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> CF Tutorial - General Computer Clean Up

General Computer Clean Up
By: Chris


To maintain and improve your computers performance, it is necessary to perform a frequent system clean up. Over time, and as you surf the internet, your computer will build up with unnecessary data. This may vary from whole installation files, to just small images and text files. A months worth of these junk files can reach up to 1000 files. This wastes valuable hard drive space that you could use to store extra graphics or music, or anything you wish. The steps on the following pages will provide you with clear, concise instructions on how to keep your computer running smoothly.



Temporary Files
Each time you install or run a program, your computer creates temporary files. The majority of the time, these files aren't needed again, and can be deleted to save space on your hard disk (if they are needed again, they'll automatically be recreated). You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to clear temporary files, and then manually remove the ones still there. The screenshots and instructions below will guide you through:

  1. Navigate to "My Computer", and right click on your hard drive (your hard drive is usually the C: drive, but can be different).
  2. Select "Properties" in the drop-down menu.
  3. You should see a window like the one shown in the screen shot below, click "Disk Cleanup". You will see the program calculating how much disk space you should be able to free.



  4. When that's done, under "Files to delete", select the files that you would like to be cleaned up. It's best to leave the 'Office Setup Files' if you don't have easy access to the Office disk, however it won't seriously harm your computer if you select all of the options. Then click Okay. (Screenshot below).



  5. Your disk will now be cleaned of unnecessary data, and you'll see a progress bar running.



Temporary Internet Files
When you browse web pages on the Internet, the images and files used to make up the page are downloaded, temporarily, to your computer so that you can view the web page slightly quicker next time. However, over time, these files (known as Temporary Internet Files, or TIF's) can build up and use a vast amount of space on your hard drive. This could theoretically take longer for a web page to load, as your computer will search through a whole lot of images/files to find the ones used to make up that web page, rather than just downloading them again.

  1. First you need to open an Internet Explorer window, or right-click on the Internet Explorer icon (usually on your desktop or start menu).
  2. Locate the "Tools" menu at the top of the window, and select "Options".
  3. The options window below will be displayed, click the "Delete Files" button.



  4. Another smaller window will open, check the "Delete offline content" box, and then click Okay. Windows will clean up the temporary internet files. You may see the small 'egg timer' whilst the process is running.



Browser History and Cookies
Each time you visit a website, it's URL is stored on the address bar. Anyone else using your computer can tell which sites you've visited. You may want to delete this history for privacy reasons, or to save space. Cookies are another part of the temporary internet file thing, but are slightly different. They store information (temporalily) such as usernames, passwords, an online shopping cart, etc. You'll probably have a lot of these small text files if you don't do a regular clean up.

  1. Open an Internet Explorer window, or right-click on the Internet Explorer icon (usually on your desktop or start menu).
  2. Locate the "Tools" menu at the top of the window, and select "Options".
  3. Click the "Delete Cookies" (labelled 1) and "Clear History" (labelled 2) buttons as shown in the screenshot below.
  4. You'll be asked if you are sure that you want to delete the files.



Downloaded Program Files
DPF's are small plug-ins that are downloaded from the web when you visit Internet chat rooms, or play online games, or run online virus scans, etc. Although these plugins are relatively small in file size, over time, they will build up, so it's necessary to frequently clear the ones you don't use.

  1. Open an Internet Explorer window, or right-click on the Internet Explorer icon (usually on your desktop or start menu).
  2. Locate the "Tools" menu at the top of the window, and select "Options".
  3. Click the "Settings" button, shown in the screenshot below.



  4. Now click the "View Objects" button. A list of your Downloaded Program Files will be displayed. Right click on the ones you don't need/use and select "Remove".



Recycle Bin
You'll probably already know that when right-clicking on a file, and selecting delete, the file is sent to the recycle bin. Your recycle bin should be emptied regularly, but before you do empty it, have a check through to see if you've changed your mind about deleting anything (right click on the file and select "restore" if so).

  1. Open the Recycle Bin, it's located on your desktop.



  2. Check through the files, and if there's something you don't want to delete, right click on it and select Restore.
  3. If you're sure about emptying, click "Empty Recycle Bin".



Restore Files
System Restore is a Windows tool used to cure disasters that may occur on your computer. However, it should be used as a last resort only, as there are many other "safer" methods. Your system may occassionally create a 'restore point' which you can use to revert your computer back. These restore points contain information about any changes that have been made to your computer, and use up a lot of drive space. You should frequently clear these restore points.

  1. Navigate to "My Computer", and right click on your hard drive (your hard drive is usually the C: drive, but can be different).
  2. Select "Properties" in the drop-down menu.
  3. You should see a window like the one shown in the screen shot below, click "Disk Cleanup". You will see the program calculating how much disk space you should be able to free.



  4. Select the "Tools" tab, and under the options for System Restore, click "Clean up".



Searching for temporary files
There may be temporary files located all over your computer which the Disk Cleanup tool missed, and are of no use. It would take a long time to manually search for these files. So we can do it like this:

  1. On the Windows start menu, click the Search button.
  2. Adjust the search options as shown below in the screenshot.



  3. In the search box, type this (it would be wise to copy and paste): *.tmp,*.chk,~*.*
  4. Then click Search. Any files which appear are safe to delete, just highlight them all and select delete.


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