How to Speed Up Your Computer

Cleaning and Defragging

Why do I need to clean my computer?

Here is a common scenario. You receive and email from a friend, coworker or boss with a file attached. You open
the attachment, review the information it contains, and decide you do not need to keep the document, close the
attachment and delete the email. Poof! It’s gone, or is it?

If you empty the Deleted items in your email on a regular basis, the email itself is gone, but what about the
document? Probably not. Computers are designed to retain images, called temp files, of documents, web pages,
graphics and other items, like cookies, to make viewing them again quicker and easier, particularly sites that are
graphic intensive. These images are kept in a Temp or Temporary directory on your hard drive. Now, imagine
keeping every magazine, newspaper, brochure, sale paper and letter that come into your home and stacking them
up in a corner, never throwing anything away or recycling it. Imagine the stack growing and growing until you can
barely move around your home. This is basically what happens to your computer if you don’t clean it periodically.
The more room your temp files take up the more sluggish your computer becomes. Before cleaning your
computer, if you have any stored passwords be sure to write these down because the cleaning process will wipe
them out.

So, how do I clean my computer?

Microsoft has been kind enough to include a tool to clean your
computer for you. To locate this tool select Start > All
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. A
small box will appear while the items are gathered and
compressed. When it is complete you will get a window like
the one shown here.

Most of the appropriate boxes will already be checked for you.

If you scroll down you will also see Recycle Bin, Temporary
files, WebClient/Publisher Temporary Files and Temporary
Offline Files. If these items are not checked, check them
before proceeding. Do not check the Office Setup Files box or
Compress old files unless you have been instructed to do so by
an IT professional. Select OK.

When it’s complete, the box should close by itself and you are
ready to move on to defragging.

Why do I need to defrag my hard drive?

Going back to the example above with the newspapers, magazines and mail, if you toss those items in various
places around your home, they tend to clutter things up and take up more space. The same is true with your hard
drive. The system writes the file in a convenient place which may not be the most efficient place for the overall
function of the computer. Now that we have cleaned out all the garbage in the cleaning process, there are empty
gaps of disk space. By compressing all the remaining data into one continuous area, it allows the hard drive to
function more efficiently.

So, how do I defrag my hard drive?

Microsoft has been kind enough to include a tool for this also. To locate this tool select Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. A box similar to the one below should appear. In this particular
case the box shows only a C drive, however, depending on how your computer is set up, you may also have a D
drive.

Select the Analyze button in this box

When the analysis is complete you will get a new pop up box telling you whether or not you need to defrag the
drive.

This particular drive does not really need to be defragged at this point. Below is an example of what the analysis
looks like.
Green files are system files which are unmovable, white is free space, blue is contiguous files and red is the
fragmented files. The more red you see the more fragmented your hard drive is. This drive has very little red.
Running defrag will slow down the performance of your computer until the process is complete. If you have never
defragged your hard drive or see a great deal of red, it may take quite some time to complete the defrag process.
If this is the case, it may be wise to start the defrag process in the evening and allow it to run over night.

When it is complete, you will see the comparison of the before and after.

Close out of the Defragmenter using the X in the upper right corner and reboot your computer. The reboot isn’t
required, just one of those nice things you do for your computer 