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.

Many people find routine PC clean up too much of a hassle and choose to live without it. They find, for instance, the idea of opening up their computer casing and passing a blower through it too much work. They also find the idea of uninstalling software programs they installed but which they don’t ever use a bit off-putting, rationalizing the continued stay of the same software programs on the computers with saying that they might yet need them one day. Even the idea of removing redundant items and shortcuts on the desktop feels bad, with the people who want to avoid doing it rationalizing the continued stay of the redundant items and shortcuts on the desktop with a saying to the effect that the presence of so many shortcuts and items on the desktop shows that they are consistent (and serious) computer users.

Yet there are a number of very significant reasons why you should clean up your computer on a regular basis.

For one, the accumulation of clutter on your computer – clutter here being things like programs you don’t use, duplicate files and so on – slows down your computer. Indeed, it is not unknown for people who don’t ever clean up their computers to end up with machines that are actually slower than them. You know that you computer is getting slower than you if you can type a sentence and have to wait for a few seconds before it appears on your screen! And if this happens regularly, then it might be time for you to consider some serious PC clean up.

Another reason as to why you should clean up your computer regularly is because some of the elements that make up clutter in your computer also end up consuming your computing resources. Redundant programs, for instance, eat up computer storage space. And if such redundant programs are configured to run automatically when you start the computer (as they tend to be), then they end up increasing the time that you need to get your computer to start up. If you find that you have time to make a cup of coffee between switching on your computer and your actually being able to use it , then it might indeed be time you considered some urgent computer clean up because you really have a problem. In terms of competing with you for your own computing resources, computer clutter behaves like weeds (which compete with the useful crops for nutrients and other resources on a farm), and as any good farmer will tell you – the thing to do with weeds is to uproot them at the earliest opportunity.

Another reason you should clean up your computer regularly is because the accumulation of clutter on your computer especially on the most visible area (for instance having numerous redundant items and shortcuts on the desktop) leads to stress and feelings of disorientation. Deleting these things as part of your regular computer clean up is therefore bound to infuse you the feelings of clear-headedness and a sense of control which, by the way, are some of the major components of happiness.

The need for regular PC clean up is incontestable. Accumulated clutter on the computer, has for one, been known to slow down computers and in some cases to even cripple them completely. Such clutter also ends up competing with the computer user for the computing resources that the user has invested in. And like all clutter, such computer clutter (especially the visible bits like obsolete files and shortcuts on the desktop) ends up stressing the computer user, making him feel as if there is too much work and as if they have lost their sense of control and so on.

Having established the need for regular computer clean up, many people are left wondering how to go about it. As it turns out, unlike computer clean up as undertaken on the hardware components (where it usually is just a matter of wiping here and blowing there), computer clean up as undertaken for the software bits can be a lit bit more complicated as it calls for a certain degree of technical discernment.

Fortunately, there is a class of software known as PC clean up software which is meant to help you with the task of de-cluttering your computer. There are a number of reasons why you should consider employing this PC clean up software in your computer clean up routines.

For one, PC clean up software gives you the opportunity to save on the considerable blocs of time you would have spent flicking through the various directories in your computer and deciding which files are clutter and should thus be deleted and which files are still useful. PC clean up software saves you such time by giving you the option of just specifying the criteria files need to meet to be deleted (or to be kept) and the directories (folders) such files are to be and then clicking on a button and having the software select and delete files that would have taken you ages to select and delete manually.

Secondly, PC clean up software gives you the opportunity to clean up sensitive parts of your computer – for instance the registry – without running the risk of deleting an important component unwittingly. Now this is important because deleting some components of your computer registry during clean up can completely cripple the computer forever. The best PC clean up software, on the other hand, is programmed to steer clear of these sensitive parts of the registry while thoroughly also cleaning up all the clutter around them. It is, however, worth being sure that you have a good PC clean up software, before entrusting it with your computer’s registry because in all honesty, if this gets messed up, you will be left with a shell for a computer.

Thirdly, of course is that through the use of PC clean up software, you have a way of automating your computer clean up routine, so that (after your pre-setting it) the software just cleans up the computer upon the expiry of so many days and on such and such a criteria. This way, you are sure the trash in your computer will get disposed off even if you are the ‘forgetful type’.

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.

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.

A considerable number of people treat the widely available free PC clean up software (and indeed all free things for that matter) with a degree of skepticism. They wonder, for instance, how someone would subject themselves to the rigors of software development and come up with a good computer clean up software – only for them to offer it for free. They feel like something doesn’t quite add up there. Then there are those who have heard of the cases where people install what is supposed to be free software – only for it to end up being a malicious virus out to irritate them at best and to cripple their computers at worst.

And while it is healthy to approach all free things with a certain degree of skepticism, it is also worth noting that there is still some good free pc clean up software out there that you can use to enhance your computing experience.

The developers of this free PC clean up software develop it for a number of reasons. Some do it as a project in their advanced degrees in computing – and once they are through using it for academic purposes, they just bring it into the public domain for other people to benefit from it as well. Other developers of free PC clean up software aim to make money out of their product in other ways rather than by simply charging users directly for using it. There are those, for instance, who will offer the free PC clean up software (this being genuinely good software) on their websites in the hope that the free software will draw hordes of visitors to their websites where they can then buy various other products while getting the software for free. This is a dominant business model on the Internet, which is itself primarily free yet useful for commercial purposes. Then there are the PC clean up software developers who hope to use the free versions of the software to introduce people to their software and its efficacy so that they can give them the option of buying the premium versions of the software once they are sure that they are using a good product. This, again, is another dominant business model today – in an age where people insist on first having free trials of almost everything before committing their money to it.

Of course, it helps to ensure that you are dealing with a good product developed by credible people before installing it on your computer. In judging the credibility of the company behind a given free PC clean up software, you can for instance visit various software forums and see what other users’ experiences with the product in question have been. You can also read any news reports on the software in question and see what the general feeling of the objective media about it is like.

All in all, remember that while there might be a few free pc clean software programs that don’t deliver on what they promise, most are good products that can really add value to your life as a computer user.