Your comprehensive guide to properly cleaning Windows 10 and boosting performance

 

We all know that the time factor plays a big role in hardware performance levels, meaning if you owned a desktop computer or laptop a decade ago, it is difficult for it to have the ability to deal with current software tools and modern games – unless this computer is of a class High-Performance Computers - But we can say that computers of the economy and middle-class age early, especially if we deal with them in the wrong way. Yes, good treatment of hardware parts, cleaning them from dust and dirt from time to time, checking their temperatures, and changing the paste when damaged are all factors that help extend the life of parts, improve the level of general performance, and avoid many problems.

 

But what do you do if your computer starts to feel unstable while you are using it, or if you start to experience noticeable drops and drops in the number of frames while playing games, or if you experience abnormal time delays while working on your essential business suite? In this case, rooting/installing a new Windows 10 system may be a radical solution to all these problems and it is the famous solution of the nuclear option because it eliminates everything. But we agree that it is an impractical solution and most of us do not prefer to resort to it except in extreme cases and after losing hope. So, let's explain the right steps to clean Windows and boost your computer's performance again.

 

1- Delete the Windows Old folder and temporary files

 

The Windows Old folder should be automatically deleted 10 days after upgrading to the latest version. But if you absolutely need to free up all that disk space as quickly as possible, you can do it manually without waiting. But you must be confident that you will not need to go back to the old version later.

 

You will also be able to delete the temporary files folder. These files may be needed by the Windows system to perform some operations in the future if it finds itself needing them again, but if you want to free up more space, you can delete the temporary files as well. To be able to do this, open the Settings window from the Start menu, then select the System tab, then Storage. Here you will find the temporary files section. You will click on it with the left mouse button and wait for Windows to load all the files and folders that you can delete. You can check the box next to Previous Windows Installations if you want to delete the old version of Windows, and then click on the Remove Files tab.

 

2- Remove unused programs

 

This is the second stop you should stop at to properly clean Windows. You may think that it is an unnecessary step, but it is one of the most important steps that will help you get rid of the programs that cause the depletion of hardware resources and the consumption of the Internet package in updates and that they occupy a lot of space in the C sector.

 

If you are not one of the computer users who are famous for quickly deleting programs, you will be surprised by the terrible number of unnecessary programs in the system control panel. To be able to do this process, go to the “Control Panel” and then from the “Uninstall” window, uninstall all the programs that you no longer need – but be careful not to delete anything important for the computer to work properly – you can Search on Google to see if this program is safe to delete or not.

 

3- Check your computer for viruses and malware

 

The second routine but necessary step. It is recognized that viruses cause slow computer performance, and it is possible that most of the problems of performance delays or encountering errors and the computer working abnormally is the presence of malicious files or malicious programs that you have. You can rely on any antivirus program according to your personal preference, and make sure you give this a try by choosing the Full Scan or Deep Scan command to make sure it hasn't missed anything.

 

It is better to focus on malware rather than viruses, and in this field, you will find Malwarebytes one of the best solutions that you can trust and rely on to remove any type of malware such as Trojans, backdoors, malicious adware, and spyware

 

4- Clean the storage disk

 

Like all previous Windows systems, Windows 10 provides a tool to clean the storage disk of unnecessary files. It is still the same efficient and effective in cleaning and raising the level of the general performance of the computer. You can open Disk Cleanup from the Start menu or by going to Control Panel and searching for Administrative Tools and then Disk Cleanup.

 

Before performing the scan, click Clean up system files. This method allows for a more thorough scan by checking for outdated Windows Update files and Log Files. In general, you are allowed to delete all the data that the tool finds as a result of the search process, where you can activate the box next to each result separately and then agree OK – but remember that this attempt will delete the files of the old Windows system, meaning that you will not be able to return to the version The former is no longer the same as the first step.

