How to Keep You Computer Running Like New

Everybody loves a brand new computer. Bringing it home and taking it out of the box, hooking it up and pressing that power switch for the first time. It's a great feeling. Unfortunately, this feeling soon turns to dismay, stress and frustration after a couple of months. Suddenly your computer is taking a minute or two to load, applications don't launch right away, web pages take longer than normal to appear and sometimes, your computer may even freeze up altogether and need to be manually restarted. Well if your computer has reached this stage, then this is the right article for you. If your computer isn't quite here yet, you should still read this article - the tips here can be used as a preventive measure to. And with a little luck, you'll never have to experience the pains of a slow personal computer.

The first thing you should do is delete your temporary internet files and cookies. This is a simple process and only takes a few minutes to complete, but the steps to take differ depending on your browser. Just browse through your options and settings until you find it, or search the internet on your specific web browser and you'll find step by step instructions on how to remove your cookies and clear your temporary internet files.

Next, you'll want to run Disk Clean-Up. This can be accessed on any personal computer running any version of Windows by going to your Start menu, clicking on "All Programs", "Accessories", and then "System Tools". Disk Clean up will remove deleted files that are still in your recycle bin, setup files, thumbnails, and more. This program can also be used to remove your temporary internet files, as well.

After running Disk Clean-Up, you'll want to run the Defrag program. This can be accessed in the same way you found the Disk Clean-Up program. If this is the first time you've ever used this program, it may take a couple of hours to complete, but it is well worth it. Once Defrag is done, your computer will be running just like it was the day you brought it home.

Of course, all of these steps can be taken before your computer becomes slow and bogged down. By clearing your cookies and temporary internet files on a regular basis, you will not only keep your web browser running smoothly, but you will help maintain your privacy on the internet, as well. The more you run Disk Clean-Up and Defrag the faster they get, as they have less junk files to sort through each time. Just make sure not to overuse them - there is no reason to put unnecessary wear and tear on your computer's hard drive. Performing a Disk Clean-Up and Defrag on your computer once a month is just fine; however, you may want to delete temporary internet files and clear your cookies every week or two.