A Clean PC is a Happy PC

You don’t have to go very long watching TV before you will see an advertisement for some allegedly phenomenal software utility that is supposed to be able to make your computer run hundreds of times faster.  The images they use hit home.  They often show someone complaining that their computer used to go at lightening speed but now it is sluggish when it starts or when it is using the internet.  The "phenomenal" software would like you to think that it can work some magic to take your older PC and make it zip along like a machine with twice its power.

The truth is that most of the steps that amazing software will do are things you can do to make your computer more efficient and make it run better.  If your computer is not running well, the problem might be that it simply needs a good old fashioned spring cleaning. There are some very basic steps that you can take and that you should take a couple times a year to tune up your computer so it can run at optimum efficiency.  Here are a few tips.

What is All that Junk in Your Start Up Bar?

One symptom of a computer that is sorely in need of a good cleaning is when you log on to your profile and it takes forever before it can really do anything.  It seems like the computer has business it has to do other than wait on your every command.  It seems that way because the computer is doing a lot of background "stuff" which means it cannot give you its undivided attention.

You can get rid of a lot of that "junk" that your computer has to do to free its computer "brain" up to do the business you have in mind.  The culprit is that little bar at the bottom of your screen which shows things that start up automatically when you log on.  Your profile knows that it has some things it must run every time it starts.  Some of that stuff like starting up your internet security software is absolutely essential.  But a lot of that stuff in the list of start up options do not have to run every time you are using your computer.

The reason the start up menu gets filled up with unessential tasks is that people who write computer applications want to know that their software is so important that you must run it anytime you are logged on to your machine.  So many times when you install a new program either that you bought or that you downloaded from the internet, that start up process will force an entry into the start up menu so that program starts every time.

If you are not going to use Adobe for everything you do on your computer, it doesn’t have to "live" in your start up menu.  If you are going to spend time with your computer without watching a video or listening to a sound clip, you don't need those applications waiting eagerly in the start up menu.  So get rid of them.  Get your start up menu cleaned up and your computer will run much faster.  One way to do that is to use a simple free utility called Starter from Codestuff.  You can download it for free and it works great.  There is no advertising and when you are done with it, it goes away. 

Taking Out the Trash

The next area of computer efficiency that can do a lot to make your PC run like a top is simply to clean it up.  Start with your desktop.  If you have dozens of icons on your desktop, each one has to be loaded when you log on to your profile on your computer.  That takes time.  So take a look at your desktop and get rid of any icons you don't use all of the time. 

It also pays to clean up your hard drive.  If you click start and then control panel, you will find some maintenance activities listed as "Performance and Maintenance".  One of those steps is to clean up your disk drive. This is a good utility to run every so often.  When you surf the internet a lot, there are a lot of tiny little temporary files that stack up on your hard drive.  This control panel step will clean them out and just generally tidy up your hard disk. When your hard drive is free of debris, it will run better and faster because your computer won't have so much "junk" to sort through to find the files you want to work on.

In addition to useless or redundant data that is good to get off of your system, you can also clean out old and unneeded programs.  You might have old games or other programs you played around with for a while but that you no longer use.  These old programs clutter up your computer and make it run slower. 

On your control panel, there is an icon called "Add or Remove Programs".  If you click on it, it will show you every program you have on your system.  Take an hour and go through that list.  You will be shocked at first how many useless old programs are lurking around on your system.  Then it will be a good feeling to clean things up so your computer can do a good job at what the chores that are important to you.

Spies and Other Nuisances

We know about viruses but there are other little programs that like to sneak onto your computer to do things behind the scenes.  A spy program might load into your system and "watch" what you do, gather information on you and send it off to some one to suit their evil purposes.  Other little programs will hide on your computer and launch advertising from time to time.  You think you are getting pop ups from the internet but really they are coming from inside your computer.

There are some excellent utilities that you can use to get rid of these little nuisance programs.  One that many people like is called "Spybot Search and Destroy" and another is "Ad-Adware".  These are free utilities that you can download to help get rid of nasty little invaders who will just junk up your computer memory and make everything run slower.  And they are safe utilities that a lot of people use so you can trust them to do their job and not give you additional problems like some free software does.

Running a clean computer is like running an efficient house.  And like your house, if you keep a clean PC, it will be a happy PC.  By creating some routine maintenance activities that you run on a frequent basis, you can keep the amount of clutter down and clean out of your system things that could make it run slower.  Not only will you have a faster computer, these steps will keep your computer safer as well.  That is a good one two punch that make you a better and happier computer owner as well.

Filed Under: The Internetz

Tags: PC cleanup