Computer Clean Up Tips

There is a general trend which is associated with computers. Just like automobiles they need to be taken special care of. Else problems maybe resulted and with the passage of time, such problems may turn to something which might take more time to be fixed. The development of a problem within a computer is analogous to a snowball rolling down the hill. Initially the size of the snowball will be small, but as the ball rolls down the hill the size keeps on increasing. Likewise one error might lead to an errors, which might in turn lead to another and the process continues until the computer is beyond the reach of recovery.

In this article we shall be looking into some of the easy methods to keep your computer clean of errors. And instead of relaying on third party utilities it is better to stick with the options which are already available as in built into the computer. The list is topped by disk cleaner. So what exactly does disk cleaner do? It searches the hard disk for error causing and non error causing junk files and removes them safely to the recycle bin, so that they can be deleted safely at a later time. Disk cleaner must be run at least once in a week or once in a month depending on the frequency of disk activity.

In the computer there is always constant disk activity. Files are written and rewritten at a faster pace and this progress is always done from the time you boot up the PC to the time you shut down the computer. This will result in the fragmentation of data all about the hard disk drive. In other words, the different parts of the same file will be placed all around the disk drives. So what is the result of such a process? The hard disk drive takes a lot of time to access the data, because it has to search for the data at different parts of the drive. With the help of inbuilt defragmenting tools the files are kept closer so that the drive doesn’t work that much and will result in higher performance.

Registry errors as well as errors caused due to improper DLL files must also be taken into consideration. The causative agents for registry and DLL errors are more or less the same. Improper shutdown of the PC, along with booting up and improper software installation un-installation process will lead to the registry and DLL errors. Some of the DLL files are shared by more than two programs and if one of these programs are uninstalled, then all the associated programs will start displaying error messages. Registry entries are created whenever any activity is done on the PC, and these registry entries tend to accumulate with the passage of time. Registry error checking as well as defragmenting utilities is available. Always install a good antivirus firewall combination to inhibit malware infection.

Ever wondered why your computer’s performance is ever sluggish – while your neighbor’s is always fast?

There are no easy answers to this situation, but there is a very huge chance that accumulation of clutter is the reason behind your computer’s sluggish performance. And conversely, while we cannot be certain, there is a very huge chance that regular computer clean up is the reason behind the ever-buoyant performance of your neighbor’s computer.

As it were, the nature of computers and the way we interact with them nowadays makes them very prone to accumulation of junk. Nowadays, for instance, there is so much free downloadable software – most of which is very tempting in what it promises to help you achieve – that a person who installs every software they come up across soon ends up with a cluttered computer. Indeed, if you tend to install all manner of programs on your machine and your neighbor on the other hand tends to only install the software they need, then this could very well be the reason his computer happens to be faster than yours. The problem with most of the free software we install on our computer is that it tends to soon get forgotten about. Yet even though you forget about the software once you are through using it, your computer doesn’t. The software remains lodged in your computer, eating up your computing resources. Clearly then, there is need for regular PC clean up to remove this software once you are through using it – otherwise it hangs on there, and continues leeching on computing resources, often leading to sluggish performance.

Another reason that makes modern computers particularly prone to accumulation of junk is the ease with which we create files nowadays. In the old days before Windows – when we were on DOS for instance, creating a computer file used to be a long drawn affair, involving your typing in of a number of command lines to make the file possible. To put in all this effort clearly, you had to know why you were creating the file. With windows however, making a file is as simple as a few clicks here and there – and it is therefore not unknown of people making files on the computers and forgetting about them the very next moment. There are also those computer files that we make unwittingly – and which many of us don’t even recognize as files. Take for instance the desktop shortcuts we make (on our desktops) to various resources stored further inside the computer. Very few people recognize that each desktop shortcut constitutes a file by itself (independent of the computer resource it points to) and therefore eats up considerable space on the computer’s disk – just like any other file. As with redundant programs, then, there is also need for regular computer clean up to rid it of these accumulated redundant files – which can in the long run eat up considerable storage resources on the your computer – leading to the sluggish computer performance we started by mentioning.

