Disk clean up and Defragmitizer

I am pretty much a novice in the computer world compared to most on this site, I have had my AAO for about a month now. It has been a great little computer (Does everything my $1000.00 Dell does, and I have sold two other AAO'S, WAITING FOR MY COMMISSION CHECK ACER), it started slowing down a bit, especially surfing the web. I did the disk cleanup and defrag, it became as fast as it was before, it obviously worked but can someone give me some insight on what that action does and how often should it be done. THANKS

 

The disk clean up clears out temporary files from your computer. Sometimes from installation processes, system crashes, other temporary files, empties any current items in your recycle bin and a few other things. I usually run this once a week or every other, but I like to keep my hard drive as free as possible. I might be running it a bit too much. I would however do this at least once a month or if your computer is starting to feel slow.

A defragment is a bit more complicated. As you use your hard drive files become fragmented and end up on different parts of the drive. A defrag tries to move your files closer together so that the hard drive does not need to spend as much time searching itself to find what you are looking for. I run this around once a month or when I remember.

Hope that helps some.

 

If you're using the MS software, you ought to look into CCleaner instead. It has separate comprehensive cleanups for useless files and registry entries, and is one of the few utilities that really makes a performance difference. It takes a little check-box configuring to not delete cookies, etc. that you want to keep, but it is harmless - despite the shocking number of entries it finds and deletes. (It's free and perennially on those magazine "top software" lists.) The company also provides a free faster defrag called "Defraggler"

 

Google "Advanced System Care", download and install. Also use "Ccleaner". Both are free programs and both will make a backup before it makes registry changes. I use both, along with FreeRAM XP Pro to keep all my computers running smoothly.

 

I followed your suggestions and added CCleaner and Advanced System Care, WOW is all I can say. Thanks a bunch folks for your helpful tips, my AAO is three times faster then it was. I keep checking this site every couple of days and I figure within the next 6 months or so I will actually know a thing or two about this AAO and things I can do to make it even better, thanks for your patience and THANKS AGAIN for the tips!!!!!!!!!!!