How do I clean up my PC?

[Martin Pearson]

Dawn, first thing to do is to take everything you don’t need anymore off, pictures, saved files etc…etc… you can save them to disk if you need to keep them for future reference or you think you may need them in the future.
Then run disk clean up to get rid of a lot of temporary files and then defrag the drive to help everything running smoothly.

[Paul Franklin]

spybot14, adaware and then finally perfectdisk to defragment.

works for me

[John & Dawn Roddick]

Thanks guys. How often would you recommend the process?

[FireBlade_Al]

Dawn,

Remember that data can be removed easily but if you remove programs be sure to do it properly. Don’t just delete them, you have to use the "Add/Remove programs" function through your Control Panel. This will make sure that registry entries etc are removed too.

Alan

[Steve Underhill]

Type msconfig into your run box (just to right of the start once clicked,
disable any programs you dont need loading at startup, this is one of the most common things that slows up a PC along with spyware, look for programs you dont need to have running inthe background and disable them.
This doesn’t alter or delete them it just stops them loading automatically on windows startup,
and of course the stuff mentioned above this post.

[Phill Fenton]

You could always try sticking it in a dishwasher which is what I think Rob would recommend 😕

[Martin Pearson]

Now why an I not surprised you said that Phill :lol1:

[Phill Fenton]

Probably because you were about to suggest the same thing Martin 😉

[Harry Cleary]

quote Phill:

You could always try sticking it in a dishwasher which is what I think Rob would recommend 😕

😀 😀 😀 you selling a dishwasher by any chance Phil??

[Peter Mindham]

I use an external hard drive to store all my data. This leaves the PC for only programs and makes sure that it is running to maximum potential./ Also, it means I can take the external drive home and work there if I wish and also, lock it up at night to safeguard my security. 250 gb hard drive, £150.00 ish from most good retailers.

Peter

[David Rowland]

Might be all the porn from the Temporary Internet Files 😮

In IE7… Click Tools and Delete Browsing History, you main gain around 20GB back 😮

[Andrew Bennett]

quote Peter Mindham:

I use an external hard drive to store all my data. This leaves the PC for only programs and makes sure that it is running to maximum potential./ Also, it means I can take the external drive home and work there if I wish and also, lock it up at night to safeguard my security. 250 gb hard drive, £150.00 ish from most good retailers.

Peter

Hi Peter,
Did you use any special software to transfer it all over in the first place please?
Also do you know if you can you use part of an external drive for disc memory allocation please?

[Martin Pearson]

Andrew, you don’t need any special software to use as a back-up, when you connect it will be seen as another HDD and assigned a drive letter.
You would also be able to use it for Disk memory allocation but depending on how it is connected (normally via USB) you might find it slows your system down.

[Steve Underhill]

Another hard disk is usually connected by the IDE cable or the sata cable, only external drives are via usb

[Martin Pearson]

Steve, it’s external hard drives they are talking about :lol1:

[Steve Underhill]

yea I noticed that, but a less cluttered option is to fit one inside if you don’t need a portable hard disk as they are also twice the price.
You get a lot more disk for your money if you go for internal rather than external.
If you want solid state storage then theres a 32 gigabyte disk available now but its expensive

[Nik_W]

Every week I do the following

Run Adaware
Run Spybot
Run Regcleaner (this clears old registry entries and can be used to uninstall programs and check the startup)

The above software is free and can be found quite easily.

I then run disk cleanup
then run Defrag to check the drives, it rarely needs doing but makes a big difference if it needs doing.

If your system is running quite sluggish (especially the Internet), it would be a good idea to delete all internet files and cookies. You will be surprised how many cookies are saved to your PC!

I have system restore turned off which can help speed things up. This is not a good idea for people who do not have a lot of experience in PCs.

[perfectg]

We have one computer set up as a fileserver, which also runs our Versacamm and we do accounting on it.

It has 3 hardrives, 1 for all the programs and Operating system. The other two are set up in Raid and store the artwork, the third one has the same files on it, in case one dies the other hardrive kicks in.

WE run Norton Antivirus every week, Microsoft defender also.