Watching most people’s approach to PC clean up can be amusing. As it were, many people concentrate on cleaning up a computer’s outside, while leaving the inside filthy and cluttered. It is not hard to sympathize with them.

Many people are, for one, not aware of the need to clean up their computers inside’s. They are not aware that, as with a cup or a plate, the cleanliness of the inside of a computer actually matters more than the cleanliness of its outside. A computer that is cluttered in the inside, for one, is bound to be slower than a computer that is de-cluttered regularly. This is because the various elements that make up clutter on a computer also end up eating up the computer’s resources – in essence competing with you for computing resources that you bought. If part of the clutter for instance happens to be redundant programs (programs installed on the computer but unused), then there is a good chance that the programs continue to run in the background – using your computing resources – even without your being aware of their doing so. And even where they don’t do so, still the amount of storage space required to store the executable files and other supporting files that make up these various programs is massive – and is definitely storage space that you could put to better use. Clearly, then, a PC clean up exercise that does nothing about clutter accumulated on the inside is not effective – and every computer user needs to be aware of this fact.

There are of course, computer users who are aware of the need for internal cleaning of the unseen elements of the computer – files and programs as mentioned – but who choose to ignore it, either because they feel it is too much work or it is too technical. As it were, while cleaning up the computer’s externals is rather physically involving (with blowers and all), it is not really technically challenging and therefore appears easier that cleaning up the internal (unseen) elements – which inevitably involves some weighty decisions on, for instance, what to delete and what to leave intact – and so on.

The way to clean up computers effectively, however, is to clean both the dirt and dust elements accumulated on the hardware parts (with blowers and all) – while also cleaning up the clutter that happens to have accumulated in the software parts of the computer. Indeed, as mentioned, a PC clean up exercise that does nothing about the elements in the inside is utterly ineffective.

And unlike what many people imagine, cleaning up the computer’s insides is not really hard – especially with aid of the now widely available computer clean up software. Most of this computer clean up software actually comes for free nowadays – and can go a long way in helping you de-clutter the insides of your computer. Some can even be set to automatically clean up the computer after such and such a period of time, so that the task is effective delegated and you don’t have to worry about it at all.

Computer file clean up is one of those tasks that feel simply feel like too much of a hassle. It is not that it is really a hard thing to do, but the idea of sitting down on your computer and going through its various folders, deciding which files to axe and which files to keep simply feels uncomfortable. In many people, this resistance to the task of regular computer file clean up can be traced back to the fear of letting go. They feel that these are files that they took their time to create (or to download as the case might be) and simply don’t feel like disposing of them- the fact that they have finished with them and might never need them notwithstanding. For others it is fear of change. They have this quite unreasonable (and usually unconscious) feeling that de-cluttering their computer would mean a change from their comfort zone of clutter and are thus resistant to the whole idea of computer file clean up.

Yet such routine computer file clean up has its own benefits that make it a worthwhile undertaking.

For one, regular computer file clean up saves on the computer storage space. A closer look of many people’s computers shows that most of their storage space is eaten up by redundant files – either program files for software that they never use, or application files for documents they finished with long ago. All they need then is to do away with their fear of letting go to dispose of these files, and just dispose them safe in the knowledge that they can always make more.

Secondly, regular computer file clean up speeds up one’s computer. The thing with the obsolete computer files is that while they may not really eat enough computer storage for them to be noticeable, their continued presence and accumulation tends to slow the computer progressively to a point where the computer gets noticeably slower in its performance. Indeed, one of the recommended ways to speed up a computer is by regular computer file clean up – and all other factors held constant, a computer that is de-cluttered regularly is bound to be a faster computer than one that is never cleaned up.

Thankfully today, the task of regular computer file clean up is no longer as daunting as it used to be. This is because with the advent of various PC clean up software programs, the task of computer file clean up can be as easy as specifying a criteria for the software and clicking on a ‘clean-up’ or ‘go’ button – and the software does all the rest for you. One can even fully delegate the whole task of regular computer file clean up to the software by instructing it to be cleaning up the computer using such and such a criteria and after such and such a period of time and the software is sure to follow your instructions with precision.