Luckily not mine but I believe some other geeks PCs are only jogging rather than running at the speed of light so here are a few quick tips to de-clutter your computer

Here’s my get out clause – Always exercise caution before pressing the delete button – you don’t want to lose your treasured thesis on how to be the best nail/beauty/hair geek in the world – but I am sure you will be ok – ask Sassy – she survived my tips LOL

Firstly I want you to imagine all your files/information/games/work stuff on your computer in a nice neat line - got that image? Good!

Next I want you to imagine you shouting out for a game you might play and then this file running towards you, so you can play the game. After a while you get fed up and decide to play another game or open your email or go on the internet - you shout for those files and they all come forward BUT by now the files you have already used do not know where they were originally standing in the line, so they go back and stand anywhere in the line and get all mixed up Then what happens when you shout for that particular game etc the next time - your computer can not call it straight away - it has to wander around the line and look for it and all the while your computer is now chugging along at a snails pace using lots of memory and hard disk space!

What to do about it then? Well these are really safe options and usually you shouldn't encounter any probs.

Firstly do a disk clean - this will get rid of any temp files and useless files that you do not require(for example temp internet files - the recycle bin rubbish.

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties
3. Click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
4. Click the More Options tab, and then under System Restore, click Clean up.
5. Click Yes to remove all but the most recent restore point.
6. Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312 - more info

Now what has happened is that in the nice straight line there are loads of gaps and the files are still not in a neat orderly line like they should be so the next thing to do is a defragmentation of the drive.

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties
3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now
4. Click Defragment.

If you have lots of red showing then you definitely need to click the defrag button!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848 more info

Ok so another option is also to use a Scandisk/error checking tool.

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties
3. On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now

You will get a box with two options to check - check them both and click start. Another message will appear straight away saying:

"The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?"

Click yes (or no - but then that would be defeating the object). Your computer does not reboot automatically at this point and it will only start the checking process after your computer has been restarted properly. When you have restarted your pc you should see a blue screen with white writing and it will say somewhere that it is checking 1 of ..... - whatever part it is on.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 more info - it refers to it as chkdsk in this article but it is the same thing!

There is one last thing that benefits your computer and that is a Registry Cleaner. Whilst the above tools are free and already on your computer, you do have to pay for a cleaner (unless anyone knows of a good safe free one – Seanny????) I have one which is included in with my virus protection, but this package obviously costs you more than just a virus scan.

Oh and another thing - do these jobs when you have plenty of time - so you could set it off before you go to bed or to work, this is because if it has never been done before it will take ages to complete - my friend Julie found that out when she had 130,000 temp files alone - never mind the other stuff

here's not only to a decluttered mind but a computer as well

OOh how funny I did mine again this morning as it was playing up again! It does take ages so it's a good way to get me to do the cleaning and not keep hoppin on to geek! It really does make a difference, so thank you Snuggly One!

Your welcome Sassy I helped Jess do hers ages ago and she sent me a piccie of her dfrag screen and it was more red than blue/green

The thing is peeps don't know how to do this and sometimes it can make a huge difference to how your PC performs - anyway of for a cuppa catch you all later

Very helpful, thanks....will have a go later as mine been poorley for a bit!

My advise would be buy an Apple Mac! hee hee

Anybody got one (an apple mac that is)

My husband is trying to get me to convert to one - but not sure as I am so used to windows based systems.

They really can't compare to other computers they are in a league of their own and the look g*d damm sexy if you ask me. Check out reviews at Technology Review Site - Product Reviews, News and Prices at CNET.co.uk (my brother is this weeks "meet the editor" Chris Stevens). Little plug there! For anyone who is interested in gadgets he does the Crave podcasts and videos which are very amusing

snuggles you are a little gem
im always trying to learn how to do stuff on this pc myself ...but havent a clue where ao start ...now i have a starting point woohooo
im doing it now ..i had 46.000 (around this amount) files to remove done that ..now im defragging them ...i love ya !
hopefully this may sort out some of the problems ive been having latly ...ive been having a nightmare with this pc ,think i need a new hard drive !!!

but this will hopefully help for now ta babe xxx

Debs, thanks sooo much for this ... mine has been chugging for ages.
Ill do this tonight before shutdown.
If Im not back tomorrow .... the bill's in the post!

Glad you are finding it useful everyone

emmsybabe - you would be shocked at how many invalid registry items there are - I will try and find a "safe" free registry deletion software as this helps a lot - but joking aside - you DO have to execute extreme caution with these - so it might take me a while to find a "safe" feebie.

Glo I'm scared now what happens if you lose all your fab photos????? only joking - I know you will have a back up of them

These are pretty much the safefest things to do to help keep your PC running smoothly and can make a real difference - they should be done regularly and you can set an automated task for them. If you want to know how to do that pm me and I will give you instructions