Newbie

[Frosta]

So my brother told me to download this program in order to clear up my computer. I tend to test out a lot of online games and try my best to clear them out when I get bored of them. I also have programs that have gone unused, unneeded, and unwanted on my computer. The list I have of programs to uninstall however doesn't seem to be quite as big as my C drive's program files folder. I have 105 GB Space and due to uninstalling my most recent games, I am still at 21.2GB free of the 105. After browsing the forums for a while as well as docs.piriform.com, I realized that I understand just about none of it. Now I know that I don't need my hard drive to be 4/5 full, which also the increase in random programs I am sure also slows down my computer a lot. My question is basically, how do I setup CCleaner to remove unused documents, folders, and program files on my computer. Such as the ones that came with the computer that were all not needed. I would like to have my computer running much better then it is. I cant even restart without it taking a century to close only god knows what. Also it has a tendency to say a program is not responding when it actually is but is just taking a little longer then normal. This wasn't an issue when I got the computer so I know it needs some work. I am running on windows vista currently and can provide any other information that may be needed. Thank you for your assistance!!

[Ishi]

I assume that your hard drive has Gigabytes worth of junk files in it that need to be cleaned.

 

1. First of all, just install CCleaner.

 

Open CCleaner. Check everything in there about the cleaning options EXCEPT Start Menu Shortcuts, Desktop Shortcuts and Wipe Free Space. Then click the Analyze button and you can hopefully calculate how much space can be cleared but since you have a lot of junk files, I assume in that huge hard drive, this may take a long time. If you don't want to Analyze it, you can simply hit the Run Cleaner button. This may take a long time cause of your large hard drive but will notify you in the end of how much space has been cleared.

 

2. If you wanna remove unneeded programs, go to Tools, you can see the Uninstall button highlighted by default and you can see a list of the programs in your computer. Simply choose the programs you want to remove from the list and click the Run Uninstaller button. Its as simple as that.

 

When it comes to the Registry Cleaner, I recommend you not to touch anything there at this point.

 

And about other files such as Word documents you no longer use, you have to delete them manually.

 

Windows has an own module of disk cleanup. Go to Computer, right click your hard drive, choose Properties and then Disk Cleanup but this method usually takes a lot more time than CCleaner.

 

Here is a simple demo of how to use CCleaner.

 

[Frosta]

Ok I have actually done the first things mentioned, the only issue is that CCleaner doesn't touch my hard drive. I even tried including it in the options area but it states that it can not be selected for security purposes. It doesn't even touch base on just about anything in there. After an analysis it only shows about 201mb to be deleted. And this would be the second time I have used the program to clean. So I assume doing it frequently would help, but the last time I cleaned it did just about the same amount of space. Also I just checked everything that you mentioned as well as unchecking the few. It still doesn't read my actual C drive for unused files and folders. However the method you mentioned with window's clean up program that would probably work quite well in getting rid of the files I dont need and saving the ones I do. Especially since that is my main worry is that I may include something needed. Which is also an issue I have with uninstalling programs. This computer had half of its hard drive installed with programs that weren't needed because it was sold that way. I can look through my files and see folders dating back to before I even owned the computer. Which is why I am a bit worried I may delete or uninstall something important. I guess I may need to go through the list and research each program individually before removing it. Starting to think reformatting might be quicker, but then again with the issues the computer had straight out of the box that had to be fixed, it may just cause more problems then it will fix. Anyway I am going to give the windows cleaner a shot, thx for the tips!

[Frosta]

Ok after going through every one of my folders by examining size alone I found about 50 gigs of uneeded and forgotten files that are now gone. I am officially at 71.1gb of 105gb free space!! CCleaner helped me mop up after it <3 huzzah!

[ident]

You might want to dig a little further and look at http://windirstat.info/ It is a great program that displays where all the space is being used on your hard drive.

 

And paragraphs are your friend lol. welcome to the forum.

[Ishi]

Ok after going through every one of my folders by examining size alone I found about 50 gigs of uneeded and forgotten files that are now gone. I am officially at 71.1gb of 105gb free space!! CCleaner helped me mop up after it <3 huzzah!

There is a good chance that when you run disk cleanup with Windows' own disk cleaning module, you deleted the Windows.old folder which should contain files from a previous Windows installation.

 

You might want to dig a little further and look at http://windirstat.info/ It is a great program that displays where all the space is being used on your hard drive.

 

And paragraphs are your friend lol. welcome to the forum.

We are his/her friends too, ident.

[ident]

Of course, Just appealed to my sense of humor.

[Alan_B]

I cant even restart without it taking a century to close only god knows what. Also it has a tendency to say a program is not responding when it actually is but is just taking a little longer then normal.

 

I suggest that you use CCleaner / Tools / Startup.

 

On my P.C. I have 7 items listed, of which only one is enabled.

The other 6 are disabled, which means if I ever want them I can easily enable.

They would not appear if I deleted them - but then I cannot change my mind.

 

If you inspect your list you may see A.V. and Firewall etc. applications enabled - DO NOT DISABLE OR DELETE.

 

You may also see a gazillian other games and freebies that were planted and have been enabled.

If these are disabled your startup will be quicker, your memory will be less overcrowded,

and you will have far less to close down before doing a restart.

 

Anything which is not an obvious game etc. can possibly be disabled,

but I suggest you start with the games and come back for advice upon the others.

 

Alan