Tips On Which Files You Can Delete To Speed Up A Slow Computer

Guest Post By Benjamin Reader

Freeing up disk space by deleting files is one of the actions you can take to speed up your slow computer. But there are many files on your computer so which ones is it safe to delete and how should you find them?

One method is to do a search and apply a search filter that will find all files greater than a certain size (for example greater than 10 megabytes). Once you have found the files you then sort them by size so they appear in Windows Explorer from largest to smallest. It is then an easy matter to select those files you are certain that know you don’t need and to delete them. Remember to delete only files you know you don’t need and that you shouldn’t delete any system files or files for which you are unsure of their purpose.

Another method of freeing up additional disk space is to do a search for duplicate files on your PC and to then delete any duplicates ensuring that you always have at least one copy of each file remaining. Duplicate files are created when you accidentally save the same file in multiple locations. To find duplicate files you will need to download and install a piece of software called a “duplicate file finder” and then you will need to run it so that it can find the duplicates. Typically duplicate files are Microsoft Office documents including word documents, excel spreadsheets, powerpoint files, and they are also multimedia files including image, music and movie files.

One of the really monster files that people frequently find on their PC and that seems to sit there doing absolutely nothing is the memory.dmp file or in plain English, the memory dump file. This file is actually a back up of everything that was loaded into your system’s memory (RAM) the last time that you experienced a total system failure otherwise known as a crash or the “blue screen of death”. Your computer automatically creates this back up so that when you restart after the crash. This file can be really huge and is usually the same size as your system’s memory, so for example if you have 1 gigabyte of RAM, then the file will be 1 gigabyte in size. In reality, only advanced programmers can access this file as its contents are in code that makes no sense to everyday computer users. It is therefore ok to delete this file and doing so will usually free up a significant amount of disk space.

Temp or temporary files are files created by the software on your computer and containing information which the software requires temporarily while it is running. Rather than deleting the files, often the software will just leave them on your hard drive where they accumulate and take up more and more space. Consequently, if you can carry out a search for these files and then remove them from your hard drive you can free up significant amounts of disk space which will contribute to a quicker and more efficiently running PC.

For further information on what you can do to speed up your slow computer please visit speed-up-your-slow-computer.com