Clean up your hard disk

It doesn’t take long for any hard disk to pick up lots of junk files. For example, whenever you go on to the Internet almost all the information that you see has been downloaded to your hard disk. Other applications such as Word and Excel create temporary files as soon as you open them. Over time these temporary files can eat up lots of your hard disk space.

Fortunately Windows PCs come equipped with a utility to clean it all up. Click on “Start” and open “Computer” (“My Computer” in XP). Click with the right mouse button (right-click) on your system disk – which is usually called “Drive (C:)” or “Disk (C:)”. In the menu list select “Properties”. Click on the tab labelled “General” and then click the “Disk Cleanup” button. Disk Cleanup will find all the temporary files and other junk files that are safe to delete from your hard disk and present you with a report. Go through the list and put a tick in the box next to any other types of files you want to delete. Click “OK” and then “Delete Files” (“Yes” in XP).

Do this every month or so to help keep your hard disk free of junk files and your computer working well.

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