Junk Files on PC

#1

My computer has started to slow down. I have Trend Micro installed but does anyone know of a free web based tool that will scan the PC and delete any junk files that may be slowing the PC down.

Thanks

#2

Maria - I am not an expert on computers, but will answer what I can through my own experience. I used Trend Micro and liked it, but have switched to ESET. There is a forum post here on ESET. It works much better as far as resource use. Resource use is what is going to be the big problem for most of us that don’t have massive processors. And that is probably what is making your computer slow down.

To your question, in my experience, none of the free tools are worth it. There is a reason they are free…

If you computer is slowing down, it is generally because of a drain on your RAM. Every program that you run, even those in that run in the background, use RAM. There is only so much pie, and as each takes a little slice, there is only so much left over for the things that you want. I am a MAC guy, and use a PC only to trade, and i cleared a bunch of unneeded programs and processes that were taking up a bunch of RAM. I have 6 GB RAM, and since I have cleaned up some of the processes I haven’t had any problems. Granted, I only use the PC for trading.

Here are a couple of articles that I used to clean up my PC:

What Processes are Safe to Close? | PCWorld

15 Task Manager tips for a faster PC | News | TechRadar http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing/pc/15-task-manager-tips-for-a-faster-pc-649623

Just before you do anything make sure you back up your computer and have a boot disk.

Here is a good website that has tutorial on how to do some of that, and a lot of other good PC stuff:

Tom’s Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews

Hopefully that helps…

Happy trading!!! Brad

#3

Maria I am for sure not a computer genius so I have to have v-e-r-y simple stuff. My best shot at this is a freebee from Piriform called CCleaner. I run the Cleaner and the Registry every single day at either the end or the beginning of each trading day. The Tools button on that is the easiest way to uninstall old stuff you don’t need nor want too & get that out of your way. After running this I restart the computer & I have very few problems. I have also found it cleans up Chrome issues too.

                                                                                                 Marilyn
#4

Thanks my fellow non computer geniuses, I will take a look at all of your suggestions. I ran the System Tuner on Trend Micro and that has helped a great deal. There are still a number of junk files i need to get rid of which i will work on tonight. Thanks again, have a good weekend and happy trading to all.

Maria

#5

My friend who is T3 tech told me about Microsoft Windows Defender it is free. I use it and it works great.

KJ