The computer is slowing down, how to clean unnecessary files. How to clean a computer, standard computer cleaning. What can you delete if the disk is full?

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Using a computer for a long time affects its performance. No matter how good your equipment is, junk files, unnecessary programs and dust will affect the operation of your PC, so everyone will have to clean it. If your computer is slow, how to clean it in several ways is described below.

Why does my computer slow down?

When you buy a new laptop or PC, it’s always a pleasure to work on it: everything opens quickly, it responds instantly to your actions, applications load in a matter of seconds. Over time, many reasons will appear that will lead to a deterioration in the performance of your computer - it will begin to slow down, heat up, and periodically reboot. One or more reasons can lead to this condition:

• body contamination: dust, wool, etc.;
• unnecessary programs load RAM;
• the processor overheats;
• Windows is slowed down by viruses;
• junk on your hard drive, junk files.

What to do if your computer is slow

When you notice that your PC has become noticeably slower, you can solve this problem in two ways - clean it yourself or call a technician. If you know for sure that you can’t handle it, it’s better to call a specialist, otherwise you can independently use options on how to clean your computer so that it doesn’t slow down. The user’s primary task is to determine why the computer is glitchy and slow. This will give you the direction to work in:

• clean from viruses and junk files;
• improve cooling;
• clean the body and parts;
• defragment disks.

How to clean your computer of junk yourself

In order to rid your computer of brakes, you need to clean it of debris. To do this, you will need a good vacuum cleaner with a blowing mode, a dust cloth and a set of special utilities for cleaning Windows. The latter are the only effective way to clean your computer of unnecessary programs, but you should still start with regular physical cleaning of the case manually.

Cleaning your computer from dust

Those who are wondering how to clean a computer so as not to slow down should start by opening the case. If you are using a desktop computer, you need to remove one side panel from the system unit. In the case of a laptop, you need to unscrew the back panel completely to gain access to the hardware parts. There is always a huge amount of dust flying around the room, and the fans of the cooling system suck it in, it accumulates on the radiators, cooler blades and the board. Take a damp cloth and switch the vacuum cleaner to blowing air. You need:

1. Shut down the PC, turn it off completely (from the network).
2. Wipe the plastic and iron elements of the case with a rag; do not touch the parts (they need a dry cloth).
3. Thoroughly blow out all the elements with a vacuum cleaner, thoroughly treat the cooling system of the processor, video card, and power supply. The ideal option would be to remove the parts and clean them thoroughly one at a time. This should only be done when you are sure that you can put everything back together, otherwise limit yourself to simple purging.

A clogged cooling system does not perform its functions 100%, which is why computer components overheat and begin to slow down in applications, games, or simply when working on a PC. This is especially true if you have a powerful model - all the TOP parts get very hot. In some cases, the problem of overheating lies in dried thermal paste on the processor chip. In such cases, you need to remove it, wipe off the old paste and apply a new layer.

Virus removal

The most common reason why a computer starts to slow down is viruses. It’s easy to pick them up on the Internet along with program installers - sometimes they are disguised as torrent files, and it’s not possible to immediately identify them: annoying advertisements, banners, and unnecessary programs begin to appear in the system’s startup. Instructions on how to properly clean your computer so that it doesn’t slow down:

1. Buy a licensed antivirus or download the free DR utility. Web Cure. To find it, go to the “Download” section on the developer’s official website.
2. Next, we will look at the cleaning process using the Cureit utility. When installing, agree to all points of the rules of use.
3. Open the program and click on the “Run scan” button - scanning your PC will begin.
4. This procedure can take a lot of time (depending on the size of the hard drive). Upon completion, detailed information on the malicious files found will appear.
5. Click on the big orange “Disarm” button.
6. After the viruses are removed, the PC will restart.

Removing unnecessary programs

The next step to make your PC fast again is to clean your laptop of unnecessary programs and files. Some applications run in the background, ending up in startup. This loads the RAM, which is especially noticeable if you don’t have much of it (4GB). At the same time, half of these programs are not used; they simply hang in the task manager, eating up some of the resources. You can remove them as follows:

1. Click on "Start".
2. Go to the "Control Panel" section and find the "Add or Remove Programs" section.
3. You will see a list of applications installed on your PC. Find and remove those that you do not use or did not install yourself.

Check out other ways to...

