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Ever wonder what
happens to a software program after you’ve installed it and then never
or very seldom use it? NOTHING! And that’s the problem. Most of us buy,
borrow or download software programs, games, etc. and install them into
our computers. We use them or play them once or twice and then forget
them. But they don’t forget us. They remain in the computer, on the hard
drive and take up valuable resources even when they’re not running.
When your computer starts up your operating
system has to check on EVERY program, driver, game or what ever that is in
your computer’s registry, to make sure it’s still there and where on
the hard drive it is. The more you have in your computer, the longer it
takes to check. Think of this registry as the table of contents AND the
index of a very complex technical manual. Imagine your self reading EVERY
word in every line of ever page of the table of contents and index before
you start reading the text of the book. You might be slow starting the
book too.
Sorting out and removing these programs can be a
tremendous boost to the speed of your computer, fewer crashes and error
messages. And it’s easy to do.
Navigate to your control panel and click on
“Add Remove Programs”. Here you’ll see a list of installed software.
Some of these may have been in there for years. A word of caution! DON’T
remove anything if you aren’t sure exactly what it is! It will be
gone FOR GOOD! Click on the program you want to delete, then click the
button that says change or remove. You’ll be asked “are you sure?”
Click OK or YES and wait a few seconds. This program is now uninstalled
from your system.
Now… a note on DELETING programs. DON’T
delete programs by going into “My Computer” and then into your “C”
drive and opening up various folders, clicking to highlight them and
pressing the ‘delete’ key. This will delete the program but not remove
it from the registry. Your computer will continue to look for it and by
not finding it, tell you “Can’t find it”. This will cause error
messages, computer crashes and/or the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death.”
You clean out your car, you clean your house, so
clean out your computer once in a while. It will look cleaner and run
faster with fewer crashes and errors.
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