Skip to main content

When Less Is More




Clean Your Disk Drive of Unnecessary Files and Your Computer’s Performance Will Improve

When it comes to maintaining your computer, you’ve probably heard it all before. “Run Defrag!” “Scan Your Disk for Errors!” Although these two activities are important, there’s more you can do to extend the life of your computer beyond today’s predicted two-year span. In fact, by following the simple advice below, you can enjoy the use of your computer to up to five years or more – reserving expenses to simple software upgrades rather then complete and costly hardware upgrades.

One of the easiest and least expensive things you can do to extend the life of your computer is to get rid of unnecessary programs, folders, and files. A disk drive that’s clogged with unnecessary and unused files is disk drive that works harder than it has to. Although Window’s defrag system can ease some of the stress that these files place onto the drive, it doesn’t do much to get rid of the problem in the first place. This is because the defrag program simply organizes the files in a system that makes it easier for the computer to access. (Thus cutting down on the work required to find and load them). But this method merely “relieves” the symptoms that these files induce – it doesn’t attack the cause. These files need to be deleted – not “organized!”

Of course, deleting files can be a scary adventure to most users. Most computer users don’t know which files are safe to delete and which aren’t.

The worst thing anyone could do is snoop around crucial Window directories and haphazardly delete files that don’t look familiar. Doing so could render important programs inoperable, corrupt the Windows operating system, and possibly prevent the computer from even starting. That’s why using special deletion software is so important. Deletion programs will analyze a computer’s operating system and installed programs to determine which files are crucial to computer function versus which files are safe to delete.

You already have such a program on your computer and it’s Windows’ Add/Remove Programs (available from the Control Panel). This software will assist you with deleting programs that you not only no longer want, but additional files that these program use as well (dynamic link libraries, database files, registry references, shortcut icons, etc.).

But sometimes Windows’ Add/Remove Programs isn’t enough. Although this software does a pretty good job of removing unwanted programs, it can leave some files behind even after a complete uninstall – files which become orphan files. And it’s these orphan files that can really clutter up a hard drive and shorten the life of an otherwise, young and robust PC.

Orphans are usually files that contain temporary data created by a program, files created by the user, partial files left over from a computer crash, or any other kind of miscellaneous files created for almost any other reason. The problem is that an uninstall program doesn’t delete the orphan files it leaves behind because they were never part of the program when it was first installed. An uninstall program can remove only the files it placed onto a hard drive during its install routine.

So while Windows’ Add/Remove Programs can remove an entire program, you’ll need to get rid of those pesky little things with a more advance file cleaner like CCleaner for example. CCleaner is a unique program that will specifically seek out files that are no longer associated with a program, and then ask if you want to delete them.

The only time that you wouldn’t want to delete an orphan file is if the file were an actual document that you created before deleting a program. If you were to say, uninstall Microsoft Word, all the documents that you created with Word would then turn into orphan files. Or if you were to uninstall a graphics-editing program, all the pictures you made with the program would become orphan files.

The smart thing to do when you don’t want to lose the data that you created with an unwanted program is to:

1.    Save or convert your documents to a format that will work with different program first (that is, a program that you intend to keep)
2.    Archive them onto a floppy disk, flash drive, or CD-ROM
3.    Proceed with a program like CCleaner. Get it here 

Using CCleaner or any other similar type of utility could delete anywhere from less than a megabyte of hard drive space to over thirty megabytes and up. That may seem like a small amount of “clog material” to you, but to your computer, it’s a lot less to process!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disruptions in mobile phones manufacturing

“We need to be able to make a chipset to stand out as someone who was really innovative,” ,  John Chan (don't know if he is a brother to Jackie Chan). Business as well as life itself is a risk and only those who plunged into the risky terrains mostly at times come out as a leader in innovation with an edge over others. Mobile phones market has mostly been dominated by big brands like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft (Nokia), Huawei and the likes. At times, the geographical location determines which brand leads where but we all know for now who leads who. The issue has been disruption in giving the end user what they actually think they want. Putting the power in their palms and helping them toy with it in terms of mobile phones, accessories and mobile apps for different applications to make life easier. All these leads to Internet of Things and innovative smart homes. I think one day, we will be able to change the colour of our bed sheet with a click of the phone and adjust the th...
Post a Comment
Continue reading »
A Few Common Computer Errors (And What They Mean) Computer errors can pop up when least expected, they can cause the entire system to suddenly shut down, and they can inadvertently corrupt data to the point where it can’t be deciphered. Although they can’t always be avoided, it’s important to remember that computer errors can be corrected. The key is to understand what computer errors are, understand what they mean when they show up, and understand how to minimize their occurrence in the first place. Basically, computer errors are the result of a number of things that may or may not have anything to do with the way the computer is used. They “operate” whenever there’s a conflict among commands. Remember that computers essentially run off of a series of commands and it’s usually a smooth process. But when one command conflicts with another command – or when one command asks for a process or information that isn’t available, the computer returns results that ...
Post a Comment
Continue reading »

Laptop Batteries

If your laptop battery can not backup as it used to and you can only get thirty minutes or at most forty five of work done before you need to start  searching for an AC outlet? Sounds like it's time for a replacement battery. It is true that laptop batteries are  expensive but without a good backup your pc hard drive is at a risk and you could eventually lost your data in the occurrence of a possible crash. Price vary from one model to another but new ones sell for a few thousands of naira if you know what I mean.  There are some as high as ten to fifteen thousand naira. When you consider that brand-new laptops now sell from as low as forty five  thousand naira, it can be a hard pill to swallow. If your laptop is your primary PC, and you are sure of constant power from your AC outlet (can't vouch for that anyway) you may be wasting battery cycles by leaving it plugged in all the time. Try removing the battery until you actually need to go somewhere with your l...
Post a Comment
Continue reading »