Spring clean your PC

Well it’s that time of year again for some spring cleaning, (if you live in the southern hemisphere), however the tips that you will take away from today’s article is invaluable and should be followed religiously in order to ensure your home PC is in good working order.  Every so many thousand kilometres you change the oil in your car amongst other maintenance work and the same methodology applies to your PC.  I would recommend accomplishing the below tasks at least twice a year if not once a quarter.  This article is targeted to PC users running Windows XP or Windows Vista, but Mac users don’t despair, another article is in the works.

The most common home complaint that I receive is, my computer was so quick when I first purchased it and now 6 months later it is SOOOO slow.  There are some things we can’t defy like ageing of hardware components, but there are things we can do to prolong the life of your PC.  Straight from the horses mouth, I have a Toshiba laptop that is almost 4 years old running the latest Windows 7 operating system which runs just as good as how I had received it on day 1.  So let’s begin our quest for a “better” running PC.

Physically clean your PC

Believe it or not, the first step involved is actual physical cleaning. Your PC’s components can heat up while they’re powered up. This heat can wreak havoc with your system, so all computers come with fans to draw in cool air and drop the temperature of the system. Unfortunately, these fans can also draw in dust, especially if your PC is sitting directly on carpet. You’ll need some canned air, which can be purchased from most computer stores.  With your computer powered down, open up the case and use the canned air to blow the dust off your hardware components in particular your internal fans.   If you have a laptop, you can by pass this tip because the last thing I want you to do is to attempt to open up your laptop which is not only a daunting task but will void your warranty.  I also recommend sitting your PC so it is elevated from the floor.

Remove the all so common dozens of shortcuts on your desktop

Tip number 2 is all about removing and re-organising your desktop!  One of things I see too often is the amount of files, pictures, video and audio files that are residing on people’s desktop. Do you need immediate access to all those files on your desktop? Not only does it add to the clutter and at times painful on the eye, it will actually slow down the loading of your Windows profile when you first log in . You should minimise your desktop to application shortcuts and categorise your files in your My Documents, Photos and Music folders under your user profile eliminating the clutter on your desktop.  By organising all your files into these respective folders you are also making it easy to back them all up in one go as part of your back up plan.

Remove unwanted programs

Most new computers purchased from Dell and HP come with pre-installed applications commonly referred to as bloat-ware.  My philosophy on applications is, if you don’t use it, remove it.  You can easily achieve this by navigating to Control Panel / Add Remove Programs (if you are running Windows XP) or Control Panel / Programs and Features (if you are running Windows Vista).  Select your application and click on remove/uninstall.

Defrag your computer

De-WHAT??  As you add files and applications to your computer over time, the information that is being stored on your hard drive becomes fragmented, i.e. it’s stored in bits and pieces wherever there is space.  Defragmenting your hard drive re-arranges your files so the bits and pieces are in one contiguous order.

To access the defrag tool click on Start / All Programs / Accessories / System tools / Disk Defragmenter.  Or you can utilise Vista’s “Start/Search” and type in Disk Defragmenter.  This utility can also be easily scheduled to run automatically once a week behind the scenes.

Run Windows Update

Microsoft release updates, security and Microsoft application fixes through Windows Update which is available via Control Panel.  There are a couple of settings that we will need to check in order to have this task automated ensuring your PC is secure, patched and up to date.  I highly recommend having the option of “Install updates automatically” selected and have a set schedule for when you want these updates to be installed.

Clear your Temporary Internet Files

Internet Explorer and most well known browsers have the ability to cache certain information from web sites such as cookies and pictures to speed up your loading time when you come to re-visit the same page at a later date.  This time saver may actually work in reverse when your cache gets bigger which inadvertently begins to slow your browsing experience.  The 2 most notable advantages with deleting your temporary internet files is clearing redundant web site information and freeing up disk space.  In Internet Explorer version 7 and 8 you can clear your cache by navigating to Tools / Internet Options.

Click on Delete.. under the section Browsing history.

Leave the default options ticked and click on Delete.  This process can take a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the size of your internet cache.

Remove unwanted “Temp” files

“Temp” files are actually different to “Temporary Internet files” and refers to temporary program files that may be lying around after a newly installed application that is no longer needed.  It is safe to always clear these files and will not affect your system in any way apart from keeping it clean from unwanted and unneeded files.  In order to clear these files you will need to run Windows Disk Cleanup wizard or Disk Cleanup depending on the version of Windows you are running.

The below screen capture will appear when you first launch Disk Cleanup.  This will take a few moments as it begins its calculation.  You can access Disk Cleanup via All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Cleanup.

Upon completion, the below screen will appear and if you scroll down the list you will have the ability to select various options including “Temporary files”.

Re-format and Re-install

As crazy as this sounds, re-formatting your hard drive usually brings new life to your PC and it is almost like starting anew.  It’s a mammoth task as you will need to backup all your files and settings and then re-install the operating system, your applications and copy your files back, but definitely a rewarding experience that can be done between year 2 and year 3 of owning your PC.

So there it is.  Above are a number of small tasks that you can easily accomplish as a home user to pro-long the life of your PC and ensure it is in good working order.  If you have other suggestions to add to this list, feel free to do so via comments below.