Computers have become a necessary part of our everyday lives. We use computers to keep track of our finances and communicate with others through social networking sites. When surfing the internet you may be visiting sites that have spyware programs designed to track the pages you look at. This will leave tiny little files called cookies on your computer. If you download any programs you may also get unwanted spyware or viruses embedded in the coding of the program. If this happens you may end up with a virus that attacks your computer causing it to slow down or crash. Viruses can also destroy the data saved in your computer.

If you notice that your computer is opening web pages slower than it used to or pauses while loading it is time to clean up your computer. This is an easy task and does not take too much time to complete. You can perform a clean up on your own with simple instructions.

Why is it a good idea to clean your computer?

To prevent performance problems caused by your disk being too full, you should clean up your computer using Disk Cleanup. This utility will automatically select files that can be deleted for you. The Disk Cleanup utility is installed on computers running Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems.

Another reason you may want to clean up your computer is if you are planning to sell or donate your computer you will not want others having access to your private data.

What causes a computer to slow down?

A full hard drive will cause your computer to slow down. If you have files on your computer that are not used they are taking up needed space and should be deleted. Spyware and virus infections will also cause your computer to slow down or even freeze up. Another reason your computer may be running slow is that you have registry errors that need to be fixed. Registry errors are created when you delete a program by just deleting the file but not running an uninstaller. When you delete a file only parts of the file are removed, leaving smaller fragments in the registry that take up space but cannot be used by the system. You should never try to clean up registry files manually unless you know what you are doing. Registry cleaners are software programs that will scan and fix registry problems for you.

Steps for cleaning your computer:

The first thing you need to do before attempting to clean your computer is to create a restore point. Open your start menu, click on all programs, accessories, system tools and system restore. From this window you will see an option to create a restore point. Select that option and click next. This is making a save point in your computer in case you delete a wrong file you can simply go back and restore your computer to this date.

1. 

   How to Clean Up Computer

   Remove unused programs: Open your start menu and click on the control panel. In the category section you will see the Add or Remove programs icon, click on that. This will open a list of programs that are currently installed on your computer. Scroll through the list and remove any programs that you do not use anymore. You will not need to remove desktop icons as this will do it automatically.

2. From the control panel open the file that says Maintenance and Performance. This will open a menu of maintenance options. Click on Free up space on your hard drive and select the C: drive. A window will open that tells you it is scanning your hard drive to see how much space can be freed up. This may take several minutes to complete. When it is finished it will show you a list of folders that can safely be cleaned like your recycle bin and temporary internet files.
3. Defragment your hard disk. Files get fragmented over time and this will compress them to save more space. From the Performance and Maintenance menu click on “rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster”. Select the drive you want to analyze. This will scan the drive and tell you if you need to defragment at this time. Select the Defragment button and let it run through. This may take up to an hour if your drive is full.
4. Eliminate unnecessary start up programs. Every time you start your computer it loads all the files in the system memory. You may not need to use all these files when starting up. This will cause your system to slow down also. To select programs to run on start up: Click start, Run, and type in “msconfig”. This will open the System Configuration Utility. From the General tab click Startup and remove the check marks from the programs you do not need at start up. You will be prompted to restart your system for the changes to take effect.
5. Check for errors or bad sectors on your hard disk. Bad sectors slow down your computers performance and sometimes make saving programs or files difficult. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors on the disk and will automatically attempt to fix them.

To run the Error Checking Utility:

Close all open windows and click on your start menu. Click My Computer and right-click on the C: Drive. Scroll down the list and click on Properties. From this menu click on the Tools tab and select Error Checking. This will give you the option to run the program now or the next time you start your computer.

Once you have cleaned up your computer be sure you have a good anti-virus program installed to protect your system from spyware and unwanted viruses. A number of good programs are available for instant download. Protecting your computer from outside threats is another way to keep your system running at optimum speed.

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