What do you do to maintain your PC

[Travelin2]

I notice that after spending some time researching an item to purchase by going to multiple different websites or spending time on some forum boards, that my computer will start running slower, having trouble opening pages or being hesitant and jerky when trying to type into a search bar. I have found that I can resolve some of these problems by running a disc cleaner and restarting. Its' not always perfect because the computer sometimes is slow to get going again. I'm not sure if I should click all the disc cleaner categories before I click delete or only delete what is checked automatically. I have found this helps by just stumbling around through all this new stuff and not from any real knowledge or training.

I was hoping others on here that are sharper than I could help us lower ranked users with your secrets of how you keep your computer humming along happily.

What do you do? How often do you do it? How does one figure out which programs that have mysteriously showed up on the program list can be uninstalled without problems?

[coolmom42]

Install all your security updates from Microsoft.

Use Chrome for a browser and use Ad-block plus.

Occasionally go into your Chrome menu and clear ALL of your history. If you have an older computer without a lot of memory or processor speed, do this daily.

Run Avast anti-virus in the background, and run Malwarebytes cleaner about once a month.

Pay attention to where you click. Be careful about sites with check boxes and permissions. When you run a search, the first few search results are likely to be ads, and in Chrome, will be marked as such. Skip those, and use the ones just below them.

[delwhjr]

Travelin2 wrote:
Well, I figured there is no need in asking for advice if you don't make use of whats offered. So, I installed Ccleaner and ran that then I switched to Firefox from Microsoft Edge, and installed the Adbloc add-on. I noticed an immediate improvement in response time in the computer. The Ccleaner ran for about 10 minutes to come up with a list of many, many thousands of files to delete. I will continue to read and learn from the other thoughts offered here.

I do find something odd.....I use "Besthomepageever" for my homepage on Firefox and the search bar on that homepage still has the Google search engine logo on the bar. I'm not sure how I get rid of that and make it use Firefox. Maybe just don't use that bar but the one up at the top on the Firefox bar?

Depending on which version of Windows your using, go to Control Panel or Settings and look in your programs or apps. The toolbars will be listed there. You can right click and uninstall from there.

[fj12ryder]

Any extra "bars" you have open on your browser will affect its speed, usually negatively. The fewer add-ons, tool bars, search engine bars, etc. the better the browser will operate. The more stuff open, the slower it will likely run.

[Travelin2]

Well, I figured there is no need in asking for advice if you don't make use of whats offered. So, I installed Ccleaner and ran that then I switched to Firefox from Microsoft Edge, and installed the Adbloc add-on. I noticed an immediate improvement in response time in the computer. The Ccleaner ran for about 10 minutes to come up with a list of many, many thousands of files to delete. I will continue to read and learn from the other thoughts offered here.

I do find something odd.....I use "Besthomepageever" for my homepage on Firefox and the search bar on that homepage still has the Google search engine logo on the bar. I'm not sure how I get rid of that and make it use Firefox. Maybe just don't use that bar but the one up at the top on the Firefox bar?

[fj12ryder]

Generally the problem is the memory leaks from the most popular browsers. If you open "Task Manager", Ctrl/Shift/Esc, when it starts running very slowly, you'll find that your browser memory usage has gone through the roof. If you close the browser, wait 30 seconds or so, and reopen the browser, your problem will be solved.

It usually isn't an issue with your computer/processor, but rather a problem with the browser running very slowly due to excessive memory usage.

[HackerAce]

Buy a Macbook, but seriously, when I was a Windows user I would routinely format the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch.

Look into Cisco Umbrella, a cheap way to protect yourself from the evil ness of the interwebs.

[wildtoad]

There should be a check box on the windows disk cleaner to scan system files. Check it and run it. It will clean out old versions of files used to update the system. Run the defrag utility also. Get a copy of CCcleaner mentioned above and run the clean registry function. Over time Windows spends a lot of time chasing it tail before it bothers with what you want to do.

[2012Coleman]

ReadyToGo wrote:
If you are doing a lot of searching, I would change your search program. Google keeps track of what you search to put ads on your results which slows down internet browsing. CCLeaner is safe to use for deleting files (not programs). If you are actually getting unknown PROGRAMs on your system on a regular basis, something is wrong.

Yes - it will do that, but only if you stay signed in. Sign out of Google when done reading your mail. Then get Firefox and use addons like Adblock Plus.

[ReadyToGo]

If you are doing a lot of searching, I would change your search program. Google keeps track of what you search to put ads on your results which slows down internet browsing. CCLeaner is safe to use for deleting files (not programs). If you are actually getting unknown PROGRAMs on your system on a regular basis, something is wrong.

[gbopp]

I have a 15 year old computer geek grandson. That makes it easy for me. 🙂