General Windows Maintenance Tips (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the 'General Windows Maintenance Tips' article.

• Remove Unused Software: Generally the older your computer gets, the more older software builds up on it that may never be used. These programs could come from Internet downloads, blotware that came as part of other software, and a million other places. These older programs are just sitting idle on your computer there taking up disk space, and cluttering up the All Programs menu. Depending on the type of software that was installed, these programs can also consume system resources (like memory, or CPU time) which can slow down your computer, or even make it unstable. To remove this software follow the instructions below:
• Open the Control Panels folder
  
• Open the Add/Remove Software control panel.
• Look for programs that you don't use or want anymore, click on the entry, then press the Remove button. Most of these program will include a wizard to walk you through the software removal process.
  
• Close this control panel when you're done.
• Delete Temporary Files: Sometimes Windows or other programs create temporary files that are left behind on your computer consuming disk space. These programs can leave these files behind because there could be flaws in the software, or the program was not shutdown properly. If your hard drive is getting full, this can cause your system to slow down or behave erratically. A low disk space condition will prevent Windows from writing critical system information to the hard drive (such as the paging file). To remove this unneeded disk space, perform the following steps:
• Open My Computer under the Start menu
• Right-click on the C: drive icon, select Properties.
• Press 'Disk Cleanup' button. This will launch a utility that can be used to remove these files.