Computer Clean Up Tips

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.

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.

Any introductory computer course will tell you that a computer is made up of hardware and software. Hardware components of the computer are the visible and tangible devices and peripherals that make up the physical computer while the software components are the programs – which though intangible and invisible – provide the instructions through which computer is able to perform its various functions.

Accumulation of dirt on either the hardware components or the software parts of the computer is bound to cause problems in the functioning of the computer. And although many people are able to notice and perhaps act on the accumulation of dirt on the hardware components of their computer (because such dirt is a highly visible eyesore), very few are able to notice the accumulation of dirt on the software components of their computer, much less to do something about it.

Dirt on the hardware components of the computer usually accumulates in the form of dust, food bits on the keyword and the mouse and so on. Dirt on the software components of the computer on the hand tends to occur in the form of clutter, this being un-used programs installed on the computer, duplicated documents saved on the computer, accumulated registry entries and so and so forth. Unfortunately, many of the elements that make up dirt in the software components of the computer are things that many people don’t recognize as such (as dirt) and which they are therefore less inclined to do something about.

The PC clean up to be done on the hardware components of the computer should really be quite easy enough. It generally involves the elimination of dust and other dirt particles accumulated on the computer components – and tools used for this role range from a piece of cloth dipped in alcohol (spirit) to quite sophisticated blowers used to blow away fine dust particles lodged on the various elements of the computer inside the casing and on the keyboard and the monitor.

PC clean up to be done on the software components can be trickier for some people, though it is in fact less physically involving than the PC clean up done on the hardware components. PC clean up done on the software components ranges from the use of registry clean up software to clear redundant (and erroneous) registry entries to the use of anti-virus software to rid the computer of virus and spy-ware that might have found their way into the computer and that are in all honesty, dirt in the computer. PC clean up as done on the software elements also includes de-fragmentation (windows comes with a de-fragmenting tool) which can help you save on disk space. And of course, a discourse on how to clean up your computer won’t be complete without mentioning something about clearing your computer’s desktop by deleting unneeded files and shortcuts. It might seem inconsequential, but doing clearing your desktop of all clutter tends to leave you with a good clear-headed feeling – and should thus be included as a part of your regular PC clean up routine.

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.