 

5- Defragment your hard drive

 

The Windows 10 system is interested in activating the defragmentation technology automatically when the system feels that it requires it, but since we are doing an extensive cleaning process, we should take care of doing manual defragmentation to improve the efficiency and speed of the storage disks. In the Control Panel, search for Defragment and Optimize Drives, then open the Administrative Tools command, and in the new window, you will find the Defragmentation command. In the new window, select the system storage disk of the C sector, then click the Optimize tab from the bottom right of the window. Optimization can be done for all sectors of a storage disk.

 

6- Deleting old leadership definitions

 

By a very large percentage, if you did not install a new Windows 10 system in several years, it is likely that there are a large number of installed driver drivers that you no longer need as a result of abandoning or replacing some hardware parts with new ones. The Windows system always stores a backup copy of the old driver definitions in case you had to return to them as a result of the instability of the new version. Certainly, driver definitions take up a large amount of storage disk space and the C sector in particular.

 

But we always want to remind you before deleting these definitions, make sure that you do not need them anymore, and in the event that you deleted them and regretted that, you can always search for them and install them again through the official pages of your hardware parts. There are two ways to delete drivers, the first is through the Command Prompt, and the second is the easiest, through the Device Manager window.

 

After the Device Manager window opens, click on the View tab, and from the drop-down list, choose Show hidden Devices, so that all active and inactive devices are shown together. Now search for the devices that you no longer use, right-click on them, and uninstall them. In this way, you will get rid of unnecessary driver definitions and save a lot of space in the storage disk memory.

 

7- Refresh your startup list

 

Almost any Windows user knows how important the computer boot time is and how it differs significantly from other operating systems such as Linux, macOS, or Chrome OS. Mostly all necessary and non-essential programs are launched when Windows starts, which causes more delays in the booting phase and consumes more RAM and CPU resources.

 

This step is routine and most of us may already be familiar with it, just click on the Alt + Crtl_Del keys together and then choose the Task Manager, and from the task manager window choose the StartUp tab from the top, and now in front of you are all the programs that the Windows system is interested in activating and running immediately after the system starts, select all the programs that you do not need after startup and make sure to uninstall them.

 

8- Clean the AppData folder

 

It's common knowledge that when you uninstall a program many remnants of it remain scattered around the C sector, and the AppData folder is one of the most famous places to keep leftovers of programs and applications. This folder is hidden by default, but its correct path is found after opening the Users folder, then the Username folder, and then you will immediately find the hidden AppData folder in front of you. Inside the folder you will notice three more subfolders, you will need to check all three folders for traces of any leftovers from old programs and delete them. If you want a tool that has the ability to unroot software you can use UnistallGeek which is a great and must-have tool to get rid of all software leftovers during uninstall processes.

 

9- Delete old program files

 

Another place where you will often find leftover programs that you no longer need is in the Program Files folders, located by default in the C sector labeled Program Files and Program Files X86. Just like the same plan we followed with the AppData folder, you'll need to delete all the program folders that you removed and no longer need.

 

10- Clean the registry

 

This is one of the most delicate steps, it does not allow for error, but it is necessary to clean and arrange the registry cell properly, the registry cell is like a library that contains thousands of books and various fields. The higher the number of records, the more difficult it is to find the book you want in a quick period of time, exactly the same with the registry hive, the higher the number of records, the slower the Windows system during new entries.

 

Now open the Run window and write the Regedit command in it, and after clicking OK, search for both \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and in both paths you will need to check them carefully and quietly to delete all traces of the remaining programs that you removed. Once again, we want to remind you that a mistake in this step is not allowed and may result in serious consequences for the performance of the Windows system, so be careful and only delete the entries that you are absolutely sure that they are no longer necessary for you.

 

11- Clean caches

 

Windows 10 is full of caches, which are temporary files that the system may need again in the future. But if he does not need it again, then the storage disk will be full of scattered files that you can call unusable waste. Cleaning these caches may take a long time for you, but it is one of the necessary things that help clean Windows and provide more space than the storage disk capacity.