Sliced Wikizine

 

Over time the performance of your PC can gradually get slower and slower, this is because your Hard Disk gets populated with applications
you install and documents you save. Now there is nothing wrong in that, this is normal, but there are ways you can prevent your Hard Disk from grinding down to a halt, really simple steps that anyone can do to make sure that your PC is at its optimal performance.

1. Free up disk space

There is a utility on every Windows PC which cleans up your hard disk, it's called Disk Cleanup - this utility tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. It searches the Hard Drive for unused and unnecessary files, this utility does the following

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

2. Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the entire hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time is what you notice while using your PC. Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that combines all the related fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. Once this is done your files and folders are closer to each other and are able to open up much quicker and there would be no need to search the entire disk


Running Disk Defragmenter should be done once every month, there of course other times when you are advised to run it, e.g. after you install an applications or a new version on Windows. If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

3. Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. This is usually from the websites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. There are programs available which will detect Spyware and allow you to get rid of such spyware code, best precaution against spyware is to purchase an Antivirus software and this will detect virus or spyware and hopefully eradicate them.