Tips & Tricks for your PC

Make the Most out of your PC

Is your computer running slow? Finding that you are running out of space and patience?… then fear not as I may have the answers you seek! I find that no matter who I talk to the most common issue people have is that they find that their PC does not respond in the way they want or they just don’t know how to use it efficiently so that is why I have prepared this list of my top five ways in which you can ensure you use your PC to its full potential.

1) Defrag your PC: Sounds like some sort of complicated process but in matter of fact it is quite easy to do. If you go into My Computer and then right click on your Hard Drive (C:) and then click Properties you bring up a little box and on one of the tabs it will say Tools and when you click this you should see one of your options as Defragment Now, if you click on this your PC will automatically defrag your drive. For those of you that want to know what this does, defragmentation sorts around the files you have and in a way is like a sorting system and helps sort out the state of your hard drive so that your PC won’t find it so hard to find the specific files or programs you want making it work more easily and efficiently for you. I would recommend that you defrag your system every month if possible as it will keep your Hard Drive in tip top shape!

2) Delete Unnecessary Programs: Most PC Users would be familiar with this process and all you have to do is go in to your control panel and click on add or remove programs and from here you can remove any unnecessary programs in order to free up space on your PC

3) Clean out Temporary Internet Files/Cookies: This can be done in one of two ways: you can either clean out your temporary files using a program like Glary Utilities, most of these programs have free versions and are quite easy to find on the internet even if you just Google Cookie/Junk File Cleaner, etc. Another way to clear your cache is to open your Internet Browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) and go to your tools menu and select options and there you will see options to clear your temporary files and cookies and by clicking these you can clean your PC of all your cookies.

4) Move your files off your Hard Drive: Most people would be familiar with this process and I would recommend that everyone get an external hard drive for their PC as it is an essential tool in ensuring you keep all your documents safe. Not only does it act as a great backup in case anything may happen your PC but I find it is useful to place all your heavy loaded files (movies, etc.) that you don’t use so often onto your external drive and in doing so you can free up more space on your hard drive too! (External Hard Drives aren’t too pricey and can be found in most electrical/PC stores as well as Argos too)

5) Upgrade your PC Memory: For those that find these methods still don’t help speed up your PC then maybe your PC needs a bit of updating itself. I would advise that if people find that their PC runs dramatically slow then bring it to an IT business in order to see if they can purchase a memory upgrade for it. This is of course a cheaper option to buying a new PC and can save on frustrations associated with slow running PCs which can cause people to lose their patience with their PC and let’s just say the results can be far more costly to the PC!