In part 3 of my backup series I dealt with backing up your Windows installation so that you can restore it in the event of a system failure.  It’s sometimes not just good enough to back up Windows before streamlining it and cleaning out all the rubbish.  After all, when Windows slows down it’s because the temporary folders and the registry are full of excess junk.  These files cause the whole operating system to slow down.  If you’re doing a backup and want Windows to be as speedy and zippy as possible, then it’s good to clean this rubbish out first.

In the downloads link in the right-hand pane you’ll see links to lots of software, much of it free, that can help keep your PC happy and healthy.  It’s the spyware remover, anti-virus and PC maintenance software that you will want.

The first thing you should do is go into the Control Panel from the Start Menu and select Add/Remove Programs in Windows XP or before or Programs and Features for Windows Vista or later.  You should have a look through the installed software and uninstall anything you no longer need.  It’s well known that Windows has a ceiling of approximately 30 programs that it will be happy with.  If you have more than this number installed it has been known to become cranky.  Uninstalling anything you don’t need or use will also help free up valuable disk space and bring down the size of the registry file.

When you’re cleaning Windows up you should pick a time when you have an hour free to run all this software, making absolutely sure your PC is free of spyware and viruses and that all your temorary files and folders have been deleted.

In addition there are two tools within Windows you can use to help as well.  Disk Cleanup is a handy but simple tool for cleaning out temporary files and folders.  The other is the Disk Defragmenter which will remove any of the unnecessary gaps in stored files and programs (see defragmenting in the techie terminology section for full details).  You can find both of these in the Start Menu.

Internet Explorer and Firefox both have facilities to clean up your website histories and temporary files as well.

Having run these your PC will be lean and clean again.  This isn’t something you should just do before backing up your whole Windows installation.  It’s a good idea to do this several times a year, maybe once every quarter or every two months.  It will help make sure that your computing experience will stay quick and problem free.