Simple Cleaning Process to make PCs Running Great Again (Part 1)

11 November 2018

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Simple Cleaning Process  to make PCs Running Great Again (Part 1)

Introduction

This topic must have been blogged a thousand times but many users just ignored them as we often come across PCs or  laptops (PCs)  running programs at snail speed.   For example,   one user complained that his PCs took more than 5 minutes to fire up the Google Chrome.  We found that his PC has to start 60 programs during each startup before reaching the Google Chrome pages.  This article serves to simplify the process of cleaning up the PCs and make the PCs running great again.   

What’s Needed? 

Nothing   Absolutely nothing except  a “DARING HEART”,  preparing to delete the unwanted programs;  after all,  most essential programs are self protected to prevent users from deleting them.  Very often,  a restarting will restore all those deleted programs.  So be daring,  not to worry that this simple cleaning process will destroy the PCs.   

Step by Step

I)  The Simple  Clean Up

Description	Action	Remark
1.  Back up the PCs	1.  Press [Win +R] and type [control].  In the search box of  [Control Panel],  type [system protection].  Select [Create a restore point],  the press [Create] to create a [System Restore Point].    2.  Check if the [System Restore Point] has been saved by pressing [System Restore] button  3.  If one really think that this is necessary as an insurance,  download this  [Registry Backup and Restore].   It is a  program which will restore the registry data to its previous glory.	Apply to Win 7 & Win10.    This will help user to restore the Windows should something were to go wrong
2.  Clean up the PCs
a)  Program Required	Download free version [CCleaner] from this website.
b)  Cleaning up	1.  Start up [CCleaner] and in the first screen,  click [Run Cleaner]	The screen will show the steps taken to clean the computer.  Can play around with the various function available to clean more “debris”
3) Clean Auto-Start Program	1.  Click [Tools] and select [Startup].   Just  simply click all those [Yes] and change them to [No]  in each and every folder.	Don’t worry.  One can always  come back and restore them.  Protected programs will not allow users to delete them
4.  Complete Cleaning	By restarting the PC	One should now find the PCs running much faster and more responsive.

II)  Others (Slow Internet Browsing) 

Description	Action	Remark
1.  Check Internet Connections	1.  Test the downloading speed as well as uploading speed using the browser	This should always be the first step,  particularly when this slowness happens during peak internet usage. One can test the internet speed by clicking the following 1.  Ookla Speed Tester; 2.  Fast Speed Tester For normal internet operation, the downloading speed should be at least around 30 Mbps, depending on number of internet users in the household.   Here is one guideline to determine how much one will need the internet speed to be
2.  Remove Add-ons	1.  Go to the setting page of the browser,  click the add-on tabs.  (use HELP of browser to navigate) 2.  Clear or disable as much as possible all the add-ons as many as possible without seriously affecting the browser operation	Add-ons are external programs added to enhance the operation of the internet;  some of these add-ons are CPU or power hungry and might slow down the browser operation

III)  The Advance Steps

To be taken if the above simple clean up does not help;  this method is also effective in removing virus files from the PC.

Description	Action	Remark
1.  Locate the nasty Programs or Processes	Left click the [task bar] and select [Task Manager].  At the bottom of the screen,     click [show all processes from all users] for Win7 or [More details] for Win 10	To bring up the Task Manager and show all processes including the CPU idling process.
	2. In the [Processes] folder,  click the [CPU] tab to sort the processes in terms of usage
	3.  Locate the processes that  use up more than 10% CPU time. Left click at the process  and select [Open file location].  Copy down the file name and its  location.  Now come back to [Task Manager] to click  [End Task] to deactivate the process.	If the Windows is working fine,  CPU should  spend less than 1% at idling.  Ending those tasks with high CPU usage will stop the background programs from running and speed up the PCs.   Do not worry about Ending the processes as they will be restored when PC is restarted unless the files are deleted.
	4.  Check if PC is running faster and if most essential programs still running well.	Double check before proceeding to delete the files in its location.
	5.  After assuring that  the PC  is working fine and much faster,  go to the file location,  change the file name by adding  a [.bak] at the back of file name.	Just in case the file was found to affect the PC's working,  just restored it by deleting [.bak]
	6.  Restart and make sure the process is no longer running	You are done and go to attend to the  next process.

Some Questions and Answers

Questions	Answers	Remarks
1.  Why I cannot end the process of a specific task in Task Manager?	The file could have been locked during windows startup.  Try starting Windows using [Safe Mode]  and repeat ending the task.  If one could find the defaulted file,   go to the file location and change the file by putting a [.bak] at the end of the file name
2.  Why I cannot restore the system?	Some viruses could have locked the restore function of the Windows.  Do the following things 1.  Do a system file check to see if system files have been corrupted or missing and search Web to find a solution 2.  Try starting up Windows in [Safe Mode] and retry the steps.
3.  How to do a system file check?	In the startup search box,  type [cmd] as Administrator and at the [Command Prompt] cursor,  type [sfc /scannow]	SFC will attempt to repair the files but if it fail,  follow its instruction to inspect the log and search Web to find a solution

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