Spring Clean Your Computer

Aloha!


Here we are in July, way past Spring, but it's never too late to do some Spring cleaning on your Windows-based computer. Isn't it amazing how much clutter we can accumulate in our computers? In this article the clutter I will address is unwanted programs-not malware, just the buggahs we don't want any more. It's like tossing out old clothing, some of which we never wore.


From the get-go, when you fire up a shiny new machine just out of the box from Dell or Costco, there are programs pre-installed by the manufacturer that you may never use. These include games, offers for additional software and services, and various other "helper" programs. It can seem like your computer is littered with these. And some can get pretty uppity about using or updating them.


Then you when you install your printer or even digital camera, the installation CD likely contains various superfluous programs and more "helper" programs, like browser add-ins, special offers, etc. After installing a printer and a digital camera you may have three photo editing programs. Do you really need all three? Not likely. After you discover which one you like best (I prefer the free Picasa, by Google) you can ditch the others.


In Windows XP for example, go into Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. There you may find a bewildering array of programs that you have never used and never will. Or programs that you wanted to try, and decided you didn't need, but forgot to remove. You know the story.


Many of my clients are nervous to begin the process of removing programs, concerned they will foul up something in the process. Unfortunately, this concern is somewhat grounded, as sometimes removing programs can cause side effects, like disabling the functionality of certain hardware devices, or leaving remnants behind that show up as annoying "errors" during computer start up.


So what do I recommend? My basic philosophy is to remove all programs that you're 100% sure you don't want, such as old printer software, old games, old security software, trial programs, etc. It's best to remove these one by one, then reboot the computer to see what happens. If you're the ultra-cautious type, you will set a system restore point before each removal, in case nixing the program causes problems in Windows on the reboot. (If things go awry, you can restore the computer back to the point you set, before you removed the program and all will be well.)


If you're pretty computer savvy and ambitious you can use a program such as Revo uninstaller, which can be obtained for free at www.download.com. The benefit of using a program like Revo is that it does a more thorough job of removing a program than the default Windows uninstaller. It's like pulling a weed and getting all the roots.


Wishing you akamai computing and good luck with your computer clean-up project!