Technical Tuesday: Make your computer as fast as a Gazelle.

If your a lot like me you have a ton of photos and documents on your computer. Whether it be a Laptop or a Desktop, they all need to be cleaned out every once in a while. And while its easy to just click the recycle bin and be done that’s not going to actually clean your computer up or make it run any faster.

First things First… I am NOT a Computer Technician! I worked for a company that repaired computers, but only as an administrative assistant. I do not have an A+ Certification or any of those Certifications.

I have done work to my own Laptop because I have a good friend who walked me through the steps and answered countless questions. He has saved my ass with computers so many times. (PS… Thank you, If your reading this)

The second thing I want to make sure you know is that you should feel comfortable with your computer before you Ever dive into the Control Panel. I know someone who did this and was not familiar with the control panel…He deleted a program that he shouldn’t have and his computer was never the same.

Computers are not exactly fragile but if you don’t know what your doing or don’t think that you should be messing around with programs and features on your computer. Then take it to a local computer repair place and ask them to make it faster… You may just have some junk files that you can get rid of… or you may need to upgrade some hardware. Let them tell you what they think.

Now to get into the nitty gritty of this.

These instructions are for a Windows 10 PC.

Go to your start menu and click the symbol that looks like a gear. This will take you to your Windows Settings. When you get here you will notice that at the top of the window there is a search bar.

In that search bar type “defragmenter”. Click on the one that says “Defragment and Optimize your Drives”. It will open a window and tell you the name of the disk and the type of Hard Drive that you have. Also it will let you know If you have multiple drives.

Then it will tell you when it was last run and if this program needs to be run at all. If the program needs to be run, go ahead and click Optimize. Let the program run. Do not shut your laptop or turn it off or click the “x” at the top. All of these things will essentially turn off the program. When the Defragmenter is done running it will let you know and then your done with that.

The Next Major thing:

This one sounds really complicated but its really simple the computer does most of the work. Your going to Clean the Windows Update Files. Now this should only be done 2 to 3 weeks after a new update.

The reason why is because it going take away the files that you don’t need anymore from the Update and the previous updates. So for this you are first going to click into the box that says “Type Here to Search” Then you are going to type “Disk Cleanup” into that bar. Click on the Disk Cleanup and you should see this.

After you do that look at the Temporary Internet files and make sure that is checked along with the Downloaded Program Files, Recycle Bin and Temporary Files. When you have done this ( I don’t personally mess around with deleting the others cause I don’t want to screw something up, Plus many times they are all at zero anyway.) Click “Clean Up System Files” to let this program run. This may take a few minutes.. I have had it take up to 5 minutes, myself. Don’t be alarmed. Its just cleaning things up and that sometimes takes time.

What to do if its still slow or still not working right!?

Now, if you don’t feel like the PC is moving any faster or you still are dealing with things not working like they should, I HIGHLY Recommend that you contact a Computer Technician! There are many Certified Computer Technicians who are willing to help and also who don’t charge an arm and a leg.

Another thing I just want to mention is that there are programs that you can download such as CCleaner. It was recommended to me by a friend at the time of writing this post. You also can use Norton 360 or even McAffee. I personally do not use either one of those programs because in past experience I have not had good luck. But you may have different results and both are good companies. I encourage you to download the CCleaner  as you don’t need to pay for it. But if you feel a paid program would be better that is your choice.

As always Happy Computing.