QUESTION ABOUT CLEARING JUNK FROM COMPUTER

Lindsays Grandma · ‎03-10-2010

A friend of mine recently mentioned something about clearing junk from my computer. He mentioned something about CPU, at least that is what I think he said. I know it started with a C, not much help right? Anyway, for all you knowledgeable folks out there can you tell me how or what I should do to clear out my computer so it runs better? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

The moving finger writes; And having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line Nor all your Tears Wash out a Word of it. Omar Khayam

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

@Lindsays Grandma- CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It's your computer. I don't know whether you have a desktop but, if you do, it's the "box" that contains your hard drive and other components that run your system. The monitor, keyboard and mouse are accessories.

You can purchase software that "cleans" your computer but, if it were me, I'd do some research to decide what best fits my needs. And please don't click on any of those pop-up boxes that offer to do it for you! You'll pay an exorbitant amount and give a total stranger access to your computer and everything on it.

HSN sometimes offers cleanup software, but even going to Best Buy or somewhere similar, they should be able to advise you.

"" A little learning is a dangerous thing."-Alexander Pope

WindingRoad · ‎06-18-2018

Did they say clear the cache?

Lindsays Grandma · ‎03-10-2010

@Venezia wrote:
@Lindsays Grandma- CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It's your computer. I don't know whether you have a desktop but, if you do, it's the "box" that contains your hard drive and other components that run your system. The monitor, keyboard and mouse are accessories.

You can purchase software that "cleans" your computer but, if it were me, I'd do some research to decide what best fits my needs. And please don't click on any of those pop-up boxes that offer to do it for you! You'll pay an exorbitant amount and give a total stranger access to your computer and everything on it.

HSN sometimes offers cleanup software, but even going to Best Buy or somewhere similar, they should be able to advise you.

Hi Venezia, I have a desktop. My friend's son-in-law whose job is in computers ran my friends computer for about four hours. You probably know what that means and said friend told me I need to do that periodically. I would never install or click on any pop-up boxes, the consequences could be devastating. Thanks for your advice, I'll check with Best Buy.

The moving finger writes; And having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line Nor all your Tears Wash out a Word of it. Omar Khayam

Lindsays Grandma · ‎03-10-2010

@WindingRoad wrote:
Did they say clear the cache?

No it definitely was not that.

The moving finger writes; And having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line Nor all your Tears Wash out a Word of it. Omar Khayam

LTT1 · ‎03-09-2010

@Lindsays Grandma

Did he say use ”CC Cleaner?”

I didn’t often run the CC Cleaner. (Should have)

If the CC Cleaner gives one the option of eliminating programs that have installed themselves, this would be a great time to get rid of those.

@Lindsays Grandma @Lindsays Grandma

~Have a Kind Heart, Fierce Mind, Brave Spirit~

Lilysmom · ‎03-09-2010

@Lindsays Grandma, he may have been referring to defragmentation which is a process in your hard drive that consolidates files. If you have Windiws 10, google ‘should I defrag Windows 10?’ And check out the answer. HTH. LM

glb613 · ‎03-09-2010

@Lilysmom wrote:
@Lindsays Grandma, he may have been referring to defragmentation which is a process in your hard drive that consolidates files. If you have Windiws 10, google ‘should I defrag Windows 10?’ And check out the answer. HTH. LM

CPU is the brains of your computer and what makes it run. There is no cleaning of it. You need to do regular maintenance on the hard drive. There has been a debate for years whether defragging a hard drive really helps but, I did it as part of my routine maintenance. Windows has a built-in degfrag utility.

I use a free program called CCleaner. It has a Windows and Mac version. It will clear out your browser's cache as well as other files. One great feature is it disables or removes programs in the start up group. Many programs will put themselves in the startup during installation. They start and run in the background draining your computer's resources. Get rid of all programs except your antivirus program, restart your computer and you'll be surprised how much better it runs.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

One of the most important things a Windows user can learn is how to use Task Manager. It's an absolutely amazing tool in assessing the performance of a computer. For example, by looking at Task Manager I can see that right now, as I type this, my computer is using 2% of the CPU, 60% of the memory, it has seven apps/programs up and running, 65 background processes and 88 Windows processes currently running. I can see which resources each app/program/process is using. If I find one that's hogging resources I can right click on it and shut it down. I can use the Startup tab to see what apps/programs/processes launch at startup. I can stop them from launching at startup. If your computer is running slowly, the cause can typically be found and fixed in Task Manager.

Defragging a hard drive isn't typically an issue these days with faster read/write times. When a computer is running slowly, it's typically something, somewhere consuming more resources than your computer has available. Computers don't generally just throw up their hands and say "That's it! I can't handle this!" They instead start making things wait their turn to use the resources that are available. Instead of doing 188 things at once without a hiccup or slowdown, like my computer is at this moment according to Task Manager, the computer will start to do things sequentially as the resources become available instead of doing lots of stuff simultaneously. This gives you a slow computer (relatively speaking). By looking at Task Manager, you can find what's using the resources, figure out if it's vital or not, and shut it down so it won't use those resources again. At least until it decides it wants them again which it may do when you restart the computer if you don't remove it completely.

Google, Bing, or use whatever search engine you prefer for "How to use Task Manager in Windows (insert whatever version you have here, XP, VIsta, 7, 8, 10, etc.)" and you'll find lots of helpful tips that will let you speed up your computer and solve most problems (slow computer, locked programs, etc.) that pop up. It's a very, very useful tool and it's included free with every version of Windows. You just have to be willing to learn how to use it and it'll help you solve most of the problems you run into, by yourself, and for free. Whoo-hoo! Who said you can't get something for nothing these days? Ka-Ching!

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

SilleeMee · ‎05-22-2016

I don't think any one, single program can clean out a pc. So that's why I run a few of them on mine. If one program leaves something behind, or partially removed, then the other programs will often take care of that.

Running the Windows-based Disk Cleanup (find it in lower-left Type here to search in task bar) is a good one to run frequently. That one takes care of your hard drive's files that are unnecessary and take up room. Occasionally run another Windows-based program Optimize Drives/defrag (it's set to do it automatically). For browser-based cleaning I just delete history and cookies using the browser drop-down settings three-dots/dashes, upper right corner. Then I will also run an additional program, CCleaner (downloaded app) to further clear stuff out.

Defragging programs are flaky. Some work, others seem to make it worse. I run three different defragging programs.