Computer Clean Up Tips

Nothing is more frustrating that a slow computer. Computers are meant to be fast and efficient, and if you find your computer taking longer that you would manually take to do the same things, then clearly the computer is not serving its intended purpose. And if your computer is increasingly slowing down – there is a possibility that at least one the reasons behind the slow-down is accumulation of dirt and clutter in the computer.

Clutter in a computer usually takes the form of things like programs you downloaded and installed on your computer long ago that you no longer use – but which continue to use your computing resources because you continue to accommodate them in your computer’s hard disk. Program developers tend to set them by default to run as part of your computer’s start –up, and if this is indeed the case with the redundant programs in your computer’s, then chances are that apart from eating up your computer storage space, the redundant programs are also slowing down your computers start up. Indeed it is not unknown for computers that are cluttered with many such redundant programs that automatically run on start up to take longer than what healthy early computers (the Pentium 2 of the old for instance) used to take to start up.

Clutter in a computer also takes the form of redundant application files stored in various directories in the computer. These are files (for instance word-processor documents and spreadsheet workbooks) that you made up long ago, used them for whatever you wanted to use them for, and then forgot to delete them once you were through with them. Clearly, these types of files eat of your computer’s storage space, hampering the overall performance of the computer.

Another group of common culprits in cluttering computers is made up of duplicated files. These are files that you still use – but which are duplicated on various directories of the computer – and not for back-up purposes.

Redundant registry entries too are yet other culprits for cluttering computers – and these can be particularly dangerous as they not only hamper the performance of your computer, but can also cause registry errors, which if unchecked can completely cripple your computer.

The thing to do with computer clutter is to clean it up.

In the old days, this would have involved opening the various directories that make up your computer – and painstakingly deleting the redundant items one by one. It would also have involved opening the registry using command like ‘regedit’ and deleting the erroneous registry entries – with the ever present possibility of deleting sensitive entries that could cripple your computer completely. But thanks to the now widely available computer clean up software, most of which is free, there is an easier way to go about computer clean up. Most of this software is able to automatically detect redundant items on your computer and delete it – leaving you with a faster and more efficient computer.

Many people, having been sensitized on the benefits they can derive from good computer clean up software wonder where they can possibly get such good computer clean up software. As it were, there are so many PC clean up software programs on the market that one finds it hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Matters are not made any easier by the fact that objective reviews of these computer clean up software programs are rather rare – and when they happen to occur, not many people bother to read them keenly.

Now the need to ensure that you are getting the right computer clean up software can never be overemphasized. A piece of computer clean up software is a program you entrust with some of the most sensitive parts of your computer, for instance, your computer’s registry – given that registry clean up is always part of the computer clean up routine. Clearly, you cannot entrust the sensitive contents of your computer’s registry to an amateurish program, because damage to the registry can very easily mean the end of your computer’s life. Hence the need to ensure that you are looking at good computer clean up software program, before entrusting your computer to it.

So what makes a good PC clean up software?

Firstly, the makers of the software have to be credible people. Don’t just look at the software; give a look to the people behind it too. Software from the established vendors of technology products who have a reputation to guard is likely to be better than software from un-established vendors who have nothing much else to lose should their program prove to be ineffective or harmful. Of course this is not a blanket endorsement of all PC clean up software programs from the software powerhouses – it is just a suggestion that such software is likely to be well done, because in addition to having reputations to guard, the bigger players are also like to have bigger research and development budgets. And neither is it a blanket condemnation of the products by the smaller players – as some of these have also been known to work well, sometimes even better than the products by the established players.

Secondly, a good computer clean up software – like any good product – delivers what it promises. And while you have no certain way to know whether a product does indeed deliver before you use it, you can check on various software forums about what other users’ experiences with the software have been like. If they have been positive, then chances are that you too will have a good experience with the software. If they have been negative, then chances are that you will not be the exception.

Thirdly, a good computer clean up software program is easy to install and uninstall. A program that insists on leaving its traces on your computer once you are done with it could be malicious. Free PC clean up software programs are particularly notorious for this. Check out in the forums what other user’s experience with a program’s un-installation have been like – if such experiences happen to be on the forums.

Finally, and of course, a good computer clean up software is easy to use. There is no use installing a program that you won’t know what to do with. Such a programs is more likely than not to end up being unused and (with time) turn into clutter on your computer – the very thing you are trying to beat with computer clean up software.