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Top 10 Ways to Clean Up Your PC
Is your computer running slowly? Keeping your PC at a good performance is a really effective way to save time. Every click, every downloading, every saving may lead your computer to be slow. We can' t stop using computer, but we can Clean it up and help it become fast. Here is the top 10 effective ways to clean up your pc. Have you tried all of these?
| 1. Clean Your Desktop |
Throw away all the useless shotcuts and icons on your desktop.
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2. Uninstall unused programs
Just because you aren't using a program doesn't mean it isn't consuming resources and affecting your PC's performance. Removing unused programs from your hard disk is an easy way to maintain your system and maximize your available hard disk space.
To remove programs you don't need anymore:
1. Click Start, then click Control Panel.
2. In Category View, click Add or Remove Programs, then click Remove a program.
3. Scroll through the list and examine each program. Windows XP lists how often you use a program and what day you last started it.
Note: Don't remove anything labeled "Update" or "Hotfix." These things improve the security of your computer.
4. Click a program you no longer need, click Change/Remove, and then follow the prompts to uninstall it. (In some cases, a program may be removed without prompting you further.)
You may have to restart your computer after removing a program. After your computer restarts, repeat this procedure to remove more programs. |
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3. Clean Up Your Startup, Registry, Cookies and Internet browser cache
Heren is a tutorial shows how to clean up
Internet browser cache.
The clean up scanner handles most common types of temporary files, but your Internet browser automatically caches, or stores, another type of temporary file whenever you surf the Internet. Browsers such as Internet Explorer save copies of the Web pages you visit in order to load these pages faster the next time you visit those sites. Outside of speeding up browsing, however, your browser does not need this cache of temporary files in order to operate properly. Since many Web sites have large graphics, clearing out your browser's cache can save valuable hard disk space. To clear your cache in Internet Explorer:
I. Click the Tools menu, then click Internet Options.
II. Select the General tab, then click Delete Files… in the Temporary Internet files section.
III. In the Delete Files dialog box that appears, select Delete all offline content, then click OK.
If it's the first time you've ever cleared your cache, or it's been a long while since you've dumped the cache and the file accumulation is large, deleting these files could take several minutes. Once the cache is cleared, click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
You can use Registry cleaner software to help you finish this step, such as Registry Booster
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4.
Run the Windows Live OneCare clean up scan
The clean up scanner automatically checks your hard disk for any unnecessary files and gives you the option to delete them. You can run the clean up scan if you're only interested in performing a disk cleanup—or you can run the comprehensive full service scan to check for other PC issues as well.
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5. Wipe Your Hard Drive and Reinstall Windows
Here we recommended a tool -- Spotmau Powersuite. It is really popular and useful now. This software deal with almost all the PC installing stuff. Really All-in-one solution. |
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6.
Free Up Wasted Space
Removing unused programs is a great way to free up disk space, which will speed up your computer. Another way to find wasted disk space is to use the Disk Cleanup tool by following these steps:
I. |
Open My Computer, right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties. |
II. |
On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk. |
III. |
The Disk Cleanup dialog box opens. As you can see in Figure 2, it found almost three gigs of space on my computer that it could free up!
IV. |
Select the desired check boxes in the Files to Delete list, and then click OK. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes clearing space. |
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If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed in My Computer. |
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7. Defragment Your Computer |
You need administrator privileges to defragment a drive or volume. Although fragmentation is complicated, it's easy to defragment your computer by following these steps:
I. |
Open My Computer, right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties. |
II. |
On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now. The Disk Defragmenter opens. |
III. |
Click your first hard disk, and then click Defragment. As shown in Figure 4, Disk Defragmenter will work for at least several minutes, though it may take several hours.
4.If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed starting at Step 3.
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| 8.
Remove Autostart Programs |
The next step in restoring your computer's performance is to identify any unnecessary programs that start automatically. Often, programs configure themselves to run in the background so that they appear to start quickly when needed. Some of these programs show an icon on your taskbar to let you know that they're running, while others are completely hidden. These autostart programs probably won't noticeably slow down your computer as it starts up, but they will steal away trace amounts of memory and processing time as your computer runs.
Windows XP comes with the System Configurationtool (Msconfig.exe), an excellent way to manage the startup process. To start it:
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Click Start, click Run, type Msconfig, and then press Enter. |
2. |
On the Startup tab, you'll see a list of all the programs and processes that are set to run when Windows XP loads. |
3. |
Speed up your overall start time by clearing the check box next to any item you think you don't need. |
4. |
Click Apply, and then restart your computer for the changes to take effect. |
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| 9. Remove Duplicate Files |
Erase error-causing and redundant duplicate files and drivers. You can easily detect and find duplicate files to be removed. Here we recommended a tool -- PC Washer.
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| 10.
Disconnect Unused Network Connections |
If you've ever had a network with more than one computer, you probably found it useful to share files between the computers by mapping a network drive. Network drives allow one computer to read and write files to another computer's hard disk as if it were directly connected. I use network drives all the time, and for me, they were the most significant source of slowness.
The problem with network drives is that Windows XP will attempt to connect to the network drives when Windows starts. If the remote computers don't respond immediately, Windows will wait patiently. Additionally, some programs will attempt to connect to the network drives when you browse for files and folders. If you've ever tried to open a file and had to wait several seconds (or minutes!), it's probably because the program was trying to establish a network connection—even if the file you are opening is on your local computer.
I am not as patient as Windows, and I'd rather not wait for unused network connections to respond. To reduce this problem, disconnect any unused drives by following these steps:
I. |
Open My Computer. |
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On the Tools menu, click Disconnect Network Drive. |
III. |
Select the network drives that you no longer need, and then click OK. |
After I disconnected the network drives on my computer, my computer was able to restart in 1 minute, 45 seconds—about 40% faster!
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