by Alan Haskvitz
Everything from dust bunnies to unwanted programs and other data in your computer slow your processor; they can be cleaned easily. Below I’ve provided some links and suggestions on how to do this quickly. However, remember every computer has different applications and hardware, so read the information carefully. REC cannot take responsibility for these sites and procedures.
- First update your virus detection or download one.
- Clear your inbox to zero messages and get it organized
- Clean up your desktop.
- Clean-up your dock with Overflow or AppZapper; delete applications you no longer need. The Key to a Simple Dock is Overflow
- Review your contacts.
- Look through your email contacts. Get rid of those no longer valid or of use. Software programs can help you to put these in order by importance such as Adium for Macs.
- Take a moment for iTune culling.
- If you download music, take the time to organize songs by category, such as jazz or best of the 1980’s. Get rid of the songs you no longer want.
- RSS improvement for blog users.
- Back up your data.
- On a dramatic note, the worst thing that can happen to you is data loss, so back up now! Buy yourself an external hard drive, and archive/back up all your documents, pictures, movies and sites from the previous year using a tool such as SuperDuper! If you don’t want to fork out for a new HDD, connect your iPod to your computer and drag your most important data onto its icon; this will create a copy of it on your iPod to use as a backup. Buy a large zip drive/external drive and download everything, including all applications, to it. Try using SuperDuper! to recover broken systems as well.
- Rid your machine of unworthy programs.
- Get rid of them carefully. Here is a program worth checking out that helps remove them.
Lifehacker
- Clean up your start-up section as well as dealing with cookies and registry issues. If your computer is slow to boot, you may have too many programs that are opening.
- Work on bringing order to your documents. Organizing “My Documents”
- Every time you use your computer, the files are stored for future use whether or not you use them again.
These temporary Internet files enable anyone to follow what you have been doing on the computer forever unless they are automatically deleted. Here is how to easily do this: PC Confidential
- Sometimes you forget what you have downloaded such as music or photos.
To avoid duplication, try WinMerge. It is easy to run, and you’re probably going to be surprised at the duplicates you have onboard.
- Take the time to map your hard drive.
It doesn’t take much time and it reveals where you are using your disc space. WinDirStat
- Clean out what you thought you had cleaned out.
You may not realize it, but when you delete files from your hard drive, the data is still there. You need to run a program such as Eraser to permanently delete this information. But make absolutely sure you don’t delete what you need. And, make equally sure that when you donate or junk your old computer you wipe its hard drive clean with a program such as Eraser or by reformatting. Eraser
- Five steps to clean your computer files
- CCleaner
You need to register to enable this software to look for unneeded material in your hard drive. As usual with downloads, beware.
- How to Clean Up after Someone’s Broken into My Computer?
- How to Clean Up a Computer Registry
- Geek to Live: Evacuate PC Dust Bunnies
- After you have done all this, look into the Systems Tools section of your computer and defragment it.
This is essential for a better running computer. Other systems features include a disc cleaner which you can use to find unneeded material on your computer.
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