Articles

Cobwebs in your computer? Spring Clean Your PC!

• Details
• Created on Tuesday, 27 April 2010 12:00

It's that time of year! After cleaning the clutter from your desk, vacuuming the cobwebs from the corners of the ceiling and bringing out the summer clothes, you should consider your computer clutter.

You should have a "regular" maintenance schedule all year round to keep your computer in tip-top shape, most of us don't because we aren't really sure just what we should do.

STEP 1
BACK UP - I know that you are already using Mozy but if you are not, you might want to reconsider or you can manually backup your hard drive on to an external drive. Save those important files!

STEP 2
REMOVE - Delete those unused programs and out of date files. If you haven't used a program in over a year you probably don't need it. Uninstall those unused programs and free up space on your hard drive. You must "uninstall" programs to remove them. PC users can find this in their Control Panel. Remember to empty your Recycle Bin when you are finished.

A tip for photo/music lovers: Get an external hard drive (they are not as expensive as they used to be). Keep all of your photos/videos/music on an external hard drive so those media files aren't taking up so much space on your hard drive.

Unclutter your desktop - Remove the icons you don't use or if you're a bit of a pack rat, at least consider creating one folder on your desktop to hold all of your "extra" icons. Unused icons just steal your time. Your computer needs extra time to load all of those icons onto your desktop every time you start it up. All those photos, files and MP3s on your desktop should be organized into their appropriate folders and not cluttering up your desktop.

STEP 3
WASH YOUR WINDOWS - Clean up the registry and temp files. Clean up your disk space. There are a couple of ways to do this, those of you who know me know how thorough I try to be, I usually go to My Computer > Right Click on the C Drive > choose Properties > and click Disk Cleanup. This will take a moment or two depending how much you have to clean up. Don't get nervous when it asks you if you are sure, just go ahead and delete those temp files! So, after I have done this I run CCleaner to take care of the rest of my mess and the stuff my Disk Cleanup left behind. I suppose I could skip that Disk Cleanup step but it only takes a moment when done on a regular basis and I just feel cleaner running it. Kind of like walking through the house and picking up the clutter before actually cleaning. Of course CCleaner is FREE!
Download it here: www.ccleaner.com

STEP 4
STRAIGHTEN UP YOUR NICK-NACKS (DEFRAG) -  Average household users should defrag at least once per month, the more you use your computer, the more often you should defragment the files. Defragmentation will increase your computers performance by making it faster and easier for you computer to find and read files as well as relieving stress on your hard drive. So we accomplish our defragmentation by using the best FREE disk defrag software out there:  Download Auslogics Disk Defrag

That's it! Not as bad as you thought it might be huh? Be sure to clean your computer on a regular basis (at least once per month for most average home users) and these tasks become quicker and easier each time.

Don't forget the outside!

When you have your computer all turned off remember to wipe your keyboard down, NEVER put it in the dishwasher (unless you have one of those rubber mat kind that allow it), simply wipe your keys down regularly and vacuum out those crumbs. I'm not even getting into the statistics of the germs a keyboard harvests. Wipe down your monitor and tower as well. Never use harsh cleaning agents, use soft cloths (lint free), compressed air (if you must), and other "Hardware friendly" solutions.