So you may be like a lot of other people that got a new computer in the last year or two, and now that computer is slow, sluggish, and takes forever to load.  It happens gradually, so you don’t really notice it until you have something to compare it to – like another fast computer!

Here are some steps to take to speed up your computer, most can be done with free software or following simple steps. Some require hardware upgrades.

CLEAN OUT GARBAGE FILES
Windows XP and Vista both get very dirty through constant usage.  Most of the things that you do on your computer create “dirt”.  Email, office apps,  games, and especially surfing the web.  Your computer will collect “dirt” in many different places and in many different ways and all of them impact your computer’s performance.

PC Cleaning BASICS

• Clean out your Web Browser’s cache (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome)
  • Use CCLEANER (here is an article and video on the app) to do this for you.  It will clean out many other garbage files as well!
• Clean out your TEMP files (here is my post on how to do it)
• Empty your Recycle Bin

Run your SPYWARE/MALWARE apps often

Removing Spyware from your pc will speed up your pc significantly.  Click here to learn how to install and run Spyware software.

Defragment your Hard Drive

As you use your computer, the files on your computer change.  They are created, modified, and deleted.  The way Windows works, it saves these file changes but also keeps old versions of the file for recovery purposes. Because of this it has to put file changes on other parts of the hard drive.

The next time you load that particular file, Windows has to search different areas of the hard drive to get all of the fragments of that file.  Now this is a little time time consuming if your file is split up into three or four fragments on your hard drive, but it get’s much worse when your file is in fragmented in HUNDREDS of different places on the hard drive.  The more file fragments, the slower it loads.

How to Defragment your Hard Drive.

• Right Click on the My Computer icon
• Select MANAGE
• When the Computer Management window opens, find Disk Defragmenter in the left pane under STORAGE and click on it.
• In the Right Pane, find the defragment drive button and click.

Following these steps will definitely help your computer operate at much more optimum level, and you should see a nice performance increase if you haven’t run any of these steps before.

We’ll review some more advanced options in the next article.

Now if you have been reading any of my posts, I preach about two things:

• Protecting your pc from viruses, trojans, hackers, etc.
• Backing up your pc data

Now there is THIRD issue that I need to really pound on and that is keeping your pc CLEAN!  I’ve already shown you how to clean out your TEMP files in XP and in Vista which helps out your performance a bit (Click this link to read it), but that is only the one step in keeping your pc clean!

Another step would be to clean out your internet cache, but since we all use different browsers to surf the internet (I actually use a few, IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera) it makes it difficult to go into 4 different places just to clean out cache.

There are other garbage files that your pc keeps “hidden”, especially if you use Microsoft Office apps like Word or Excel.  Many other programs do the same thing, and even I don’t know where they all are!

Well there is a great tool available that will clean all of these files up off of your pc.  CCleaner.  (short for Crap Cleaner!).  This is one of the most valuable apps that I run.  I have it on every pc that I own, I often put it on my “Emergency” Flash Drive an use it on clients pc’s as well.

It will go out and find ALL of the garbage files on your pc and remove them.  It will also clean out entries in your registry (you registry is basically the list of instructions and permissions that your computer needs to run).

After running CCleaner and a few anti-spyware apps on a pc that is running very slow, I can see a DRAMATIC difference is speed and response.

I love this app, and HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you use it to clean your pc.  I would suggest running it at least once a month.

Watch the video below as I show you how to find the app, download it, install it, and run it.  (Be kind, this is one of my first vids)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay67_rpljy8

I have a few other videos on YouTube.  Click the Subscribe button to show your support!

Along with all the utility programs that I run to keep my pc protected, I like to manually clean out my Temp folder.  This builds up over time and will SLOW DOWN your computer if you don’t tend to it periodically.

Manually cleaning out the Temp folder in Window is often a necessary maintenance step when the third-party utilities fail to completely clean out the Temp folder.

Removing temporary files is a quick and easy task that can help save disk space and keep your PC clean of file clutter.  Just follow the step by step directions below to manually clean out the Temp folder:

1. Vista Users: Click on Start, type the following command in the search box, and then hit the Enter key.  XP USERS: You need to Click Start and then RUN… and type the following in the box.
   

   %temp%

   This command will open the folder that Windows has designated as the Temporary folder. These are folders and files that Windows needed at one time but are no longer useful. Everything in this folder is safe to delete.

2. To remove individual folders or files, hold down your Ctrl key while left-clicking on each item you want delete. Release the Ctrl key when you’re finished.
3. To delete these items, hit your Delete key or click the Organize button on the toolbar menu, followed by the Delete option.You will probably be prompted to confirm that you wish to Delete Multiple Items. Click on Yes to confirm.
4. If you’d instead like to remove everything inside the Temp folder, click on the Organize button and then choose Select All from the menu.Note: If you’re prompted that there are hidden files in this folder, just click on OK to bypass the message. A few hidden files hanging out in the Temp folder probably aren’t important enough to worry about.
5. Again, to delete these items, hit your Delete key or click the Organize button on the toolbar menu, followed by the Delete option.You will probably be prompted again to confirm that you wish to Delete Multiple Items. Click on Yes to confirm.
6. After all of the files have been deleted you can close the folder window and empty your Recycle Bin, permanently removing the files from your PC.

Tips:

1. VISTA – You may receive a Error Deleting File or Folder message while the files are being deleted. This just means that one of the files is in use by a program right now. Click OK, close all open programs, and repeat the steps above. If you still receive the message, try restarting your PC and repeating the process again.
2. XP – XP will not let you delete files that are being used by a program when you attempt to delete it.  I always sort the files BY DATE and typically don’t select files with TODAY’S DATE.

Please leave a COMMENT if you have any questions or problems.