Run the built-in Disk Cleanup function

While working, people often install programs, download files from the Internet, and sometimes incorrectly uninstall games and applications. After such actions, it is necessary to clean the system of residual, junk files. This can be done in different ways, but the developers have created a tool built into Windows called Disk Cleanup. It analyzes files in the recycle bin, temporary directory, removing empty folders and program tails. To activate:

1. Go to "My Computer".
2. Right-click on the desired hard drive partition.
3. In the menu, find the “Properties” item, click on it.
4. In the window that opens there is a “Disk Cleanup” button, confirm the action.

Defragmenting your hard drive

This is another built-in Windows function; it is an option on how to clean your computer so that it doesn’t slow down. The PC hard drive has a unique system for recording data in the form of sectors. Users often erase and install games and programs, so the sectors are filled unevenly, which leads to the system slowing down. To defragment a disk, you must:

1. Go to “My Computer” and right-click on the required hard drive partition.
2. Right-click and click on “Properties” in the menu.
3. Go to the "Service" section.
4. Click on the “Defragmentation” or “Optimize” button (on version 10 of Windows).

Cleaning your computer from unnecessary files and empty folders

If you yourself cannot determine which files and folders are needed and which are not, then special software will help correct this situation. These programs analyze your system, registry, hard drives and offer to delete a certain number of objects that, in their opinion, are not valuable. Below we will describe which program to clean your computer so that it doesn’t slow down.

The best programs for cleaning your computer

To clean a PC, they use different programs: for example, RegCleaner, Norton WinDoctor, but CCleaner is considered the best, which has wide functionality and a simple control interface. To download, you can go to the official website and click the “Download” button (registration is not required for this). Install the program and run it, then you need to:

1. You will see the “Clear” tab, where you can delete the cache (temporary files) from the browser. In the menu on the left you can make settings for searching for objects that need to be cleaned, but it’s better to leave everything as it is. Click on the “Analysis” button, all kinds of “broken” documents, copies, etc. will be found. Once the process is complete, click "Clear".
2. Next, you should clean the system registry to get rid of errors that cause slowdowns. Go to the “Registry” section in the left menu and click the “Search for problems” button. The utility will find the necessary documents, provide a full report, and offer to make a backup copy (agree and save). Then click the “Fix” button.
3. Then go to the “Service” tab, in which you need to select the “Startup” section. Select all programs unfamiliar to you and click “Turn off” next to them.

The utility performs all actions automatically; you do not need to configure or enter anything additional. A backup copy of the registry is needed in case some functions stop working after being corrected by the program. After such cleaning of the PC, you should restart it and check whether unnecessary applications that were turned off from startup have started.

Video: how to clean your computer from viruses and unnecessary programs

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Discuss

How to clean your computer yourself so that it doesn’t slow down, using programs and built-in system functions

In this article I will teach you how to clean your computer from debris. I'm a blogger and I download a lot of stuff on my computer, install programs, test patches and the like. A lot of debris accumulates in the system, interfering with normal operation. I’ll look at several techniques on how to clean and speed up your computer with your own hands.

How to clean your computer of junk: hard drive

I’ll tell you how to clean your computer of junk, follow all the steps in the article. Do not use a standard uninstaller, the Revo Uninstaller program will help. As for the garbage on the hard drive itself, we carry it out in two stages.

First stage: standard

Few people know that Windows has a standard utility for cleaning hard drives. To do this, open “my computer”, and on each of the local drives, right-click and select “properties”.

Find and click “clean”.

And we agree with our decision.

The process will take place, after which quite a lot of space will be added to your disk. I’m writing this article from my work computer, it’s 2 weeks old, and during these two weeks almost 6 GB of junk has accumulated.

Second method: program

A standard cleaner is only good for the system itself, so you need to clean the rest of the hard drive as well. For these purposes, I recommend the CCleaner program, here it is official site. There is nothing complicated about downloading for free. We open and see the program window in Russian.

1. Select the “cleaning” item.
2. First we do the analysis.
3. The entire list of unnecessary files will appear, click delete.

This completes cleaning the hard drive. I offer a list of alternatives for free.

• Advanced Disk Cleaner
• Blank And Secure
• Freespacer
• HDD Cleaner
• Moo0 Disk Cleaner

Cleaning your computer from garbage: registry

To clean your computer from debris in the registry, I use the Wise Registry Cleaner program, you can download here, the program is completely free. Download and install. When you first start it, they will ask you about a backup copy of the registry, so we do it. We choose deep cleaning to get rid of all the jambs, which is good, everything is completely in Russian.

Let's go to the optimization section.

