Keeping Your Computer Efficient

Here are some Basic And Simple Steps and software that will help you to keep your Computer, Healthy.

1. This is a simple one that I guess most people will know about, for the less experienced user i will explain here. This involves cleaning your Hard Drive of unnecessary files, shadow copy's of windows and restore point's, to do this simply go to my computer, right click on your hard drive and select properties, then you will need to select clean up system files, then clean up system restore points and shadow copy's. Doing this can give you a very large amount of space back. 




2. uninstalling unused, broken or unnecessary programs can also give you a large amount of space back, and can also speed up your computer, now i will make myself clear please DO NOT use the built in uninstaller that you get with windows, because most of the time it does not remove all files or registry entry's, one program that i recommend is Revo Uninstaller this is possibly one of the best FREE uninstaller's on the market, and it does a fantasic job of removing broken applications, and deleting those left over files and registry key's. Download This program below.
DOWNLOAD REVO UNINSTALLER HERE

3. Checking your Hard Drive for error's, now this is a MUST do doing this will save you alot of hassle in the future, like having to buy new hard drives because of your Hard Drive failing, now there is quite a few ways of maintaining you Hard Drive, you can use the built in one that you get with windows, you can locate this by doing the following, My Computer, right click on Hard Drive, select properties.

Here are some other option's and tool's you can use also.
HDD CONTROL 2 VERY GOOD TOOL FOR CHECKING WHAT HEALTH AND STATE YOUR HARD DRIVE IS AT.



4. Cleaning and maintaining the registry, now every computer and laptop will have a registry this is like the heart, or the brain of your operating system, now if you don't know what you are doing with the registry there are many FREE tool's on the market to help you do this, cleaning and maintaining the registry is critical to keep your computer running at peek performance, now i will try to make this as simple as possible to understand, over time as you install new software the software will install registry key's into your operating system's heart, like I said at the beginning this is what makes your computer run, and over time as you uninstall program's the software will leave registry key's behind and by not removing the empty unused key's can corrupt the registry and in terms slow down your system. Now experianced users will manually clean there own registry from time to time but doing show is risky, and even using a registry cleaner is also risky. Before you start cleaning or messing with the registry be sure to create a backup of you registry.
Here are some free program's too help you clean the registry.
CCleaner
Advanced SystemCare
System Mechanic

5. Updating your computers drivers, now for your computer to work efficiently and be able to communicate properly with other system device's it need's the correct driver's installed and updated. this is a fairly easy process, you can use the built in one that you get with windows but that means checking manually and it can take quite a long time, one driver updater a recommend is Driver Genius Pro 11, for me it has never let me down and has always found the correct latest drivers and installed with any problem. It is a paid version but look about some where maybe on torrent site's and you can get it free, but for now just follow the link below just to check it out.
DOWNLOAD DRIVER GENIUS PRO 11 HERE

6. Now something else you can try is cleaning the inside of your computer tower, this is something I would not try if you are not experienced with computers, I don't know 100% if this will help speed up your computer or make it run more smoothly, but it is a must do anyway. I would recommend using somthing like a duster so you can get into all those cracks, but i warn you be careful and be gentle. 

7. Defrag your hard drive, just like the registry over time as you install new software, files will just become scattered though out the hard drive making your HD having to work harder to find all the pieces, and in terms making your computer slower, by defraging your HD it will put all the files back where they are supposed to be and in terms will make your Hard Drive faster because it does not have to go looking all over the place for scattered files.
Here are a selection of programs to help you do this.
Auslogics Disk Defrag
Smart Defrag

8. Compressing the registry, during system up time registry data is constantly being written to the registry and being removed from the registry. Over time just like software files this data becomes scattered with in the registry file system and when information is deleted from the registry holes are left which fragment the data with in the registry. By defraging your registry this will optimize and remove any wasted space.
Here is some software to help you do this also.
Auslogics Registry Defrag
Advanced SystemCare

9. Now the most important of all keeping Viruses and Spyware out of your computer, now as we all know spyware / viruses will dramatically impact system performance, they will corrupt, overwrite system data, spread themselves all over the system, so to stop this you will need an antivirus software. Below is some recommend antivirus software, personally picked by myself and they have never failed me.
AVG
AVAST
MALWAREBYTES
SUPERANTISPYWARE
WINPATROL

10. Now next to antivirus will be a firewall, now the one that you get with windows you might as well just turn it off and leave it off, because it is absolute useless, and you might ask why do I need a firewall, well I will put it as simple as I can, It keeps hackers out of your computer, there is just to much to explain on this one so i will put a link below for you to read up some more on this subject. Plus I have put a selection of some of my favourite firewall software that I have personally used and tested.
Comodo Firewall
Zonealarm Firewall
Private Firewall
WHY YOU NEED A FIREWALL [READ]

11. This something that personally do not like doing, but reinstalling your computer from time to time will also help, because Antivirus software is not always 100% effective, by chance this is always a small % that unwanted software will be installed or small fragments of viruses will sneak in to your computer, by reinstalling your computer it will rest it to factory defaults, and give you a fresh new clean install, for this is always a last resort. 

12. Do this on a regular basis and you will maintain a healthy, Virus free, smooth, and optimized long lasting computer.


Enjoy :)