Part 2 Digital Spring cleaning

Last week we knocked the dust off the outside of the system. This week we will focus on the inside. We are going to look at performance enhancing actions that we can take to benefit our computer. There are some basic things that we can do on the system level to help our computers be all that they can be. Over the course of a year, some people may produce a lot of files or folders. This is a prime place to start. You may also look at your desktop and see the shortcuts to programs that you seldom or never use anymore. You can click and drag these icons on top of the Recycle Bin icon and release them. This has the affect of throwing that icon away. To delete or uninstall the program that the icon represents, you need to click on the start button found in the lower left side of the desktop screen. Once you have the start menu, then you can go to the ‘programs’ heading. Next, you scroll through the programs until you see the one that you want to uninstall. After you find it, there should be an uninstall option listed with it. Select it and it should walk you through the uninstall procedure. Another uninstall option is to select the ‘settings’ heading instead of the “programs’ heading in the start menu. You would then want to choose the “control panel” listing. Once in control panel, you want to open the “add/remove programs” icon by clicking on it twice. From there, you need only to select the program that you want to uninstall.
Updating the patches for the various software on your system is the next thing that can be done. This is usually done by visiting the website of the software manufacturer and downloading the most recent patches that are available. After the software has been updated, you can go back to the control panel and open the “internet options” icon. In internet options, we want to delete all of the temporary internet files. From there, we go to “My documents”, which can be found on either the desktop or from the start menu. In My Documents, you can delete old files that you no longer need or transfer those files to a floppy disk or CD. This serves to free up space on your computer.
At this point, you may think it would probably be easier to clean out the garage, but we are almost finished. Next, you go to the “system maintenance wizard”, which can be found under the “accessories” listing in the "programs" header in the start menu. The maintenance wizard can set up a schedule to run scandisk, defragments, and alert of possible problems. The last thing we need to do is to empty the Recycle Bin. You may also want to perform a backup of your system. As always, feel free to email me your questions.