A big killer to PC performance is when your hard drive gets clogged up with unnecessary installation and temporary files. Optimise your PC in just a few minutes with this easy guide.
Every time you install a new program or update an existing one, your PC will keep the installation files and store them on your hard drive and remain there until you remove them.
Your internet browser also likes to automatically “download” images from websites you visit so that the next time you visit the site, the website load time will be reduced as your browser will already have most of the files it needs to display the website. These these files are called “cache” files or Temporary Internet Files. It’s a good idea to clean these up once every few months.
To give your PC the once over and get rid of all of these unnecessary files, you will need to run Disk Clean Up. Just follow the guide below:
- Open up My Computer (either from the desktop or the Start menu)
- Right click on the C: drive, and select Properties
- Click on Disk Clean Up
Your PC will then calculate what files are no longer needed. This is fully automated but may take a few minutes to complete. If you are given the option, select Clean up System Files as well. After this, the Clean up System Files option will disappear. Now go ahead and press OK. Your PC will then commence deleting these files. All done!
Once you’ve done that you should consider also removing any programs that you never use. You can do this from the Programmes directory which is in the Control Panel. A guide for this will follow soon.
If none of these steps help in speeding up your PC, you could potentially have a virus or an underlying issue with your system. We’d recommend contacting a PC repair shop to advise whether this is the case or not.