Clean Up Your Computer
As you use your computer, it will collect a lot of unnecessary files that both slow you down and which could possibly compromise your privacy.
Learn how to erase your drive of those files so that you can speed it up and feel more secure at the same time.
This is PART 1 of the guide and will cover how to clean your computer focusing on the speed aspect. For a more privacy oriented guide, go to PART_2
NOTE: This guide is written for Windows Operating Systems ONLY. The tools used here will not work on other Operating Systems, and you should not try to use them on any other systems.
REQUIRED SOFTWARE:
- CCleaner
(More will be required in the next guide)
STEP 1: CHANGING SETTINGS FOR CCLEANER
Let's start with changing the settings of CCleaner to meet our requirements. From the CCleaner opening display, click the "Options" button at the left, then click the "Settings" Tab to the right of it. This should get you to the window from which we will be doing most of our changes.
- SECURE FILE DELETION - Select the "Secure File Deletion" Radio button, and "Gutmann (35 passes)" from the drop-down list. This will make sure that all your files are now being securely deleted. look here for more information on the Gutmann method. It is important to make this change if you plan to go on to the privacy aspect of the guide, as it will save us a great deal of time.
- UPDATES - Always a good thing. Keeping CCleaner updated will make sure you will always have the best version.
- RUN AT STARTUP - NO! Never let a program that you can start manually run at startup. No matter how much good it does. This will help you keep your computer clean.
STEP 2: RUNNING CCLEANER
The most important, yet easiest portion. Go to the "Cleaner" Tab from the left menu. Go on, clicking "Analyze" if you wish. This will let you see what files will be deleted before you click the "Lost forever" button. If you are satisfied with the result, click "Run Cleaner" and go for a coffee break. This will take a great deal of time (although not as long as defragmenting) and you can drink both one and ten cups before it is done if you are a heavy user. The reason for this is simply the secure ereasing. With the Gutmann method, every file is overwritten 35 times. In practice, this means that for every Gigabyte or Megabyte deleted, 35 Gigabytes or Megabytes is written to your hard disk. Yes, it takes time, but it is worth it, knowing that any poor bastard trying to steal your data by recovernig deleted files will be totally unsuccessful.
When it is done, go check out your result. If you have never done this before, you will have deleted sometimes several gigabytes of crap. If this is the case, give you self a pat on the back, say "Good Job", and move on.
STEP 3: BUILT IN REGISTRY CLEANER
CCleaner comes with a built in Registry Cleaner. Although it doesn't give you an enormous Performance boost, cleaning up your registry in a nice and safe way is never a bad idea.
To get going, click the "Registry" tab on the left and select "Scan For Issues" in the new window. CCleaner will scan your registry looking for keys you don't need. When it reaches 100%, click "Fix Selected Issues" (yes, all should be selected and they are by default). You will be asked to create a backup, which is a very good idea to do. Follow the instructions and save your backup. Next, go through the problems and let CCleaner fix them.
Nice work! I recommend you move on to the second part now and follow the steps there. They will help you clean your computer of privacy issues that you might have.