Faster, better, stronger: Get your PC in tip-top shape
Trying to keep your PC running
smoothly sometimes feels like an impossible task. Windows is prone to all kinds
of bloat, which can bog down your PC or—in severe cases—even render a system
functionally useless. Over time, it’s almost impossible to prevent unsavory
apps and other files from infiltrating a Windows PC, regardless of how careful
a user you may be. There are simply too many ways for junk to seep its way in.
With
regular maintenance and a bit of effort, however, it’s possible to keep a
Windows system relatively clean and performing at its peak. Some of the things
we’re going to cover here may be second nature to long-time PC aficionados, but
these tips should come in quite handy for casual users. At the very least
they’ll help you keep your system clean, updated, and better protected from
potential threats.
Update, update, update
Vulnerabilities in Windows and
many popular applications are quite common. To mitigate the possibility of such
vulnerabilities being exploited on your system, it’s important to keep your OS
and all of your applications patched and up to date. If you haven’t already set
Windows to automatically update, do so now by opening the System and Security settings in the control panel,
clicking Windows Update near the bottom-left of the window,
and then clicking the Change
Settings option.
Should you want to install updates manually, remember to do so about once a
week. Microsoft tends to release most updates on “Patch Tuesdays”, but if a
severe vulnerability is found and fixed quickly, MS may release a patch at any
time.
It is
also important to keep your antivirus and antimalware utilities patched and
updated. Nefarious malware programmers tend to be a couple of steps ahead of
the good guys, so it’s important to keep your digital defenses as current as
possible. Antivirus and antimalware apps should update themselves daily (or
even hourly), but if a problem has occurred (or your system is already
infected), auto-updates may have been disabled. Check the status of your
antivirus and antimalware apps often to ensure they’re updated and enabled.
Many
other applications and plug-ins, such as Office or Adobe Flash, can be prone to
vulnerabilities as well. Keep those apps up to date too; the option to check
for updates is often listed in their Help menus.
Uninstall unwanted
applications
Utilities
such as the aptly named PC Decrapifier show you what's installed on your PC and
let you delete it with just a few clicks.
Even if you’re extremely
careful about which websites you visit and the applications you install on your
PC, unwanted apps or programs will inevitably creep their way in. Whether
through unpatched exploits in the OS or commonly used applications, user
indifference, or an unintentional “OK” click in a dialog box, over time,
numerous unwanted programs tend to appear on Windows-based systems.
Removing
these unwanted programs will free systems resources—and we’re not just talking
about disk space. Any program that launches with Windows or with a regularly
used app (such as a browser) will also consume memory and potentially CPU
resources as well. Getting rid of those programs will free up all of those
resources for other things, which will ultimately improve the responsiveness
and performance of your PC.
There
are a few ways to remove unwanted programs. The first is to simply navigate to
your control panel, click 'Uninstall
a program' to open up
the Add/Remove programs menu, highlight the application and select the option
to uninstall it. That can take a lot of time if you're deleting several
applications, and some applications—especially malicious ones—may not be listed
in the Add/Remove programs menu. An application removal tool like PC Decrapifier can help in those scenarios.
Using
PC Decrapifier couldn't be easier. Simply download and run the small app and
follow the on-screen prompts. The program will walk you through the process
step by step, identifying and explaining what many apps do, and then giving you
the option to remove them en
masse with just a few
clicks.
Clean the junk
There are a multitude of
utilities available for ridding a PC of junk data, applications, and malware,
but there are three in particular that we find indispensable—the aforementioned
PC Decrapifier, CCleaner, andMalwarebytes Anti-Malware.
A fourth handy tool is Windows’ own built-in Disk Cleanup utility, but it’s
more of a quick-and-dirty tool for wiping temporary data rather than a
full-blown utility. Still, running Disk Cleanup is a good way to reclaim disk
space, which can be especially helpful on low-capacity SSDs where every
gigabyte is precious.