1. The section itself.
2. Check the boxes, I checked everything.
3. Click optimize.
4. After the program runs, the words “optimized” will appear.

The last section compresses the registry, a cool thing. First we need to conduct an analysis. The computer will not respond for some time, do not be alarmed.

Now click on compression. The registry will begin compression, I advise you not to do anything at this time.

After compression there will be a reboot, this is mandatory. The second step was taken, the registry was optimized, the free utility Wise Registry Cleaner helped. As an alternative, I offer other programs that can be downloaded for free and without registration.

Registry application for windows 7,8 and 10

• Auslogics Registry Cleaner.
• Vit Registry Fix Free.
• Reg Organizer - this free program works great on Windows 10, I tested it.
• Avira RegistryCleaner.

Cleaning the system volume information folder

A month ago, my computer started to boot very slowly, taking about 35 minutes. I thought it was the end of the hard drive, but nothing happened. The thing was that the system volume information folder stores backup copies of recovery points, and I had 253 GB of these points, and I started cleaning it. First you need to enable the visibility of hidden folders. We go into the control panel and find folder options.

1. Path to the panel.
2. We display large icons.
3. Click folder options.
4. View tab.
5. Uncheck the box.
6. Changing the check box.
7. Click ok.

Now this folder has appeared on the C drive, but it cannot be opened even if administrator rights are configured. To clean, you need to go to drive C, and find system volume information, right-click and select properties.

To add an administrator to access, click Add.

Enter your account and click ok.

All records have been created, click OK.

During creation there will be all sorts of warnings, ignore them.

To clear recovery points, go to the control panel and look at the screenshot.

1. Path to the program.
2. In the left section, select “system protection”.
3. Select drive C.
4. Click configure.

That was the problem, I had this slider set to 50%, so all the memory was full. I set it to 5 percent, let there be points. To clear the memory, click delete.

That's it, the hard drive is clean of debris. Let's move on to the last step.

Hard drive defragmentation: free windows 7, 8, 10

Let's start with the standard method, it works the same on all systems, including Windows 8. We go into my computer and select the disk to defragment.

Defragmentation is the transfer and clustering of system files by type.

1. Right-click.
2. Finding properties.
3. Service tab and defragment.

In the next window, select the local disk. First, click on analysis, and once it’s done, click on defragmentation. There are analogs to the standard program, but I won’t go into them, because they all work on the same principle.

List of programs for windows 10 and all others.

• Auslogics Disk Defrag.
• SuperRam
• Advanced Defrag
• Ashampoo Magical Defrag
• ScanDefrag
• Memory Improve Ultimate

Do not use online tools to check for garbage, they will not help, it is better to do it manually.

The article shows how to clean your computer from junk, namely: hard drive, registry, restore points and defragmentation. Keep only what you need on your computer. In conclusion, video.

Absolutely every computer, during operation, after some time begins to work worse than before: it freezes, slows down, produces errors, etc. This is explained simply: installed programs or deleted ones always leave so-called debris. These unnecessary files do not carry anything useful, but they take up a certain place, and a huge amount of such “debris” accumulates over the years.

There is also dust that accumulates in the system unit over time. It covers the motherboard, video card, and hard drive. All these parts are very sensitive, they begin to overheat and malfunction.

The user no longer likes the operation of the computer and has to turn to specialists. Private masters or specialized services They don’t work for free, although in most cases you just need to clean your computer. Everything is fair - you have to pay for knowledge, but you can learn to do it yourself.

You just need to not be afraid, be patient and have two to three hours. We divide the entire cleaning process into three phases:

• The first is cleaning the system unit from dust.
• Second, you should check for viruses and fix errors.
• Third, you need to free your hard drive from debris and defragment it.

Cleaning the system unit from dust

We will carry out the operation using a screwdriver, a vacuum cleaner and a paint brush (necessarily natural bristles), you will also need an eraser.

Preparation

It is necessary to turn off the power and disconnect all wires. Place the block on its side using a screwdriver unscrew the screws from the side panel. It’s more convenient to do all this on the table. By removing the panel, we can verify the amount of dust inside the computer.

Starts preparing. It is necessary to disassemble the system unit.

• You should start with the video card, it will not interfere in the future. It is attached to the back of the case with a screw, it must be unscrewed. First of all, remember or mark the wires that go to the video card, if any. You need to pull out the card and bend the plastic latch at the same time.
• It is correct to remove all RAM modules. They are always located next to the processor cooler. To do this, you need to press the latches on both sides, the module itself comes out of the slot.

