How To: Cleaning and Streamline Your Computer

This will be a walkthrough on how to clean your computer, keep it clean, and some good, free software that I use, that you can use as well, to keep your computer in tip top shape.

The first thing to establish is what operating system you are using. Most computers nowadays will have Windows 7, Windows Vista, or a Mac OS. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Macs at all, so this article will be based on PC’s and the Windows OS.

Out of all the steps here, the simplest thing you can do is use the built in tool on your computer. Navigate to your start menu on your desktop, click it to open it, go to all programs, and click the accessories folder. Under accessories you should find the system tools folder, and under that you will see Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup.

Disk Defragmenter cleans up the memory of your computer and organizes all the data fragments. It won’t move or change any of the actual physical files or locations, just the data image and data makeup up of them to smooth out the processing. This should be done during downtime because it can take a long time. You can schedule this operation too if you want to.

The Disk Cleanup tool will get rid of unnecessary files, bulk, and other miscellaneous items that your computer may store without your knowledge that you do not need. It also gives you the option in the end to check or uncheck items that you want to delete or keep so the end choice remains with you. Using these two tools is a great start to cleaning your computer.

Now, moving onto software and additional items, there is a lot out there. One of the best programs for cleaning up miscellaneous stuff that the built-in software misses is CCleaner. This is a great cleanup tool as well as a registry repair tool, not many programs can boast that. Moving onto antivirus programs, Microsoft Security Essentials, in my opinion, is one of the best. It is free to use, developed by Microsoft, and easy to use. It has a built in alert and blocking mechanism if it detects a virus or threat, you can then quarantine the said file or delete it. It also has an auto update feature and a scanning feature.

There is other software and programs you can get are not necessary, but can be considered precautionary. Some of these include AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, Spyware Blaster, and Malware Bytes. All are free, easy to setup, and will do you some good, to the extent that you use them that is.

As far as actual cleaning, you can take the side cover off of your processor tower (the large tower like piece of your computer) and use a can of compressed air to blow the dust and debris out, for better cooling. You can use this same technique to clean your keyboard, or even carefully take the keys off and do the same.