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Cleaning and Organizing Your Computer |
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It is a good idea to think of your PC as an office. It stores
files, programs, pictures. This can be compared to an actual
office's files, machines and decorations. The operating system
is the boss. With this image in mind, think of an office you've
visited that was slow and inefficient. There were probably
many different reasons for the inefficiency. This is the same
with a computer. There can be many items that slow down your
computer. Perhaps the one most commonly overlooked is disorganization
and clutter.
Disk Cleanup
An office can accumulate a lot of unnecessary files, machines,
and decorations. This is the same with your computer. One
of the best ways to keep this clutter under control is to
perform a cleaning utility periodically. In Windows this cleaning
utility will be called a "disk cleanup." It removes
a variety of unnecessary files depending on the options you
have selected.
To perform a disk cleanup on Windows XP you can simply click
on "my computer" under the start menu. Than right
click on your "c drive" or "hard disk"
and choose properties. Than click "disk cleanup"
and follow the prompts. When selecting files to clean up,
or delete, Windows will give you information to help you decide.
When looking over the list of file types, you would simple
click on the name of the file type and read the description
placed below in the description area. This will let you know
if the files can be safely deleted. To select the file group
just check the box next to the group name. When finished selecting
press "OK" to finish.
Now, performing a disk cleanup is not very time consuming,
just a couple minutes, and it may save more time in the end
by making your computer run faster. However, a disk cleanup
should be run periodically rather than just once in a great
while. One way to make this run periodically is to make it
a scheduled task. This will allow your computer to run it
automatically with intervals and time of day determined by
you. Yet, you can always run it yourself periodically without
creating a scheduled task.
Add or Remove Programs
The information given above can help you get rid of some
unnecessary files, but you may also need to clean out some
unnecessary programs as well. This can be done using the "add
or remove programs" utility in Windows. This is located
in the control panel and lists all of your currently installed
programs along with an option to uninstall them. It is a good
idea to browse through the add or remove programs utility
every once in a while just to make sure that all programs
are of usefulness.
If there are programs listed that are no longer used, you
can simply highlight the program and click the uninstall button.
Windows will than begin the process to uninstall the program.
In most cases, to finish uninstalling a program, it is wise
to restart your computer. This will dump and files that are
held temporarily.
The add or remove programs utility is very useful, but not
all of the programs are listed up front. Programs that come
pre-installed on your computer and the Windows operating system
can also be uninstalled. For instance, Outlook Express is
a default e-mail program that comes with the Windows XP operating
system. If you do not use this e-mail program you can uninstall
it. Click "add or remove windows components" found
in the add or remove programs utility and simply follow the
instructions.
Defragment
Many offices contain a large number of files and programs
that are valuable and cannot be thrown away. In fact, they
may contain files that are not even used, but still have to
be retained for some reason. Although these files must remain
in the office, they need to be organized. This is why we create
file folders that hold groups of files that are related. Than
we store them in cabinets that are arranged in alphabetic
order.
In a computer, the files that are saved are placed on the
hard drive. However, they are placed according to the time
that they were saved. So, if you open a word document and
save the file as "file A" and than open another
document and save it as "file B", you have a "file
A" placed next to "file B." This is fine, but
if you open "file A" later on and save it again,
than the added information is saved next to "file B."
When files are broken up this way it is referred to as a
fragmented file. This means that the computer must find the
first part of the file and then find the second part of the
file to open that one word document. This can make your computer
run slower. However, Windows has created a utility that is
meant to rearrange files so that they are no longer fragmented
but sit right next to each other.
You can run the disk defragmenter by selecting "all
programs" under the start button. Next, select "accessories"
and "system tools" and you will see "disk defragmenter."
In fact, this is also an alternative way to select the disk
cleanup mentioned earlier. Before starting the defragmenter
you can analyze your hard drive to see if Windows recommends
performing the defragmenter. It will either say that you should
or should not defragment at this time.
If you need to defragment your computer, simply hit the defragment
button. It may take your computer a while to finish this task
depending on the speed of your computer and the amount of
defragmented files. It could take from about 15-30 minutes
or more. However, you can still use the computer while the
disk defragmenter is working.
About the Author:
Unknown Author from Super Archieves.
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