If you have been using your computer for a long period of time, unnecessary files are bound to accumulate on it.
This results in wastage of precious hard disk space and ultimately leads to your computer slowing down if this trend persists for too long. This can become a grave issue, however, if you are aware of the relevant techniques and take effective measures in time to remove these temporary files, duplicates and junk files, you can not only boost your computer’s performance but also recover valuable storage space.
Doing so frees up space for new files and also sorts out all the clutter on your computer, leading to swifter and easier file searches. Even though hard disk prices are cheaper than never before, you must guard against any lax behavior on your part that can result in inefficiency seeping in your computing activities.
Sources of Unnecessary Files in Your Computer
As a matter of fact, junk files will exist on your computer even if you regularly clean them. This is because we constantly add and remove software programs, browse the Internet and indulge in various other kinds of behavior that give rise to junk data. The biggest culprit amongst these are the temporary files that accumulate during the software installation process. Whenever we install a new software, temporary files are copied on the hard drive. Once the installation wizard is over, these files have played their part and must be purged. Unfortunately, this task must be performed by the user either manually or by using a software.
Temporary files are also generated whilst we are running a software or uninstalling it. Files commonly involved in this process include .dll and .bak files. Also, your web browser is also constantly downloading files on to your computer as you surf the Internet. Some of the larger files include cache, cookies and history.
The following lines shed light on some of the ways that will help you exercise control over files that can be safely removed from your computer.
ST Cleaner
Some of these unwanted files may be under the category of system files and it is not recommended to manually interfere with system files. So to solve this problem, there is a nice little program called ST Cleaner. The Junk Files section in the System Scan is all that you need to keep an eye on. Once you click Clean post-scan, all the useless data will be cleaned up in a flash!
Disk Cleanup
The first and foremost technique, which is readily available on all current versions of Windows is Disk Cleanup. It is a built-in feature of Windows which assists you in deleting unwanted and unnecessary files from your computer. Using this feature is quite straightforward. First, you get to choose the drive you want to clean up, right-click it select Properties. From here you need to simply select Disk Cleanup. Once the wizard is over, it will present you with a list of files you can safely delete. Now you can choose the files you actually want to delete. It is recommended to select all the various kinds of files and then delete them. Once you have confirmed the selection, click OK to launch the cleanup.
Delete Temporary Internet Files
As mentioned earlier, surfing the Internet results in the creation of many kinds of temporary files which are simply a bane to the computer. These can be deleted by visiting the options section of your browser and then selecting the Delete History option (the name varies from browser to browser, but it can be easily tracked by taking a brief look at the options available). Be advised that you will be provided with several options to select which kinds of data you want to delete. Take a good look as most users don’t want to delete any saved passwords, website preferences etc. Once you’re done with this phase and signal the initialization of deleting these files, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised by a refreshed up web browser!
Identify Unused Files
Using a suitable software can help you determine which files you have not used for a very long time. Furthermore, you can also sort them out by size, which gives you a better perspective over which files to delete. One of the best available options for this task is Disk Space Fan. This software not only presents you with a statistical analysis of the drives but also assists you in picking out the files that have to be deleted.
