I have no specific knowlege of this because I don't hang out with geeks, but I'm pretty sure this is what the Geek Squad does when they give you a performance tune-up for a hefty price. Best part is this is free, although it does take a few minutes of your precious time.
The biggest reason a computer gets old, doesn't fire on all cylinders, gets stuck in the mud, won't behave properly, destroys your productive life, is that it's full of junk companies silently deposit on your hard drive. Cleaning these every so often (daily if you can and there are programs that do it for you) will keep your computer young and sprite, at least until the newer program files that come out take a decided toll on your antiquated hardware.
- First and most important step: Clean out your temporary internet files.
This is the most popular spot for background checkers, unauthorized cookies (authorized too), site trackers and 'helpful' tools to be deposited. You can clean them by going to the TOOLS pull down menu on your web browser, Select INTERNET OPTIONS, click on DELETE under BROWSER HISTORY, then click on DELETE COOKIES. There are a few other categories in that same box and it would be a good idea to click on the DELETE FILES under the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES category as well (all other folders are ok, sort of, or at least enough for you not to mess with them at this point). This folder stores programs that are temporarily used to make a website function, more tracking programs, and other images and such that will help your browsing experience more smooth. The problem arises when you get the illicit program that doesn't belong there and starts flooding your connection with statistics about you and what you are doing. This can result in a much slower connection speed and might have an adverse affect on what your CPU or processor is handling. Another problem arises when that folder just gets too full. It creates a void on your hard disk. When the needle is going back and forth to gather information (think of a neurotic record player), it has to move that much further to get things done. Which brings us to the next subject in optimum performance tuning.
- Disk Defragmenting: Organizes your hard drive in an oh so magical way.
Think of a little elf coming into your messy and disorganized office, papers start whirling about, doors opening and closing, file cabinets clanging and that little elf whooshing around somewhere near the speed of sound (but not over, the boom would be deafening). Suddenly your office is clean, you can walk through it and you write your most incredible (increible in spanish) novel yet, in 5 days.
You can accomplish this amazing goal by proceeding to your START menu on the bottom left of your computer screen. Next choose ALL PROGRAMS, then choose ACCESSORIES, then choose SYSTEM TOOLS. In that handy little folder you'll find the DISK DEFRAGMENTER. You will definitely click on that, but before you do, look at the DISK CLEANUP UTILITY. This handy little tool will do much of what the first item above had you do. It's a little more involved but easy to follow, give it a whirl. With the disk defragmenter, you can ANALYZE or DEFRAGMENT. You may as well just DEFRAGMENT because it shows you the analysis anyway. Once you click on that, you have the wonderful side effect of having a little circus develop before your eyes. Just look at all those colors (most likely red) shift and transform into something that is slightly less circus like.
- A few programs of note
- Garbage sweeper - does the cleaning of your system. There are a lot of options with this but I use it and my computer will kick your computers ass anyday. Unfortunately you can't download it anymore. The good folks at Lock n' go discontinued it a long time ago. Fortunately you have friends on the web (at least one anyway) that have knowledge of its whereabouts, namely right here
- Hijack This - Very useful program in eliminating unwanted helper objects such as toolbars on your web browser, unwanted start up items that slow your computer down and a few other things. This is an advanced knowledge application and you shouldn't delete anything you don't absolutely feel that you should. There is a handy button on the bottom left that will give you descriptions of each item you want to look at.
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