Cleaning up your PC is also important to keeping it running well and
keeping its resources available for things you need or want. For example you can start by uninstalling any software that is not needed.

Next, cleaning your temporary file folder and temporary internet file folders can also make a difference. When you surf the internet, your browser downloads and saves file in your temp area because it is faster to read from your disk that to read over the internet. That way, if you go back to a page your recently browsed, the browser reads it from disk, thus speeding up your response time. Over time you may accumulate so many files in these temporary areas that it takes longer to search the disk than it does to search the internet.

To improve performance, these areas should be cleaned regularly. You could do this manually, but there is software that will do this more easily. Get a could PC maintenance tool that will do this for you.

Another easy task is to stop programs from launching automatically. These programs not only slow your PC when it starts up, but may be using resources your computer could use for something else. Not every program need be stopped, but you should pay attention to those you seldom use.

Improvements from these easy steps could be marginal, or could be significant. The improvement depends on the condition of the items above.

I regularly use and highly recommend a “free” tool called CCleaner.  This multipurpose tool does much more than just clean your temporary files.  It also allows you to manage your start up programs and more.  Down load a free copy from here:   

Check PcSecurityBlog.IsItFriday.com in a few days for Task 5 of Seven Tasks to Speed Up Your PC, “Task 5 – Optimize the Hard disk“

©2012 PC Security And Maintenance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The registry is like a phone book. It tells the computer where all the
programs live and how to contact them. Using that analogy, it also tells
the program how to find any friends and relatives the program may need to
operate.

Unfortunately, as the phone book gets bigger it gets more difficult to
find everyone. This problem is made worse when programs move out (deleted  or uninstalled) or are relocated (copied or moved). You end up with some vacant houses and some addresses that are no longer accurate.

The bigger size of the registry, the accumulation of bad addresses and
vacant houses where no program lives cause errors which frequently slow
your computer down. Your PC is trying to figure out where everyone is,
where they went, and what it should do with the erroneous addresses.

Over time this burden slows down the computer. If ignored long enough,
the accumulation of erros may cause a “corrupt” registry where the
computer may be come unusable.

Fixing the registry errors will help restore your PC to its original
speed. Unless you really know what you are doing, you should not attempt
to fix the registry manually. Doing so can cause your computer to crash
and unusable. Although it can be recovered, that topic is outside the
scope of this discussion.

Registry repair software is usually fast and reliable and offers overall,
a better alternative to correct errors, delete unused files, poor links
and deal with unwanted program components.

I have found this Registry tool to be the best. Check it out now.

Check back for Task 2 of  Seven Tasks to Speed Up Your PC, “Task 2 – Eliminate viruses”

©2012 PC Security And Maintenance Blog. All Rights Reserved.