It's good to think of your computer as an office. Stores files, programs, images. This can be compared to real office files, machines and decorations. The operating system is the boss. With this image, think of an office you visited that was slow and inefficient. There were probably many reasons for the inefficiency. It's the same with a computer. There are many items that slow down your computer. Perhaps the most overlooked is disorganization and clutter.
Disk Cleanup
A lot of unnecessary files, machines and decorations can accumulate in the office. It's the same with your computer. One of the best ways to keep this mess under control is to clean regularly. On Windows, this cleanup tool will be called "disk cleanup". It will remove a number of unnecessary files depending on the options you have selected.
To perform Disk Cleanup in Windows XP, you can simply click on "my computer" in the Start menu. Then right click on "c drive" or "hard disk" and select properties. Then click on “disk cleanup” and follow the instructions. When choosing files to clean up or delete, Windows will give you information to help you decide. When viewing the list of file types, just click on the name of the file type and read the description located below in the description area. This will let you know if the files can be safely deleted. To select a group of files, check the box next to the group name. When you are done with your selection, press "OK" to finish.
Now disk cleanup is not very time-consuming, it only takes a few minutes and as a result, it can save more time by making your computer run faster. However, Disk Cleanup should be run regularly, not just once in a while. One way to run this regularly is to make it a scheduled task. This will allow your computer to run it automatically at intervals and times of day that you specify. However, you can run it regularly yourself without having to create a scheduled task.
Add or remove programs
The information above may help you get rid of some unnecessary files, but you may also need to clean up some unnecessary programs. This can be done using the "add or remove programs" tool on Windows. Located in the Control Panel, it lists all currently installed programs along with the option to uninstall them. It's a good idea to run through the Add/Remove Programs tool once in a while to make sure all programs are useful.
If programs that are no longer used are listed, you can simply highlight the program and click the uninstallation button. Windows will then begin the process of uninstallation of the program. In most cases, it makes sense to restart your computer to complete uninstalling the program. This will list the files and files that are temporarily suspended.
The add or remove programs tool is very useful, but not all programs are listed at the beginning. Programs that are preinstalled on your computer and Windows operating system can also be uninstalled. For example, Outlook Express is the default e-mail program that comes with the Windows XP operating system. If you do not use this email program, you can uninstall it. Click on "add or remove windows components" in Add or Remove Programs and simply follow the instructions.
Defragment
Many offices contain numerous files and programs that are valuable and cannot be thrown away. In fact, they may contain files that are not even used, but still need to be kept for some reason. Although these files must remain in the office, they need to be organized. This is why we create file folders that contain groups of files that are related to each other. Then we store them in cabinets that are sorted in alphabetical order.
On a computer, saved files are located on the hard drive. However, they are placed according to the time they were saved. So if you open a Word document and save the file as "File A" and then open another document and save it as "File B", you have "File A" next to "File B". This is fine, but if you open "file A" later and save it again, the added information will be saved next to "file B".
When files are split in this way, it is referred to as a fragmented file. This means that the computer has to find the first part of the file and then find the second part of the file in order to open that single word document. This can cause your computer to run slower. However, Windows has created a tool to rearrange files so that they are no longer fragmented but sit close together.
You can run Disk Defray by selecting "all programs" under the Start button. Next, select "accessories" and "system tools" and you will see "disk defragmentation". In fact, this is also an alternative way to select the disk cleanup mentioned above. Before running defragmentation, you can analyze your hard drive to see if Windows recommends defragmentation. It will either say you should or shouldn't defray at this time.
If you need to defray your computer, simply press the defray button. This task may take some time for your computer to complete, depending on the speed of your computer and the amount of files being defragmented. This may take about 15-30 minutes or more. However, you can still use the computer while disk defragmentation is working.
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