How to Clean Your PC Easily and Quickly in 2017

Cleaning the PC is a task that sooner or later we all have to do because with this we avoid having performance problems and we make sure that everything works as it should, at maximum speed.

How can I clean my PC?

We will answer that question with our practical manual, the instructions to clean the PC with Windows, so in 5 minutes you can have it working wonderfully.

If by chance you do not use Windows and you use the Apple Mac operating system, then the recommended tutorial for you is this article: How to Clean the MAC .

In this PC cleaning tutorial, we are going to show you how to improve the performance of your PC notably without needing to format Windows, which is a wrong practice that many users are accustomed to do.

Cleaning the PC is easy if you do it from time to time

Keeping our PC fast does not take much work, you only have to do it every 6 months at least to make sure it does not take too long since you last cleaned it. This will ensure that the maintenance to be done will not be so much.

To maintain our computer we need several tasks, among which we highlight: update the Windows drivers, defragment our hard disk, clean the disk, as well as clean the Windows registry, something that few users know how to do without damaging the computer.

While you can do all these things manually, as we will explain now, there are also programs that do everything for you and are an excellent alternative to users who do not have much experience or guidance as PC technicians.

For them the best use any of these programs to accelerate Windows, which also include tools to clean the PC quickly and automated.

Clean the PC, the best advice: Clean the Windows Registry

Windows uses an essential component to perform all of its software and hardware operations: the Windows registry.

The Windows registry is the main processor of the Microsoft operating system, without it, the software and applications could not function quite well, nor could they interact with the different hardware devices that have our PC.

It is used to save program data, database access, and keeps track of each software that is in the Windows system.

Every time you install or uninstall programs, records are kept in this database, something that is very critical to maintain a good performance at all times.

What happens is that from both installing and uninstalling programs, many times the Windows registry gets so crowded that it not only takes up a lot of disk space but also has so much data that it stops being fast and efficient.

That is: it is transformed into a slow database. As a result, the opening and closing applications also slow down. What needs to be done in these cases from time to time is nothing other than cleaning the Windows registry.

How can I clean the Windows registry? You can do it in two ways, the first one from Start – Run and type “regedit ” to open the registry explorer, and then delete the entries manually. Unless you are a very expert user it is not advised to do so.

The second way is to use specialized programs such as registry cleaner, CCleaner, among others, which clean up that database, which do very well and without problems in most cases.

Both forms, the manual and the automatic with programs are explained in detail in our article: Clean Windows registry, take a look to internalize how it really works.

Clean Pc Tip Number 2: Clean the Hard Disk

Something that many people often overlook when cleaning the PC is to perform a deep cleaning of the hard drive.

With the passage of months or years, we usually accumulate totally unnecessary information, which fills our disk and slows down our PC significantly.

Luckily this can be improved quickly. To clean the hard disk you can perform several actions, such as:

  1. Remove temporary Internet files (browser cache).
  2. Delete the files from the recycle bin.
  3. Pass GBs or TBs of data from video files to DVDs or external USB memories, or external hard drives.
  4. Remove unnecessary programs that we do not use.
  5. Defragment the disk, if you use SATA or IDE disks (not the SSDs as they do not need it).

Alternatively, you can also use the Windows Disk Cleanup application to give you the best tips to clean your hard drive.

To open Disk Cleanup you only need to follow these instructions.

  • Click
  • In the Find option, enter: Disk Cleanup
  • Once it appears in the results list, click on it.

Clean computer, third practical tip: Update drivers

Something that many Windows PC users leave aside for a long time is to perform maintenance on their drivers or system drivers.

If the drivers are not up to date they may not work well, and they will occupy even more space than necessary since the latest versions do not run.

As much for disk space, as for having the greater stability, you should always update your drivers to maintain a correct functioning of your computer.

If you do not know how to keep your drivers updated, we recommend you read the following article that explains it clearly and in detail, whether you want to update them manually or if you want to do it using programs that do everything for you (most recommended if not you are an advanced/technical user): Update drivers in Windows .

Clean Pc Tip Number 4: Clean Up Malware on Windows

The most useful advice not only to clean your PC but also to keep it protected at all times is this: use a good antivirus.

And for good antivirus, we do not mean that you have to acquire an expensive license of classic anti-virus (as well as slow and bad) as Norton Antivirus, but look for one that has databases constantly updated, protect you at all times and whether it may be free or cost you little money.

Virus and malware infections have come hand-in-hand with personal computers for many decades now and are there to grow and evolve with the same technology.

An infection with the virus can not only leave your operating system in ruins but also cause loss of information and in many cases extreme slowness to perform almost any task like opening a web page or sending an email.

Your PC can be infected in a variety of ways, users usually become infected by downloading files from untrusted, unofficial and unwarranted software pages. Or through hacked websites that appear to be others, such as the famous case of phishing or identity theft.

So make sure you have a good antivirus for your Windows system, although if you use Mac there are also many solutions that can serve you without the problem.

In the case of Windows something good, nice and cheap is the classic Windows Defender (Security Essentials) of Microsoft.

Clean Computer Tip Number 5: Uninstall Unnecessary Programs and Disable System Services

All PCs lately come with at least 500GB or 1TB of the disk, and people mistakenly often think that having more disk, computer or PC will go faster, or they will be able to fill or save a lot more information.

While you can use more space, using more space, the disk starts to run slower, because more data has, and if they are not defragmented, will slow down.

That’s why a highly recommended practice, is to eliminate all those programs, software, applications and games that you are not using, or use very little. Since having them there without using them, is to waste not only hard disk but also hardware resources like CPU and RAM, since many of these programs run at the beginning of the system, removing resources to other services that if they need it the most.

If your goal is to clean PC, then do not hesitate, uninstall any programs you do not use or use little or nothing, save space, hardware resources and everything will go faster.

On the other hand, by disabling the services of the system startup, we are also releasing resources, that is to say, cleaning the PC of system services that use unnecessary resources, this causes less RAM and CPU to be consumed, helping to make everything go faster, i:e to have a clean PC.

In each version of Windows, there is a method to do this, it is not universal, but they do not differ so much from each other, to see how to perform this procedure it is best to go to the official Windows documentation.

Already have the PC clean?

Getting our PC clean is not an easy task or it takes 5 minutes, you have several things to do and that has been detailed in this complete tutorial, however, the task of fine tuning the performance of our system does not end up having the pc clean, the fact is only the beginning.

After cleaning the PC the next logical step is to keep it in the top performance at all times, so we invite you to read our guides on Optimizing Windows 7 and how to Speed Up Windows 10, we are sure to be of great help.

 

Connell
The author is an expert on occupational training and a prolific writer who writes extensively on Business, technology, and education. He can be contacted for professional advice in matters related with occupation and training on his blog Communal Business and Your Business Magazine.