10 ways to fix a slow PC

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

10 ways to fix a slow PC

Craig Simms

5 of 10 Screenshot by Craig Simms/CBSi

Make more space

Hard drives cope better with a bit of free space (as a general rule, 10 per cent free should keep things happy). There are two easy ways you can help get rid of things if you've been a bit of a digital pack-rat.

CCleaner will help clear away temporary files created by web browsers, install programs and more — and if you haven't done this for a long time (or ever), it can actually make a huge difference. If you're on a Mac, try OnyX.

Space Sniffer, meanwhile, will help you to weed out downloads and files you forgot existed, by showing you a spatial view of what's taking up the most room on your hard drive, allowing you to drill down to the file level, and still access Explorer's right-click menu to delete files. Don't forget you can double click on a folder to zoom in on its contents.

If you're a Mac user, check out Disk Inventory X or GrandPerspective.

Mar 5, 2012