Is your computer running a little slow? You don't need to hire a technician to fix it for you - here's how to optimize your PC in five simple steps with no additional software.
Your computer's running a little slow, so you hired a technician who, for $70, will work some magic on the PC and get it moving a little faster again. Sounds like a good deal? Well, it's not.
What is packaged as computer 'tuning' or 'optimization' services to speed up your PC typically involve simple tasks that you can carry out yourself with no additional software.
Here are five simple things you can do to make your turtle-slow PC run a little faster again:
#1: Free up disk place
As you use your computer, it gets cluttered up with old files that remain dormant and unused in the system.
Freeing up disk space can help improve the performance of your computer and allow it to run faster.
To do this, simply run Disk Cleanup, a software built into Windows. Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools in XP; or simply search for the program in Windows 7.
If this is the first time you are running Disk Cleanup and you have a large number of files in your PC, the program might take some time to analyze all the data you have, this is normal.
Once Disk Cleanup's main window appears, you can mark the type of files you want to delete by clicking the checkbox next to it. The figures on the right represent the amount of space that you can save if you remove those files.
In Disk Cleanup, you can safely delete the following: downloaded program files, temporary Internet files, Recycle Bin files and other temporary files.