To
clean up most—if not all—of the junk data from your drive, we’d recommend
running Disk Cleanup first. Simply right-click on your drive in File Explorer,
choose Properties from the menu, and then click the Disk Cleanup button next to the pie chart of free
and used disk space. After the tool (generously) estimates the amount of space
it can free up, click the Cleanup
System Files button,
and the window will refresh in a few moments with an additional tab labeled
More Options.
Click
the More Options tab, and if your system is behaving
properly, click the Clean
Upbutton in the System Restore and Shadow Copies section of the
window. This will purge old restore points and shadow copies and potentially
free up a ton of space. Don’t clean up these items if your system is
misbehaving, however, as you may need to use a previous restore point to fix
things. On the Disk Cleanup tab, you’ll see a window labeled 'Files to delete'.
It’s usually safe to check all of the options here.
After selecting everything you’d like to delete, click the OK button and let Disk Cleanup do its
thing.
To
compliment Disk Cleanup, we also recommend running CCleaner. Whereas Disk
Cleanup purges junk from Windows and associated temp folders, CCleaner purges
junk from a myriad of popular apps as well. Download and install CCleaner,
launch the program, and on the Cleaner tab, tick all of the Windows and
application-rated temp data you’d like to remove. Then click the Run Cleaner button and CCleaner will take out the
trash.
Once
you’ve got the junk files and date cleaned from your system, it’s also a good
idea to run a thorough malware scan to purge any tracking cookies and
potentially malicious malware. Download and install Malwarebytes
Anti-Malware—the free edition will do just fine—and run a Full system scan. The
first time you launch the program, you’ll be asked to update its definitions.
Perform the update and then follow the on-screen prompts to complete a Full
system scan. Even on a well-maintained system that’s behaving normally, you may
be surprised by how much crud Malwarebytes Anti-Malware can find on a system.
Disable unnecessary
startup items
CCleaner is also a handy tool
for disabling programs from starting with Windows and plug-ins from launching
with your browsers. Microsoft has built-in tools to do the same things, namely
MSCONFIG and the Startup tab in the Windows 8 Task Manager, but CCleaner makes
the process much easier in our opinion.
Disabling
unnecessary startup items is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve
the overall the performance of a system, especially an older or underpowered
system. As we’ve already mentioned, any application or add-on that launches
automatically consumes memory and potentially CPU time. Killing those apps and
add-ons frees up those resources to do the things you actually want to do with
your PC.
To
clean up unnecessary startup items, launch CCleaner and click the Tools icon in the left margin. On the
resulting screen, click the Startup button; you’ll see a number of tabs
for Windows and any browsers you’ve got installed. The Windows tab lists all of
the programs that start with the OS, while the tabs for the browsers list any
add-ons that launch automatically. If you’re unsure about which items can be
safely disabled or deleted, do a Google search with the file name to find out
what it does and if you need it. Odds are, most items can be safely removed,
save for any security apps or apps that run scheduled tasks. In our example
screenshot, everything can be safely removed except for the AVAST Software
entry.
Optimize and defragment
After updating your system and
removing any junk data and malware, it’s always a good idea to run a disk
defragmenter to minimize file fragmentation and improve the perceived
performance of your hard drive. To defrag a drive, right-click on it in File
Explorer and then choose Properties from the menu. Click the Tools tab in the window that pops up, and then
click the Defragment now (Windows
7) or Optimize (Windows 8) button to launch Window’s
built-in defragmentation tool. Once the defragmentation tool opens, highlight
your hard drive and start the defragmentation process.
Please
note that you should never run a disk defragmentation tool on a solid-state
drive. SSDs are not affected by file fragmentation in the same way as hard
drives are and don’t need to be de-fragged. Most modern SSDs have idle garbage
collection or a feature called TRIM that will optimize free space when a system
is idle. After purging a bunch of data from an SSD, it’s a good idea to restart
your system and just let it sit idle for a while to let the SSD do its thing.