Does PC Cleaning Improve Performance?

If you would like to maintain or restore the performance of your PC, cleaning it is a task you don’t want to overlook. In addition to boosting the speed of your PC, cleaning it on a regular basis also helps protect your personal information and identity from criminals.

Cleaning your PC frees up storage space so that you can install more programs or save pictures, sound files and movies. Clean your computer at least once per month for the best possible results. If you have not cleaned your PC in a while, you will be surprised to notice how much faster it runs. This guide explains the basics and points you in the right direction.

What Is PC cleaning?

Over time, the files you store on your computer begin taking up space. Especially your C drive might be gradually filling up due to backup files, hidden files and temporary files. You should even consider PC cleaning on a new computer because new PCs often come with pre-installed programs you don’t need. In simple terms, PC cleaning involves removing unneeded files from your computer when you want extra storage space and increased performance.

Are you using all programs on your PC?

Remove unwanted programs by going to the programs and features section of your control panel. Go through the list and make a note of the programs you don’t use. For the programs you don’t recognize, perform a quick search at the internet to get insights if you really want to delete these programs. After you finished the list, the window prompt will explain everything you need to do. It should not take too long to remove the programs depending on their size. In addition to removing unneeded programs, you can even use the disk cleanup utility to remove temporary files.

Cleaning up temporary files

Temporary files include internet cookies and partially downloaded programs that you never installed on your machine. Internet cookies contain information you enter on websites and images from sites you visit. The main purpose of these cookie is to identify users and possibly prepare customized pages or to save information. The benefit for you is that you don’t need to enter your login information each time you visit a website. Also, web pages and online media you have visited online are stored in the cache of your browser. Doing so speeds up the web browsing experience the next time you visit the same site again. Also, applications which consume large amounts of data as Microsoft Word are creating temporary files to store and save information as you go along.

The Importance of PC cleaning

Your PC saves files from the websites you visit and stores them on your hard drive. Unless you remove those files, they add up over time and begin taking a lot of space on your computer. Lots of people install programs on their PCs and never remove the programs after they stop using them, and they lose a lot more space than they might think. Cleaning your PC often is a good way to protect yourself from that pitfall.

Does Deleting Stuff From Your Computer Make It Faster?

Although many people assume deleting files from their hard drive is enough to increase the speed of their computers, it does not have the impact they expect. In fact, your temporary internet files can increase the speed at which websites load. Since temporary internet files contain images and other media files from the websites you visit, your computer won’t have to download them each time you visit the websites. You should still delete your temporary files on occasion to free disk space.

Remove Startup Items

Some programs you download onto your PC automatically start when you turn it on. Automatic startup processes work well for programs your computer needs to run at its best, but having too many startup items slows your computer down. To change which apps run automatically at the startup, select the Start button. From there, navigate via Task Manager to Startup. Select the app you want to change, then select Disable so it doesn’t run when restarting your computer.

Factors to Keep in Mind When Cleaning Your PC

While you don’t face much risk when you delete temporary internet files, deleting the wrong programs or removing certain startup items can harm your PC. Therefore, start by removing temporary files and reducing the amount of startup items to see if that improves the performance of the PC. If you are deleting programs, make sure you know what you are deleting so that you don’t run into problems along the way.

Clean up sensitive files

When you delete files from the recycle bin, they are not really deleted. The files on your computer point to the part of your hard drive that stores the file, and your hard drive retrieves the file when you open it.

Deleting files only removes the pointer, so the file itself remains on your system for a while. Use a file shredder to erase data by overwriting the space with pattern of 1’s and 0’s. This won’t improve performance, but file shredding does help to keep us in compliance with the law and to prevent identity theft. With a PC cleaner, these files are then removed from your hard drive.

Use a PC cleaner

You can save time and avoid problems by using a proven PC cleaner to remove unwanted and temporary files from your PC. With an effective PC cleaner, you can reach your goals in no time and never have to worry about deleting the wrong file. McAfee Total Protection is an antivirus software that comes with a PC cleaner and a file shredder. The PC cleaner deletes temporary internet files and broken shortcuts, and it removes unneeded registry keys that you don’t need.

Final Thoughts

Your computer’s performance depends on regular maintenance to stay at its best. Failing to maintain your PC results in slower performance and other issues you want to avoid. Use the steps from this guide to clean your computer and boost performance, or you can save time by using a PC cleaner to keep your PC safe and running well for as long as possible, and you will be thrilled with the results.

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Story added 3. June 2020, content source with full text you can find at link above.