System unit

Having carried out preliminary preparations, we begin to clean the system unit from dust.

We clean everything near the motherboard: bottom, body, partitions. We simply “paint” with a brush, and the vacuum cleaner sucks up the raised dust and debris.

The front cover of the case will also have to be removed and cleaned of dust, this is not difficult. It is secured with plastic latches that you just need to press out from the inside.

There are several components inside the system unit; we still clean the surfaces using a brush and a vacuum cleaner.

Use the brush effortlessly, without pressing. With this approach, even the smallest parts will remain in place and nothing will break.

CPU

We pay special attention CPU cooler. Carefully unscrew the fan screws and remove it; you may have to pry it between the radiator and cooler with a screwdriver.

Look how much dust is on the radiator, you can say it's cotton wool. You can well imagine what CPU cooling- nothing! This first reason, due to which your computer may freeze and produce all sorts of errors.

We clean the fan, radiator and processor, as well as the space around it. Some experts advise even disconnecting the radiator from the processor, but you shouldn’t do this. It's enough if you do everything described above.

power unit

Now it's the turn of the power supply. Without a power supply, a computer is a piece of iron; when it fails, almost all of the inside burns out.

It is held in place by four screws on the back of the block. When removing the power supply, you should prepare for disconnecting all connectors. It’s very good to remember everything or to photograph. Of course, you don’t have to remove it, but it will be extremely inconvenient to clean.

We disassemble the power supply unit by unscrewing the four screws on the cover. We collect all the dust with a vacuum cleaner and work with a brush. We also clean the place where the block stands so that our conscience remains calm.

We unscrew the screws holding the entire board and carefully lift it. To remove the board, you need to unsolder the contacts, you don’t need to do anything like that. We simply lift it up and sweep away the dust with a brush, collecting it with a vacuum cleaner.

We will carry out an operation to clean the fan and the power supply housing. Carefully inspect the board; dust often collects near the insulating gasket; clean all visible dust.

We assemble the power supply in reverse order and put it in its place in the system unit.

Video card and RAM

Now you will need an eraser to clean the connectors on the motherboard where the video card and RAM are inserted. Carefully, several times use an eraser by connectors - the result of cleaning accumulated dirt is visible to the naked eye.

Your card may have a special protective casing installed, this is a cooling system. Below it is the GPU and cooler. Here, too, everything needs to be cleaned. We install the cleaned video card in place.

To install the memory module correctly, you need to compare the slot on the slot and on the module. The slot is the key. There is no way to install it incorrectly, but you can break the slot.

You will need to move the side latches on the slot to the sides in accordance with the key, insert the memory module and press on it. The memory is installed correctly when the side latches are in place.

The card is screwed in, the memory is installed, all that remains is to close the cover of the system unit and connect all the cords and wires.

Checking for viruses and fixing system errors

Cleaning and optimizing Windows This is creative work and requires perseverance.

Virus cleaning

The list of anti-virus programs is large, use any of them, the standard one installed on your computer is quite suitable.

The steps to launch an antivirus program are extremely simple. Should run an antivirus program with a full system scan and wait while the system is checked and cleaned of viruses.

If any threats or malware are detected, you will receive a proposal on options to solve this problem. By default, the program contains the right decisions; you just need to agree. If you are offered the option of “treat” or “remove”, in most cases it is better to delete. You should only try programs that are well known to you.

It’s very good that when there are no viruses or malware, a corresponding message will appear. In case the computer is well protected, you can rejoice, but even if viruses are found, there is no reason to panic. The antivirus knows what to do in such a situation.

After checking the system for viruses, it is recommended to reboot the computer, which is what we do.

Finding and fixing system errors

First, we determine whether the hard drive is divided into local partitions or not. If yes, which disk is the last one? You need to start checking there.

Let's say the hard drive of your computer has three local drives C, D and E. You need to start the scan from the last drive E, and we will end with the system drive; this is always drive C by default.

To start checking, click on the “Start” button, in the right column we see the “Computer” menu, click on it. Moving the cursor to the last disk E, call the context menu using the right mouse button. We find the last line of “Properties” and call it.

The information window for the corresponding drive will open. You need to find the “Service” tab and open it.

The window that opens offers:

• Checking the disk for errors.
• Defragmentation of files stored on this disk.
• Archiving files stored on this disk.

Now we are interested in checking the disk for errors; we launch the check by clicking the appropriate button.

A window will appear in which you need to check the boxes, check both of them and click on the “Run” button.

