{"id":5664,"date":"2021-04-22T09:16:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T09:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/?p=5664"},"modified":"2021-04-22T09:17:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T09:17:17","slug":"spring-clean-your-pc-tips-to-make-your-pc-faster-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/spring-clean-your-pc-tips-to-make-your-pc-faster-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Clean Your PC – Tips to Make Your PC Faster – FREE"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was just doing some maintenance on this PC today and wondering how many PC users were not aware of how useful this can be.<\/p>\n

Unless there is a hardware i.e. electronic fault you can generally get better performance with a few simple actions. A slow PC is an annoyance if, like me, you spend a lot of time editing photographs and videos to create digital products to sell on the Internet.<\/p>\n

The following is for PCs and laptops running Windows 10.<\/p>\n

ALWAYS ENSURE YOU BACK UP ANY IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS IN CASE YOUR PC EVER FAILS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I use external hard drives for backups and to move files off my main drive.<\/p>\n

I don’t entirely trust the cloud.<\/p>\n

1. Keep your device operating system up to date.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally, Windows Update keeps the operating system and Microsoft Office up to scratch but it is worth checking regularly as the process can fail.\u00a0 Microsoft generally uploads updates on Tuesdays so I check on a Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

To access Windows Update, start to enter the phrase in the search window “Windows update settings”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Click on “check for updates” and you should see either a message that updates are available or You’re up to date.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

2. Check if you have sufficient space on the internal hard drive.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have more than one such device this is generally C.<\/p>\n

The PC uses the hard drive in addition to actual memory so having too little space slows down the processing of files.<\/p>\n

To check go to file Explorer.<\/p>\n

This logo is usually on the bar across the bottom of the screen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If not, you can type ‘file explorer’ into the search bar as above.<\/p>\n

Select this PC and you should see something similar to this view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From the above my C drive has 140 Gb out of 240 Gb available space which is just fine.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Use Your Manufacturer’s Support.
\n<\/strong>
\nMy PC is Dell so obviously that’s where I will look for assistance.<\/p>\n

They have a program to download to maintain your PC.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if your PC still has a warranty or where you bought it.\u00a0 Dell has a particularly good system.\u00a0 Google your PC maker’s name for support if you don’t have a DELL.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4. Disable programs\/apps which start up automatically if they affect starting the machine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In other words, don’t allow programs you rarely use to start automatically.\u00a0 They are still available when you need them.\u00a0 Best to leave anti-virus and similar on.\u00a0 I don’t bother to change settings if the message is “no or low impact”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Uninstall any programs you no longer use.
\n<\/strong>
\n6.\u00a0 Troubleshoot.\u00a0 <\/strong>This doesn’t delete your programs.
\n
\n<\/strong> \"\"<\/p>\n

Worth a try but I rarely see it find any issues. Find via the search as before.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Restore to an earlier date.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This often helps and unlike 4 you are unlikely to need to reinstall established programs.\u00a0 It will, however, remove any program or program update more recent than the restore date.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Refresh or reinstall Windows.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This usually works too but you will need to reinstall all of your programs once it is finished.<\/p>\n

I hope the above helps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

FREE BOOK – CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a guest post from David Murtagh, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was just doing some maintenance on this PC today and wondering how many PC users were not aware of how useful this can be. Unless there is a hardware…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-guest-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/jeshoots-com-__ZMnefoI3k-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2rQRH-1tm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5664"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5680,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions\/5680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}