Clean up Your PC: Multiple Options

Your PC will slow down over time. Here's how to clean it up without having to reinstall Windows or reformat your hard drive. 


You can, of course, manually clean out a lot of the junk on your system. Here are some ways to tackle the job.


Disk Cleanup


The past few versions of Windows have shipped with the Disk Cleanup utility, which you can launch by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. When I used this tool on my machine, I discovered 16.3 gigabytes of Zune temporary converted files.

You can manually clean out old system files, as well--but that can be perilous, so delete such files with care. Also, Disk Cleanup allows you (under the More Options tab) to delete all but the most recent System Restore and Shadow Copy files. I recommend avoiding that--you never know if you'll need an older restore point to get a usable machine back if you run into problems.



Defrag Your Drive

Defragmenting your hard drive is useful after you've performed a sweep with Disk Cleanup. During the defrag process, your system performance will slow down, since the defragger keeps the hard drives pretty busy. The Windows 7 defrag utility is somewhat smart about this, but your PC will still be less responsive during the process; it's best to run the utility when you don't need timely system access.

System Configuration Utility

This tool is more commonly referred to as Msconfig. You launch it by typing msconfig in the Run bar. Using Msconfig lets you manually specify services to run, as well as startup applications. It's far from perfect, however: It doesn't give you any advice as to what services can be safely disabled, though you can hide Windows services, which makes the Services tab a little more manageable The Startup tab is more useful. The caution here, though, is that if you disable everything willy-nilly, some of your applications (such as your antivirus software) may not work. Still, stuff like the QuickTime Helper app and the Adobe Acrobat helper can be safely disabled. 

Registry Editor 

Use the Windows Registry Editor, aka "regedit," with caution. You could easily delete keys from the Registry permanently, and render your system unusable. A less serious risk is that you could make applications unusable, and then have to reinstall them. I've run into situations, however, in which a partial Registry edit makes it impossible to uninstall or reinstall an application--but the app won't run. If you're going to edit the Registry yourself, back it up first.

This screenshot of the Registry Editor shows only the first-level view; on lower levels the typical Registry contains many thousands of entries, often with arcane names such as 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\{9F5FBC24-EFE2-4f90-B498-EC0FB7D47D15}. Understanding what to delete and what to keep can be fraught with peril.
If you're trying to root out Registry entries for an incompletely uninstalled piece of software, the editor does allow you to search. If you do this, be very specific with the search string. The application name is much better than, say, the company name. Searching for "Zune," for instance, will likely yield much safer results than searching for "Microsoft."

Maintaining a Clean System: Steps to Take


Once you've cleaned out the junk, how do you keep your Windows system relatively clean? Here are several pointers. If an application has an "advanced" install option, use it. Go ahead and install to the default locations (if you want), but check what's being installed. Sometimes you'll have the option of telling the program not to run anything at system startup. Always watch the installer dialog box. Many users merely click the Next button every time the application's installer prompts them to do so. 


But often the window will have checkboxes that install additional items, such as browser toolbars, quick-startup utilities, or other junk. If a window pops up in your browser asking you to install something, make sure you know what it is. It may just be a simple tool to help your browsing, or it may install something that runs at startup and saps your system resources. (Weatherbug, anyone?) In the worst-case scenario, it will install malware. Use tools such as Soluto and Msconfig frequently to make sure useless junk isn't running at startup. Clean your drive frequently, particularly temporary Internet and temporary installation files. 


It takes only a few minutes a week to keep your system relatively clean, and if you do that, you'll likely be able to postpone the dreaded reformat and reinstall for a very long time.

Why Windows OS gets Slower in Time

Windows slowdown has three main causes: The Windows Registry gets bigger, DLLs and other junk are needlessly duplicated, and hard drives become fragmented. One other cause on machines that have a lot of programs installed is that a lot of background services and applications can be running, without your knowledge. These potential problems aren't mutually exclusive.

The Registry can swell as you install more software, which in turn loads a lot of background tasks. Plus, your hard drive may fill up, making Windows auto-defragging harder. But let's look at these issues one at a time.

The Windows Registry

Windows maintains configuration settings, application install settings, and options in a database called the Windows Registry. As you install and uninstall applications or make changes to Windows, the Registry tends to grow larger and larger. For example, the Registry on my production PC, which has a ton of apps installed, is about 384MB--and that's just a backup.

As the Registry expands, applications and services that use it take longer to load. Searches conducted through the Registry by apps that may have written their data in multiple places also start to require more time. Some applications, such as security tools and certain media players (PowerDVD and the like), touch the data in a large number of locations.

The other culprit behind Registry bloat is incomplete uninstalls. Most users install or uninstall only a few applications per year, but some people (gamers and power users come to mind) tend to install and remove many programs. Incomplete uninstalls leave residue in the Registry, which adds to its size. Windows 7 and its program uninstaller is much improved in this respect, but still not perfect. As it turns out, however, Registry cleaners aren't really the way to go.

Associated Application Crud

When you install applications, sometimes they need various runtime modules to run. See all those separately installed copies of the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable? You really need only the latest version. If you're running the 64-bit version, you might need two copies, one for 32-bit (labeled "x86") and one for 64-bit (x64). This is just one example of the kind of junk that can get installed on a system. It's hard to stop and track down, and determining whether removing it might break something is often difficult.

Unneeded Background Services and Tasks

The more stuff you install, the more the programs seem to install some kind of service in the background. Maybe that service will speed up an application launch. Maybe it's a control-panel applet for a high-end gaming mouse. Do I really need Impulse Now running all the time? I use it only when I'm running a game downloaded from Stardock's Impulse digital-delivery system, or when I'm buying a game from there. I certainly don't need it. And I rarely use Microsoft OneNote, so that doesn't have to run either.

Hard-Drive Issues

A machine's file system will become fragmented eventually. Windows 7 tries to minimize that by running the defragger in the background when the PC is idle. But if you frequently create and delete files (or use applications that create and delete files regularly), the file system is bound to become fragmented. System-performance issues can also crop up if the drive gets too full. If a drive is more than 90 percent full, swapping from main memory to the drive becomes very slow, which can drag down the system as a whole. It may be time to clean out your drive--or buy a bigger one.

Incomplete Uninstalls

The Windows uninstaller--as well as similar uninstall apps that ship with some software--doesn't always completely remove an application. This shortcoming causes the Registry to balloon, leaves extraneous files on the hard drive, and otherwise cruds up a system.