All stages of verification will take quite a long time. Enough time to eat and drink tea. The check ends by clicking “OK”. We do the same with all remaining disks.

Questions will arise when you run a scan of system drive C. A message will appear: “Windows cannot scan the drive that is currently in use. Want to check disk to see if there are any problems the next time you restart your computer? - click “Schedule disk check”. We reboot the system ourselves using the “Start” button.

The system scan will occur before Windows boots, and a scan notification will appear, displayed on a blue screen.

Checking the system disk is similar to the others, with the exception of the ending. When the scan is completed, the computer will reboot itself and open the “desktop”.

The second phase of cleaning your computer has ended. There is very little left.

Removing junk files and defragmenting disks

Once you have completed a complete cleaning of your computer, the system will work much faster, depending on how long it has been running without maintenance, this could be 30-50%.

This is the final phase of cleaning your PC, and before that you have already on one's own:

• Using a brush and a vacuum cleaner, we removed all the dust from the system unit.
• Updated contacts in connectors.
• We made sure there were no viruses.
• Fixed errors in disk partitions.

So there’s nothing to be afraid of, let’s get started.

Removing junk files

We carry out cleaning in the standard way: open the “My Computer” folder, select the disk to clean and open the menu with the right button, click “Properties”. Click on the “Disk Cleanup” button.

You are probably already accustomed to the fact that system drive C, if there is more than one on the hard drive, is the last thing to be cleaned.

The computer will estimate the possible amount of freed up disk space and offer to delete some unnecessary files. The cleaning program offers for deletion, in most cases, files created by the computer itself; they can be deleted without finding out their origin.

It will be indicated how many megabytes can be freed, with the possibility of correction. We tick the boxes, marking garbage files, deal with the rest personally, maybe there is something necessary.

Before the final deletion, the computer will ask again about the intention; if you haven’t changed your mind, click “Delete files.”

File deletion has begun. Removal goes quite quickly, we proceed to cleaning the next disks. After cleaning all partitions of the hard drive, reboot the computer. Experts recommend carrying out such garbage cleaning twice a month.

Attention! Any disk partition should always have 15% free space. It's necessary for normal operation programs, if such space does not exist, it must be freed. You can do this by moving some programs or files from this drive to another.

Defragmenting files

Absolutely all files are fragmented, this is how Windows records any information. Recording occurs in small particles, so-called clusters. These clusters can be placed in one place, or scattered throughout the hard drive space. Defragmentation forcibly collects all clusters of one file side by side, this allows you to speed up reading the file if necessary.

We can use specialized programs for defragmentation or run a standard one from Windows, which is what we will do. It is worth noting that this process is not fast, and the defragmentation procedure can last quite a long time.

During defragmentation, you cannot use the disk whose space we are processing. We close everything that might interfere with us and start.

Already familiar procedure, “My Computer”, select the required disk. System disk required defragment as usual– the last one. Right mouse button - “Properties”, click on the “Service” tab and click “Run defragmentation”.

A window will appear in which you should use the “Analyze disk” button. The analysis will show the number of scattered files on the selected disk as a percentage.

Once the analysis is complete, click “Disk Defragmentation”. You will have to be patient, the process will take some time. After defragmentation is complete, a system alert will appear that there are no fragmented files in this partition.

So, disk by disk, analysis and defragmentation, analysis and defragmentation. After fixing the system disk, and we remember that we fix it last, we reboot the computer.

It is better to carry out this procedure once a month for prevention. Each time, the speed of a personal computer improves noticeably.

This completes cleaning the PC from dust and the system from debris. This cleaning can be done without the help of a specialist. At the same time, learn something new and save some money.

Video

From the video you will learn an original way to easily and quickly clean the system unit from dust.

The task of cleaning a computer, and even more so a laptop, from unnecessary programs and files is always relevant for any user. If you can use special utilities - uninstallers - to remove the “tails” of various software, then to get rid of unnecessary system objects you need to specifically understand the reason for the increase in the size of each directory.

All kinds of optimizers can compromise the integrity of Windows. We will list for you actions that will free up space and are guaranteed not to lead to incorrect operation of the operating system.

Cleaning temporary files using system cleaner

Windows developers have provided an excellent tool for deleting unnecessary files - a cleaning manager integrated into the operating system. To launch it, press the combination “Win” + “R”, enter the value cleanmgr and click “OK”. After which the application will analyze the system and display a list of data available for deletion, as well as the planned amount of freed space. By the way, this manager can even handle an update to Windows 10 downloaded in the background. And that’s as much as three Gigabytes.

