Clean Your Computer Of All Unwanted Junk

Ever got a problem of lagging computers, rapidly disappearing hard-disk space and more startup time (for Windows)? The most probable answer may be that your computer houses a lot of unwanted junk. Removing this junk from the computer can not only free up hard-disk space, but also increase performance of the computer. Here are some of the ways you can delete junk and increase performance.

For those who have already read my other hub on must-have programs, by this time you might know how good is CCleaner. Download it if you haven't already and run it. CCleaner does a great job on cleaning out your computer. The middle pane shows a list which will be scanned for junk. You can exclude specific areas here. These areas will not be cleaned. Once you are ready, go on and press Analyze. The progress bar goes on and on, don't be fooled by its progress. It goes animatedly over and over and has nothing to do with the cleaning process. It might take as long as 30 seconds to analyze a decent computer with 50+ gb of content. Press 'Run Cleaner' once it is analyzed to wipe the content off the computer. You might be surprised by the amount it frees up. This is not the end of it though.

Click on Registry on the left pane and press 'Scan for issues'. Once scanning is finished, press on 'Fix Selected Issues' to fix it. It gives you the option to backup the registry. Back it up just in case...

Now press on tools on the left pane. Leave the uninstaller because we got a much better one coming right up. Press on 'StartUp' and this give you the startup programs configured on your computer. Delete programs you know that makes your computer start-up slow. Using Spybot can be a great help because these programs continuously try to make themselves start when the computer is turned on, and with Spybot, you can control them. That's about it with CCleaner. If you couldn't clean up a large amount with CCleaner (I doubt it), don't worry, we got more coming up.

Let me tell you one thing. I got this brand new laptop with 160 GB hard-drive (115 left after system files and other files). I was quite happy with it until I noticed that the hard-disk space was shrinking daily. One day it was 111 GB, the next day it was109 GB, 101 GB the next day, 99.8 GB the next day and it kept shrinking. I got worried and thought my first experience with my laptop was a hard-disk problem!! I searched and searched for the extra space taken and found that none of my programs had anything to do with it (I was installing and uninstalling files like crazy those days). Then I looked at System Restore, and there it was. I disabled it and the 10+ GB that was mysteriously lost came back instantly.

So, what is System Restore? Basically it is something of a system backup the computer does whenever you install or uninstall anything. For some of you it might not be running currently, and therefore there will be no significant space loss. For those who experience the same problem as me, System restore might be the answer. The System help states that System Restore can use upto 15% of the hard-drive for backups. To preserve this precious space, do the following in Vista. I haven't had the experience in XP so I don't know about System Restore in XP.

• Open 'Computer'
• Click on 'System Properties'
• Click on 'System Protection'
• Clear the checkpoint for all hard disk drives.
• Select 'Turn System Restore Off'
• Click Apply
• Create ONE restore point for safety. The computer can crash anytime you know!

This can save a great amount of space in the hard-drive. Of course, assuming that you had System Restore turned on!

What happens when you uninstall a program? Well, the program erases its parent directory, the registry values and all those shortcuts. It also leaves a lot of Junk registry values around which it 'forgets'. Same goes for files. Some programs create temporary files and then forget to delete them. Trial versions of programs also keep track whether you have run the trial version before on the same computer by leaving out registry keys. All these are what we call 'Junk'. One way to sniff out these files is by CCleaner. But every file may not go this way and also "Prevention is better than cure". So how do we prevent these junk from accumulating. Revo Uninstaller comes in here.

Basically, Revo Uninstaller works by ensuring that when a program is uninstalled, it is uninstalled along with all its related files, registry keys or whatsoever. The main work method follows : Analyzing the program, Running programs default uninstaller, checking for junk, cleaning it off. That's it. Anything connected to that program is erased. Revo Uninstaller comes with a variety of other tools also but this is the one standing out.

After doing all this, you may find that a large amount of space (in most cases) is freed up. Your system should be working faster also. To further increase its performance, defragment the hard-drive, the registry and run some optimization tools like Auslogics BoostSpeed on it.

This can further increase the pc-speed. Uninstall programs from Revo Uninstaller only. If the uninstall requires reboot, it is better to use normal uninstall. Because if booting is required, the last bit of program left to adjust system folders will be wiped off by Revo Uninstaller! That can be a serious problem. I'm assuming it this way because I never had uninstalled a program which requires a reboot.