6 Simple Ways to Clean Your PC

The average desktop computer has a useful life of five years (on an asset sheet, anyway).  Real-life experience has shown that many of them don't even make it to two years before their owners trade them in or give up on them completely. 

On the other hand, a well-maintained machine can run many more years past five. Perhaps the simplest and most affordable way to keep you computer running efficiently and your productivity at top speed is to keep it clean - literally. Here are a half dozen methods you can regularly use to spruce things up and get back on track.

1.  Clean that Screen

Don't wait until a stranger at the airport asks about the menacing blob on your laptop screen before you do something about it. Take time weekly to shine it up the right way: Mix ½ part distilled water and ½ part white vinegar for an affordable alternative to the store-bought stuff.  Spray a clean rag (old T-shirts work well) lightly with the solution. With your PC turned off and disconnected from an outlet, gently buff the screen until all the gunk is gone. (Note:  Plasmas may have special considerations to prevent voiding the manufacturer's warranty. Consult the manual for the details.)

Here's a great video from Expert Village on how to clean your laptop with household products:

 

 

2.  Use it or Lose it

We often download programs, try them for a week, and then forget about them forever - leaving them to take up space on our hard drives and clutter up our Task bars. Consider a simple method of removing programs you no longer need: Access the Add/Remove Programs application through your Control Panel and sort all programs by either the last time you accessed it or by how often you use it. Start removing the unneeded programs one-by-one, and ignore prompts from you computer to restart until you are completely finished. (Note: You may want to save a System Restore point on your computer that you can come back to - just in case you don't like the results.)  For an in-depth view of which programs are sucking up the most resources, consider a free trial of Tree Size, a program that analyzes every bit of disc space to give you an accurate picture of your disc and memory usage.

3. Remove the Duplicates

If you've ever transferred photos from a digital camera or iPhone, you know that sometimes you forget to delete them from your device when you're done (which means they end up on your computer the next time you do a transfer, as well). If you find yourself staring down "double prints" of your digital files every time you open your photos folder, a duplicate killer application is for you.  Free programs, like Double Killer, can cut your computer junk in half.  Watch your second copies of picture files, MP3's and saved Word documents disappear at the touch of a button. (Note: Read the instructions for this and any other purging software carefully. You don't want to accidentally destroy BOTH copies of a file.)

4.  Trim the Temporary

Every time you visit a website, your browser may be holding on to various files and data paths that you'll probably never need again - and each of these can take up valuable space on your computer. If you cruise the web often (more than an hour or so a day), get into the habit of clearing all temp files, cookies, and cached pages at least once a week. Each browser will have slightly different methods for getting the job done, but most likely you'll find a "Tools" drop down from your browser command bar that can get you headed in the right direction.  (Google searches for the name of your browser and either "Delete Files," "Delete Cookies" or "Clear Private Data" should get you adequate info to do the job right.)

5.  Purge those Icons

If your Desktop looks anything like mine, you need two screens to see everything. Give yourself a little breathing room (and a clutter-proof place to work) with the use of your operating system's built-in Desktop Clean-up Wizard (available on most Window's based OS later than XP).  To be certain that this task is a bit more automatic, schedule your cleanup to occur every 60 days by default. (You can find more info on where this is located in your Help Directory on your computer.) Note that just because you trash icons that go to programs, the programs themselves will not be removed from your computer. If you want to delete those, you'll have to follow step #2 above.

6.  Update, Update, Update!

While those "Updates are ready to install" notifications can be annoying, they are there to protect you - and your computer. For regular version upgrades to programs not supplied by your Operating System (like games, browsers, or 3rd-party utilities), consider a one-stop shopping site like Tweak Guides. Updated daily with the newest releases and patches for hundreds of products, you'll be sure to find out if you're running the newest version of everything from Silverlight to Call of Duty. And it's free!

[Headline Image Credit: Toshimself]

How do you keep your computer clean and up to date?

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Linsey Knerl is the Community Manager for Wise Bread, a community dedicated to helping folks live large on a small budget. She loves savvy tech solutions that help her share the world with her children.