Emptying the Trash

A trivial tool, but very effective - removing garbage from the Recycle Bin. We have met users with Gigabytes of unnecessary data placed there long ago. Don’t forget to check the contents of the container and empty it using the “Empty Trash” command.

Disabling hibernation

Convenient mode for quickly starting your computer. It is especially active on laptops. When using it, the entire contents of RAM are written to the local disk in the hiberfil.sys file. Most likely, you won’t be able to delete it simply by pressing the “Delete” key. The solution is to disable the mode via the command line.
To do this, press the combination “Win” + “R” that is already familiar to us, copy or enter the text “powercfg -h off” in it and click “OK”. You can turn this mode back on simply by changing the text “off” to “on”.

Cleaning up user files

We recommend checking and deleting unused user accounts. They are located in the “Control Panel”, item “User Accounts”. Here you should also disable the operating system guest account.

After restarting the computer, you can “clean up” the remaining folders. By default, they are located on system media in the root “Users” folder.

Removing temporary objects from browser cache

Supporting program files are located in the “Temp” folders located in the following locations:

• C:\Users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Local\Temp
• C:\Users\All Users\Temp
• C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Temp
• C:\Windows\Temp
• C:\Users\All Users\Temp

• C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\History
• C:\Windows\Temp
• C:\Documents and Settings\(user_account_folder)\Local Settings\History
• C:\Documents and Settings\(user_account_folder)\Local Settings\Temp

Internet browsers like to “store” various information that they need to launch certain functions faster or simplify the authorization algorithm. If these two factors are not critical for you, you can safely delete cache files.

We list the locations for popular browsers:

Opera
C:\users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera\cache\

Mozilla Firefox
C:\Users\( )\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Google Chrome
C:\Users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache and C:\Users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Local\Bromium\User Data\Default\Cache

Internet Explorer
C:\Users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\

Of course, you can do all these manipulations through the menu of the web browser itself, but the forced cleaning tool is the most reliable.

Local copies of recently opened office documents can also be deleted. They are located at
C:\Users\(user_account_folder)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\

It is possible that not all directories will be available for cleaning. The reason for this is that some software is accessing the folder at this moment. If the situation does not change immediately after starting the operating system, try deleting data in safe mode. To do this, when loading the operating system, press the “F8” key and select “Safe Mode” from the list provided.

Clearing game saves

Recently, games are increasingly using not their own directory, but a separate folder in “Documents” to save user data. Finding these objects is very simple - go along the path “Computer” - “Documents” and find the names of the directories in which the name of games that are deleted or unnecessary to you is found. We check that they do not contain useful data and remove garbage. Of course, we don’t touch the catalogs of current games.

Please note that if you have previously installed various multimedia software or graphic editors, you should also check the folders with the names of unused programs - these applications also like to leave behind garbage in documents.

Reducing the paging file size

If free space is critical to you, try to force a limit on the size of the local file that is used in case of low RAM. You can limit its size in the “Control Panel”, “System” section, “Advanced Settings” tab. Then in the “Performance” item you should select the “Advanced” attachment. However, we recommend not making the file size smaller than 500 MB, especially on machines with little RAM. There is a risk of encountering “brakes” during work.

To ensure normal operation of your computer, it is not at all necessary to install third-party programs to clean your hard drive or system registry. All this can be done using standard operating system tools. You just need to know where to go and what to press so as not to do something irreparable and prevent the OS from completely crashing.

In this case, the “garbage” is temporary files that may remain after installing applications, registry entries that persist even after uninstalling programs using standard means, and various logs. All these arrays are capable of filling up the hard drive and RAM. This naturally leads to necessity.

The hard drive starts to fill up first. Remnants of deleted programs and various temporary files appear on it. System restore points take up a lot of free space.

You can delete junk files very easily; you just need to use the built-in utility that is available in the Windows operating system. It can be activated in two ways:

1. Use the “Run” command, which is launched by the Win+R key combination. In the window that opens, you need to type “cleanmgr.exe” and complete the operand by pressing Enter. First of all, the cleaning manager will ask you to select a disk to analyze for the presence of garbage.
2. The second method launches a similar built-in utility, but allows you to bypass the step of selecting the desired volume. You can call the program by right-clicking on the letter of the desired drive. Select Properties from the drop-down menu and proceed to Disk Cleanup.

