Clean up disk errors
Run once a week:Whenever a program crashes, or you experience some power outage, your computer may create errors on your computer's hard disk. Over time, the errors can slow your computer. Luckily, the Windows operating system includes a Disk Check program to check and clean any errors on your computer and keep it running smoothly.To run Disk Check:
1.In your Start menu, click My Computer.
2.In the My Computer dialog box, right-click on the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us this will be the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and click Properties.
3.In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab. In the Error-Checking section, press the Check Now… button. A Check Disk dialog box displays, as shown
4.In the Check Disk dialog box, check all the check boxes. Click Start.
5.You will see a message box that says you can schedule the disk check to start the next time you restart your computer. Click Yes. The next time you restart your computer, it will automatically run through a disk check before displaying your login screen. After the disk check finishes, Windows will automatically bring you to your login screen.
Note: Check Disk can take more than an hour to check and clean errors on your computer.
Remove temporary files
Run once a week:Your computer can pick up and store temporary files when you're looking at Web pages and even when you're working on files in programs, such as Microsoft Word. Over time, these files will slow your computer's performance. You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup screen to rid your computer of these deadbeat files.
To run Disk Cleanup:
1.In your Start menu, click My Computer.
2.In the My Computer dialog box, right-click on the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us this will be the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and click Properties.
3.In the Properties dialog box, click Disk Cleanup.
4.Disk Cleanup will calculate how much space you can free up on your hard drive. After its scan, the Disk Cleanup dialog box reports a list of files you can remove from your computer, as pictured below. This scan can take a while depending on how many files you have lying around on your computer.
5.After the scan is complete, in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click View Files to see what Disk Cleanup will throw out once you give it the go ahead. You can check and uncheck boxes to define what you wish to keep or discard. When you're ready, click OK.
6.You can also select the More Options tab within the Disk Cleanup screen to look for software programs you don't use much anymore. You then have the choice to remove these unused programs.