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[] ]DEEP CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS PCAt last, we reach the final curtain. If your PC
stil l isn’t running as smoothly as you’d like,
let us take more drastic steps to bring it under
control in this last section on cleaning, diving
deep to squeeze out every last possible
optimisation we can find. We’ll also reveal
some final tips for optimising drive space
to ensure your hard drive doesn’t fill up
too quickly going forward.
First, you’ll notice we haven’t included
Registry cleaning as part of this feature.
Registry cleaners would like you to think they
can perform minor miracles when it comes to
performance. They can’t. Even if they weren’t
justifiably shunned for their ability to delete
critical Registry entries along with genuinely
redundant ones, the act of simply deleting
Registry entries isn’t enough in itself to speed
things up. The fact is, Windows 10 is more thanREIN IN UNRULY PROGRAMS
The act of running multiple programs (never mind numerous background processes) is a delicate one,
requiring a finely balanced system to keep everything running smoothly. It doesn’t always work,
which is why sometimes your PC may seemingly grind to a halt or act sluggishly for a few minutes.
If you’re running Windows 10 on an older PC or low-powered tablet/laptop device, you may find it
frequently sticks due to the competing demands of different processes. One solution is to scale back
what you do — keep open programs to a minimum and trim startup back too. If this doesn’t help, then
downloading and installing the Free version of Process Lasso (bitsum.com/processlasso) will, and
can even help on more powerful setups too.
When prompted, leave the default options as they are and the main window will open to show you
what’s running and how Process Lasso is balancing it. Its ProBalanced tool is up and running from
the start, ensuring no process can overwhelm the system with its demands. A summary tells you how
it’s working, while the app’s log reveals which processes have been neutered when their demands
get too high (click ‘Insights’ for a handy summary).
You can also tweak things further: open the Main menu and choose ‘SmartTrim’ to free up physical
RAM when it’s safe to do so. Select ‘IdleSaver’ if you’d like to cut energy usage, and choose ‘Gaming
mode’ for those times when you want to play games or perform other CPU-intensive tasks such as
ripping or encoding high definition (HD) video.PC Services Optimizer provides
a neat way to streamline your
services with no tech knowhow.Use the Process Lasso app to rein
in overzealous processes and
keep your PC running smoothly.capable of managing and optimising the
Registry, so your best bet is to leave it well alone.DEFRAG YOUR DRIVE
These days, many of us have SSD drives, which
don’t require defragmenting (or defragging).
Older platter-based (HDD) drives do, however,
and it’s likely that you have at least one of these
installed, either internally or attached to your
PC via USB. Windows’ built-in defrag tool
should be adequate for most people’s needs,
but if you want to push the boat out further,
download and install the free version of
Defraggler (www.piriform.com/defraggler).
Defraggler can differentiate between SSD
and HDD drives, so it only defrags the latter.
Go to Settings > Options > and select the
Defrag tab to optimise your drive by moving
larger files to the end of the drive, which can
help boost performance. It’s also possible to
analyse and defrag individual files via the File
list tab or by right-clicking the file in File
Explorer — this is handy for a quick speed
boost when working with specific large files.MANAGE SERVICES
Startup programs aren’t the only things
launching with Windows, extending your
boot time and grabbing resources — system
(and third-party) services do too. Luckily, you
can manually review and optimise these via
the Services management console (type
services into the search box), but for a quick
and easy optimisation, download the freePerform a heavy duty clean-out
STILL NEED MORE ZIP? THEN CHECK OUT THESE ADVANCED CLEANING TIPS...