The following user actions are the same for both methods of calling the utility. After launch, the analysis of the partition begins, the result of which is the appearance of a window with a list of what can be easily deleted. The user can only check the boxes and click “Ok”.

The system will once again remind you that this procedure is irreversible and will ask for consent to perform the action. After some time, the duration of which will depend on the amount of accumulated garbage, you will be able to verify that there is more free space on the disk.

Another reason for disk fullness is the accumulation of a large number of recovery points, which are located in the Prefetch folder. But cleaning the folder manually is not the most optimal way, especially since there are built-in system tools ready to help.

To run the tool to remove unnecessary restore points, you must take the following steps:

1. Right-click on the letter of the desired volume and select the “Properties” menu item.
2. Go to the “Disk Cleanup” tab.
3. Select the “Clean up system files” option. This will require administrator rights.
4. By clicking on the “Advanced” tab, the user will see two items: “Programs and Features” and “System Restore and Shadow Copies”.
5. Having selected the second item, you must press the “Clear” key.
6. The system will issue a warning prompt, notifying the user that he is about to delete all restore points except the last one.
7. After clicking the “Delete” button, cleaning will occur.

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In some cases, performing such manipulations allows you to free up gigabytes of free space, since the older the system, the more space its copy takes up, since the checkpoint is precisely a copy of the OS at a certain point in time.

Disk Defragmenter

After cleaning the hard drive from residual debris, it will not be superfluous. Thanks to it, the media will become more “responsive” and faster interaction with files will occur.

To better understand the meaning and necessity of defragmentation, a few words should be said about this process. A hard drive is made up of many cells called clusters. Information is recorded in them. Moreover, file fragments are not placed in cells in a row, but only in free ones.

It turns out that at a certain moment, when the user often wrote and erased information from the hard drive, the file could be fragmented during the next write. Its parts can be located in different places on the carrier. This leads to the fact that the next time you access information, the system will take more time for the desired program to start.

Defragmentation, the process of organizing clusters, helps to avoid this. All occupied cells are transferred to the beginning of the hard disk, all free cells are moved beyond. Thus, the system performance is improved by speeding up the process of accessing files.

It is quite possible to carry out the procedure using internal OS tools. To do this, the user will need to perform the following steps:

1. Call the context menu by right-clicking on the desired drive letter.
2. Go to properties.
3. Open the “Service” tab.
4. Select "Defragment...".
5. To start the procedure, you will need to analyze the desired volume.
6. Clicking on the "Disk Defragmentation" button will begin the process.

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Solid state drives or SSD drives do not require defragmentation, since they have a slightly different structure and file recording features.

Cleaning the registry

The next step to improve the performance of your computer is to clean the system registry, which accumulates a large number of old or non-existent keys. This also affects the performance of the PC.

The best way to achieve optimization is to use specialized programs, since performing the procedure manually requires certain knowledge.

To access the system registry, you need to open the command line and run the command: “regedit”. Using a key allows you to gain access as an administrator.

Before you start cleaning the registry, it is recommended to make a backup copy of it. To keep it in the same condition as it was before the adjustment. To do this, in the editor you need to select the “File” menu item, then click the “Export” button, noting first that you will need to copy the entire registry. The system will ask the user to indicate the save location and come up with a name for the file.

Direct cleaning consists of removing unnecessary keys manually, selected from the general tree.

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To clean your computer of garbage, you need to audit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section. It is here, in the SOFTWARE section, that application entries are located.

It is quite difficult to search for the required key on your own, so you can use the built-in search system, which is activated by pressing the Ctrl+F key combination. This is how you can search for sections corresponding to a specific program.

Removing unused programs

Very often, the user does not even think about the need to remove old or unused programs. This leads to less and less space on your hard drive.

In the operating system, deleting an application is quite simple. Windows has a standard uninstall tool. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

• go to “Control Panel”;
• select “Programs”;
• In the list of all installed applications that appears, select the one you need and click the “Delete” button.

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Clearing browser cache

Every browser reserves some space on your hard drive called a cache. It is used to save the pages most frequently visited by the user to ensure they load quickly in the future. Over time, the cache grows and can reach hundreds of megabytes.

You can manually clear saved pages directly from the browser. To do this, you need to go to your browser settings, then go to the “Advanced” item and select deleting your browsing history. Depending on the type of browser, the names of the items may differ slightly, but the algorithm of actions remains the same.

The user will also need to select the period for which the saved data will be deleted. This could be a day or the entire time you use the browser. Additionally, when cleaning, you can choose what exactly needs to be deleted: browsing history, downloads, cookies, images.

