Free Mac Antivirus and Pt 2 of our PC Cleanup

It has been another week of Mac Troubles and I once again urge Mac Users to check their system for updates and to keep updated at least weekly at the moment. If you don't have an antivirus installed, you may download a good FREE antivirus from here Mac Antivirus . But please get protected!.

Time for part 2 of your guide to cleaning out your PC and hopefully making it a lot faster for you.

If everything went well your programs list is missing all the extra programs that aren't required any more. Next step is to have a look in your documents folder and delete any thing that's not needed, the same with your pictures folder and your music folder. Make sure you have deleted all your old emails from your email account if they are stored on your computer (In Outlook Express, Or Outlook) and also make sure your deleted emails are deleted, and not just all sitting in the deleted folder.

Your downloads folder is also another place that is neglected, it may accumulate months of downloads that aren't needed any more. They may be programs that you downloaded, and have run the program and now the download is not required anymore or it may just be outdated. To find your downloads folder, for Vista or Win 7 just type downloads in the search box. In windows XP if you go into Computer from your start list, then select your C drive, then select Users, then your User account Name, you should then see a downloads folder, so for instance If my user name was Smith, it would go - Computer - C drive - Users - Smith -Downloads. Some systems also have another downloads folder just in the C drive, So that would be Computer - C drive - Downloads. 

The next step is to Download a Program called CCleaner from here CCleaner . This is a great and very popular little program that cleans up your PC of all the random "left over" bits and pieces. Install the Program. Follow the prompts but make sure when you get to the box that has "Install Google Chrome, and Make Google Chrome my default browser" untick those two check boxes, then follow to the last screen , and uncheck "view release notes" then click finish.
CCleaner should then open up for you, you can pretty much leave all the default boxes checked on the left side of the screen that are checked. Maybe just have a close look at the Internet explorer section, or the section on which ever web browser you are running, and select what you would like CCleaner to clean up. There may be things like your History, Autocomplete Form History or saved passwords that you may want to keep for your convenience. You can check all the rest in that section if you wish to.

Click on the analyze button on the lower left of the screen and allow the program to go through and find all the files it wants to clean, It will present you a report of what it finds , and a total amount of the file size it will delete, you may then press on "Run Cleaner" on the lower right of the screen. Close out of it when finished.

 I also like to go into the Windows Disc Cleaner and run it as well. These programs often pick up things that the other doesn't. So go to your start button, go up the list and click on accessories, then system tools, and then disc cleanup. Select OK in the next check box for C drive. The cleanup will scan your drive and present you with a results window, in this window is a button for "cleaning system files" click on this and disc cleaner will scan once again. Once more you will be presented with the results window, here I normally go through and tick all of the check boxes. It might not be a bad idea here to go through and check for any that are related to your Internet favourites or history etc, in case you wish to keep them. Then run Disc Cleanup.

So we are getting close to the end, next week I will give you an optional next step and then the final piece of the cleanup routine, for those of you on later systems, your computer may have already run the last piece automatically. But you should notice a speed up in your machines even after the steps we have completed already.

Whats housekeeping got to do with a Slow PC

This Technology environment that we live in, that surrounds us, moves so fast!, I often wonder why is that?, do you really need a faster computer?, a flatter television?, more mega pixels? chances are you are not using all the ones you have now.  If you are a reader of this blog I would assume most of this stuff doesn't really matter to you too much, or if you are just starting out getting into tech, be warned, you will never keep up so don't try, you will go broke trying.

Most of us love a new computer, we take it out of the box, turn it on (after we work out where the start button is), Man!! its started already, that was so fast! this new computer is awesome!.

There is a little bit of  new computer awesome involved, don't get me wrong, but the biggest reason your new computer is so fast is because it is a "clean" install of the operating system (windows, mac).

Picture this, 

You are sitting on your lounge, the house is an absolute mess, the benches are cluttered, the hallway is clogged, nothing has been put back in its right place. I then say to you, I want you to grab your car keys, grab the DVD from last week, grab the kids medical prescription and duck down the shops with them, its a sunny day so you will need your sunglasses and a hat. Ready Set Go... 

After ten minutes of searching, kicking stuff out the way, and cursing, you make it to the garage to find you cant even get your car out, cause the wet gear from camping is still set up behind it (even though its been dry for a day).

Take two... the house is immaculate, every thing is in its place, put away and set up properly 

Go... Done, 1 minute, your in the car ready to go.

That is EXACTLY what it is like in your computer, and why a new one is so fast. The analogy continues, if you tidy everything up, throw out what you don't need or use, and make sure everything has a place and is put back there, your computer will be much faster. Never quite the same as the out of the box speed, with all its latest brand new hardware, but massively faster. 

Two options are available to you before you need to rush out and buy a new PC, you can give your system a clean out and tidy up, and it will be a lot faster, or the other option you have is to reinstall your system from scratch.

 You are able to, in most cases, depending on how you purchased or set up your computer to reinstall the system all over and start again. If you have a back up of your data, and all your discs and passwords handy then this is a very viable option. 

I am not saying this is quick, and sometimes it is not easy, but it is still cheaper than purchasing a new machine. I rang our local computer shop and they charge between $80 and $120 to do the job providing you have the disks.

You may feel it is time to step up to the next operating system. If you are still on XP you may want to start considering what your next move may be, we have 2 years before Microsoft stops supporting it all together. You don't want to be on it after its not supported, because there is no more security updates. Windows 7 is a very successful and popular Operating System, which you can move too, or you may want to hold out another 12 months and move straight to windows8. Your choice!. Maybe do a good clean out of your machine, stretch it out and buy a new machine with windows8.

I will give you advice on how to do a clean up of your PC next time.

A quick update on the story last week about Leonie Smith our Cyber God Mother, this week she released her book "Keeping Kids Safe Online" it is $15.47 for a hard copy, The same price you would pay to buy them a fast food meal if you were out, and not think twice about. You can preview the book  "HERE"

In other news, Facebook has purchased Instagram, not sure of their plans yet, but there is plenty of advice going around online if you want to download all your pics and close your account. Contact me if you would like me to do a tutorial on this.

Stay Safe Online :)