCleaner [I do not work for them, honest!] can do all of the above a lot quicker and easier.
All of the above on my computer takes roughly one hour, including the defrag. The improvement in my machine isn’t huge if I’m honest, but it’s noticeable and worthwhile.
Topics: Computer Health Usefulness |