Low Carb Lifestyle

Q: My wife and I are both retired and know a little about our pretty new computer, which is from Dell. However, I have noticed that when I run a Scan for viruses I keep getting more items on my hard drive and computer than when we first bought our computer. I am now scanning 57,942 items, which is too many I think. The question is how do I delete things that I do not need or do not use to free up space? Where do I start because I have no idea what all the different items are? Is there a book or something to tell me what all the symbols are and what they mean? I am sure that I can get rid of a lot to free up my computer. Any help would be very thankful. Love your column, even if I am only a novice on the computer.
Don & Ruth P.
A: One of the easiest things to do is fill up space on your computer. It’s the little things. From that new program that is going to revolutionize and simplify our lives to the web sites that we add to our bookmark or favorites. They all add a little bulge to our computers mid section. Well, we all know that weight gain is a natural part of life, even for a computer. Let’s see if we can create a low carb plan for your computer.
The place to start would be in your Control Panel. You can reach it by clicking the “start” button in the lower left of your screen. Next, assuming that you are using Windows XP, you should see “Control Panel” on the right hand side of the items listed. After you click on “Control Panel” you should see an item called “Add or Remove Programs”. It is there that you can uninstall programs that you do not use. If you happen to use Microsoft Outlook as your email account, then you can free up some space by deleting old email messages.
Next, you can open your web browser and empty your Internet Cache. The process for empting it may be different for each web browser, but they all are relatively easy to perform. When you open your web browser simply click on the “Help” option, which is normally located at the top, left of the screen. It is generally the last menu name to the right of the header name “File”.
Also, from the start menu go to “All Programs” and then to “Accessories”. In “Accessories” go to “Systems Tools”. You should see an item called “Disk Cleanup”. Using that program will delete any temporary files on your computer. The last two things that you should do are to empty your recycle bin and perform a disk defrag. The disk defrag can also be found in the “Systems Tools” menu. It will reorganize the information on your hard drive after you have removed all of the files that you wish.