Housecleaning your PC | Get rid of junk and take back those wasted space

Regular PC maintenance is often neglected, leading to lost hard drive space and a bloated operating system that runs increasingly slower.

To avoid a dreaded Windows re-installation, you should perform a thorough cleanup at least once a year. Here I have created a cleaning checklist for the digital environment, to remove obsolete files and regain storage space.

Clear Space

Ordinary everyday use of a computer will leave its traces. Deleted files are preserved in the Recycle Bin, temporary installation and Internet files accumulate, and many other obsolete files clutter up your hard drive. There is an easy way to clear all of these space hoggers in one go:

Click [Windows] + [R] to open the Run dialog box.

Type Cleanmgr.exe to launch the cleaning tool.

Select the drive you wish to clean.

Wait for the application to complete its calculations.

Select files you wish to clear and actions you wish to take.

Click OK to confirm and let it do its job.

Unclutter

Over the course of a year, the average user installs countless apps and tools and ends up using only a fraction of them. Removing unused software or even crapware that came pre-installed with your computer can potentially free up several gigabytes of valuable hard drive real estate.

Go to Start, type remove programs in the search field and select Add or remove programs from the results list.

In the respective control panel window go through the list of installed software and highlight a program you want to uninstall.

Click Uninstall or Uninstall/Change in the menu right above the list.

Unfortunately, you can only uninstall one program at a time. Hence, you have to do steps two and three for every program you want to remove. Moreover, the default Windows uninstaller is known to be conservative when removing programs. Third party applications often are more thorough and a last resort when Windows returns and error when trying to remove software. Try Revo Uninstaller or IObit Uninstaller.

Defrag
Once you have cleared all obsolete files and organized your files, it’s time to defragment your hard drive to help it run more efficiently. Regardless of what file system you are using, defragging has benefits. To use the default Windows defrag utilitiy…