|
| |
| Clear the
Clutter |
 |
Delete Junk Programs
Unused programs clutter your hard drive,
robbing you of valuable space and ultimately slowing down system performance.
Hard drive clutter also causes conflicts with the useful apps on your system.
Our test machines showed significantly faster performance and increased
stability when we simply removed a few unused programs.
|
|
The Windows
Add/Remove Programs applet can't do it all, but it's a good place to
start.
|
To get your hard drive squeaky clean, use an uninstaller application, such as
the $50 Norton CleanSweep Deluxe from Symantec. CleanSweep keeps track of unused
files, schedules cleanup jobs, and removes applications more completely than the
Windows Add/Remove Programs utility. If you're on a budget and can't afford
CleanSweep, try a shareware uninstaller, or keep a close watch on the
applications you install, and remove any that cause problems.
Lose the Extra
Fonts
If you have more fonts than you really
use, you're wasting precious disk space. To find out how many fonts are on your
system, open the Fonts Control Panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel/Fonts). There
you'll find a list of all your installed fonts. Double-click a font's name to
get copyright info and file size, as well as an example of what the font looks
like at sizes up to 72 points. Delete any unnecessary fonts, and you'll free up
a bunch of disk space.
Tidy Up the
Registry
The Windows Registry
is a database of all your system's settings and software. Whenever a Windows 95
or 98 program is installed, removed, or modified, Windows updates the Registry
to reflect the change--or, at least, that's how it's supposed to work.
Real life is less tidy. System crashes, buggy uninstall programs, and plain
old bad luck can clutter your Registry, leaving it full of improper
associations, bogus lists of installed programs, and all sorts of other junk
that can slow down and even crash your operating system.
If you really know what you're doing, you can clean the Registry with
RegEdit (the Windows Registry editor). For most users, though, we suggest a
safer alternative: Microsoft's RegClean. This download hunts down and removes
bogus Registry entries automatically. It can also reverse any changes you make
and restore your previous Registry if something goes wrong. Most uninstallers,
such as CleanSweep, also clean your Registry--and they do a better job than the
free RegClean. Make a routine of cleaning the Registry, and Windows 98 will run
faster and be more reliable.
|
