For more on cleaning up your computer
Checkout our earlier articles.

9. Old User Accounts
Did you inherit a computer, or has anyone else been logging onto it using a different username/account? If so removing unused user accounts is a great way to free up hard drive disk space.

When removing a user account its important not to just delete it, Windows provides us with a way to remove it properly.

This can be done by going to Control Panel – System – Advanced – under User Profiles select Settings – Now you will see any old accounts and the size on the disk they are taking up, select any you don’t want and select Delete – Confirm deletion and after a few seconds depending on its size it will be removed, this will remove everything from the profile as though it never existed in the first place.

Note – you cannot delete the profile or account that you are currently logged in as

10. Deleting or Archiving Old Emails
Deleting or archiving emails is a big part of cleaning up your computer.

If like me you receive lots of emails every day how often do you have a good cleanup

This can lead to a large amount of emails which of course takes up space and will make your email application run slower.

I use Microsoft Outlook it’s a great program if used properly as it can automatically archive your emails, but like any email if left un-maintained over a period of time it will get very messy very quickly.

Did you know that a single Outlook personal folder can hold 20gb of data that can equate to around 40,000 emails, not only is this a large amount of space, but the sheer number of files can give Windows a real nightmare just displaying the directory they are stored in.

So we have email archiving, this is just a case of right clicking on any folder and then selecting properties and Auto Archive then choose your settings.

On a final note

Once you have your computer the way you want it make cleaning up your computer a part of general periodic maintenance this way it won’t take much time and will keep your computer running well.

Be sure to check out the start of our computer file clearout article

computer adviser cleaning up your computer article