Slow PC – This is the problem most users jostle with. Multiple factors for this – outdated hardware, device drivers’ not updated, temp files loading the drive and the hard drive not defragmented. However, what will you do if the hardware configuration is latest? Essentially, some spring-cleaning is in order! Or let us just say, time to clean the PC just like Diwali ensures the home is sparkling clean!

To do that, just follow these simple steps.

Uninstall. And some more uninstall.
Some of us have the habit of installing software on the PC, just to try it out. And most times, we don’t bother uninstalling them. Why sacrifice HDD space to software that you won’t even use?

How to do this: Head to the control panel, add/remove programs and then select the program/application you wish to remove. Each application will have to be removed individually.

Clean up the registry
Uninstalling apps doesn’t ensure that everything related to them has been deleted. There are registry entries that remain, and that causes the PC to take more time as it reads the registry keys. Cleaning up the registry to delete obsolete entries just speeds up the process.

How to do this: Install CCleaner on the PC and run the registry cleaner application.

Clean the drive
Temp files tend to get accumulated over a period of time – web browsing, system files and logs and even caches based on the files in the PC. If not cleaned for a long time, they will slow down the laptop.

How to do this: Install CCleaner on the PC and clean system files every 15 days if you are a heavy user, and once a month if you are a lightweight user.

Defrag the drive
No matter what, the files that you do put on the Laptop do not get stored, usually, in fragments placed together. While it isn't a problem most of the time, but the more files that get copied in fragments spread across the drive, the slower the access speed becomes. Once a month, you should defragment the hard drive.

How to do this: Use the built-in Windows Defragment utility. Schedule it to defrag the drive every few days. 

The spyware scan…
Spyware usually walk into the Notebook via the web browsers - masked as tracking cookies, bots and data miners. Scanning and deleting them is extremely essential, not only because of the security threat they pose, but also the performance impact they have.

How to do this: Download and install the free anti-spyware utility- Spybot- search & destroy. First update this with the latest definitions, and then run a full system scan. Delete all spyware it throws up.

...And the good old virus
Some users are just plain unlucky, but many others get clobbered because they don’t have any preventive software installed. The virus not only is a huge threat to the security of the data on your PC, but also a major resource hog.

How to do this: Download any of the free antivirus solutions out there- AVG Free or Avast Home Edition, update and give the PC a thorough scan.