[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 081 ]
[] ]DEEP CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS PCbutton. The step-by-step guide reveals how
the tool works — it enables you to quickly clear
up all kinds of detritus, from the contents of
temporary folders to system error logs and
older System Restore points.
It’s worth taking pause before simply
deleting everything Windows suggests.
For example, if you’ve just upgraded to a new
version of Windows, you should find a
‘Previous Windows installation(s)’ entry
offering tens of gigabytes of data for freeing
up — don’t select this until you’re happy you
won’t be rolling back to that previous version
(note Windows will usually delete these files
after a set time anyway — typically 30 days).
Recently installed a new driver and not sure
if it’s causing you problems? Don’t touch
‘Device driver packages’, otherwise you’ll lose
the ‘Roll back’ option in Device Manager.
Finally, if you’re in the middle of
troubleshooting a problem using a tool like
WhoCrashed (www.resplendence.com),
deleting the ‘System error memory dump files’
is not recommended until you have finished
fixing your problem. To cut a long story short,
make sure that you read the description of
each setting before choosing whether or not to
delete it. If in doubt, leave it where it is for now.
TRIM START-UP ITEMS
One big PC performance bottleneck is the
amount of processes and programs running
in the background. We look at more extreme
ways of bringing these under control later,
but for now the most effective way to give your
PC a shot in the arm is to review — and clean
out if necessary — the programs that are set to
start with your PC.
Right-click the taskbar and choose Task
Manager. Click ‘More details’ if necessary,
then switch to the Start-up tab. You’ll see
a list of programs set to load with Windows,
complete with publisher, status and start-up
impact. This latter column helps you
determine which apps hog the most resources.
Some programs are vital to your PC’s
wellbeing, while others may be required
on a regular basis. Some, however, can be
disabled, so they only run when you want
them to. To do this, right-click the offending
entry and choose Disable. It’ll shave seconds
off your startup, free up system resources
and if you find enough items to disable,
could make a difference to the way your
PC performs. Don’t recognise an entry?
Right-click it and choose ‘Search online’
to search the web for the underlying file
name. Disabled entries can be restored later,
but if you would like to remove them,explore the program’s settings or preferences
for an option to do so.MORE CLEAN-UP T WEAKS
One way to improve performance is to take
control of the Windows search index. It
normally speeds up searches on frequently
accessed folders by scanning them for content
and storing them in a database, but you can
manage its settings. Type ‘indexing’ into the
Search box and select ‘Change how Windows
searches’. Click Modify to choose which
folders get indexed, or select Advanced to
change the index location or switch to the
File Types tab to choose exactly which kinds
of file you want to include.
If you’re left feeling dissatisfied by your light
spring clean, turn the page to dig deeper and
really start to clear out your PC’s clutter.01
DO A FULL SCAN
The first time that you run Disk Cleanup
you’ll be prompted to wait while it
analyses selected parts of your system. When the
scan completes you’ll be shown an amount of disk
space you can gain. For a more thorough scan,
click the ‘Clean up system files’ button and wait
while the scan repeats and completes.
03
FINAL CLEAN
If you have System Restore enabled,
you can launch Disk Cleanup again
and click ‘Clean up system files’ for a second time.
Switch to the ‘More Items’ tab and quickly wipe
all but the most recent Restore points by clicking
the relevant ‘Clean-up’ button after reading the
warnings that appear.02
REVIEW SCAN ITEMS
You should now find Windows has found
lots more free space it can clear. Review
each item by highlighting it for a description. You
can tick or untick boxes to add or remove items to be
cleaned – you should see the space gained figure
adjust accordingly. Ready to start cleaning?
Click ‘OK > Delete Files’.[STEP BY STEP]
FREE UP DRIVE SPACE WITH DISK CLEANUPFine-tune the Windows search tool so
it indexes the content you want to find.