Cleaning your desktop

Many users do not think at all about the appearance of the desktop, which over time begins to fill with folders, shortcuts and just documents. Some people think that by putting the files they need on their desktop, they make them easier to access. But when there are a lot of them, it becomes difficult to navigate through this chaos.

To clean your desktop, you can run the built-in utility called Cleanup Wizard. To activate it, you need to right-click on the free space and select the menu item “Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard”.

A window will open showing your unused shortcuts and the date they last accessed the app they link to. After checking the required boxes, click “Next”.

Upon completion of the wizard, a new folder called “Unused Shortcuts” will appear on the desktop, where all outdated links will be placed.

The second way to put things in order on your desktop is to create a special folder, which is best placed on another logical drive. When placing it on a system partition, there is a high probability of data loss during a failure.

After the folder has been created, you just need to move all the items on your desktop there. Thanks to this, the user will receive a single place where the necessary files, folders and shortcuts will be located.

Cleaning torrents

Those who like to download movies or TV series via torrents may encounter the problem that over time a large number of old files will accumulate on their hard drive.

There are two ways to get rid of outdated torrents:

1. The first is to use uTorrent's own menu. By going into it, you can select already downloaded files and, by right-clicking, activate the “Delete” command. This way you can get rid of torrent files and downloaded movies.
2. The second method involves manual removal. All saved downloads are located at C:\username\ApplicationData\uTorrent. By going there, you can simply select all the files in the folder and delete them through the trash bin, or bypassing it (key combination Shift+Del).

Autorun cleaning

Most programs are added to autorun during installation. This, on the one hand, allows them to launch faster, but on the other hand, it takes up PC resources, causing it to slow down.

To get to the list of programs that are allowed to start when you turn on the computer, you will need to go to the task manager. It can be called by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del.

In the window that opens, you need to go to the “Startup” tab, where a list of applications will be displayed, their status (on or off) and the degree of impact on the processor.

Clicking the right mouse button on the selected program allows you to select an action. You can disable the application, view the location of the file in the folder, and find information about this product on the Internet.

To turn off autorun, you must select the appropriate context menu item.

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The best third-party programs for cleaning your computer

You can clean your computer of accumulated debris manually, but this requires some knowledge and time. To speed up the process and automate it, you can use it, most of which are distributed completely free of charge. There are comprehensive solutions that make it possible to carry out complete cleaning through one program.

For comprehensive cleaning

Perhaps the best program for cleaning your computer is the CCleaner application. It is distributed completely free of charge, although there is a paid version. There is also a ported version that can be used without installation. Using this application, you can remove programs, clean the system registry, disable programs at startup, and clear cookies and browser cache.

To clean junk from your hard drive

The optimal program for cleaning your hard drive from accumulated garbage is the Advanced System Care application. It is also distributed absolutely free of charge. This utility is optimized for working with the Windows operating system, which allows you to use it not only to remove accumulated garbage, but also to eliminate system errors. The developers claim that using their application increases PC performance by 400%.

To remove old programs

The most important requirement for third-party applications that remove installed programs is to uninstall completely, removing not only files, but also system registry keys. This is exactly what is possible when using the Revo Uninstaller product. The program offers several removal modes, in which you can completely get rid of outdated applications. There is a ported version that works without installation. The developers, with their characteristic sense of humor, endowed the utility with a hunting mode (when removal is done using a sight on the desktop) and a drag and drop function (uninstallation is carried out by transferring the desired program to the fireplace).

To defragment a hard drive

To organize files on your hard drive, it is best to use programs that are specifically designed for this. One of the best applications is Auslogic Disk Defrag. The utility is distributed free of charge. With its help, the process of consolidating free space can be fully automated. The program has a built-in scheduler that makes it possible to configure the computer to shut down after the defragmentation process is complete.

To remove viruses

One of the best free utilities for cleaning your computer from malware is a product from the Dr.Web laboratory called CureIt!. The program is distributed completely free of charge. After downloading the latest version, which contains the latest virus databases, the user can choose which objects to scan: the hard drive, RAM or running programs. The advantage of this particular application is that the developer is a company that specializes in producing antiviruses.

Cleaning your computer of debris is a procedure that should become mandatory for every PC user. Removing unnecessary files, tidying up the system registry, and clearing the browser cache not only helps free up space, but also speeds up the machine. Once again, you can learn the intricacies of cleaning your computer from the presented video.