Do you guys have a Computer you wish to clean? And when I mean clean I mean get rid of all the unnecessary files and speed it up? Have no fear, this Tutorial allows you to do that if followed properly.
I will provide you a straight out Method in completely cleaning up your Computer, however this does require a Windows OS Installation Disc (i.g; Windows 7 Ultimate). Anyways, let's get started!
DISC METHOD - (Requires a USB Flash Drive or a Google Drive AND the Serial Key for your Windows Installation Disc)
1. Assuming you have a Google Drive and/or a USB Flash Drive, take all of your PERSONAL files and anything important that you need and transfer it on the Drive or the Account.(This will take a while depending on how many Personal files you plan on transferring)
2. Create a Text Document (.txt) and make a list of all of the PROGRAMS you use on a daily basis, or programs you just use in general. Then transfer it on your USB/Google Drive
3. If this is a Family Computer or if more than 1 person uses this Computer, make sure they back up any of their files if they have any they still need and want
4. Insert your Windows OS Disc and wait at least 20 seconds.
5. Double check your Computer to make sure you have everything you need, because after this process, your whole COMPUTER hard drive will be formatted and you will have a fresh clean PC to start with.
6. Turn off your Computer and turn it on again. In the loading screen, some people's OS Disc boots up right away, some need to change the boot start up settings. If the Disc doesn't boot up at start up, restart your computer, turn it back on, and keep pressing F8 or F2 (located on the top of your keyboard) and you SHOULD be able to go to the start up settings, select your CD Drive to boot first, and your Windows Installation Disc should boot up.
7. Now I can show you why you needed to Boot from the Start up. When you're at the installation screen, keep choosing your preferred settings, then when you get to the part where you choose which Drive to install the OS on, there should be a button called "Advanced Settings" or anything of that sort, then a bunch of other options are now introduced to you, what you wanna do now is select your main Hard Drive (Should be the "Primary" one) and click "format" on the bottom.
8. Afterwards, install the OS on the Hard Drive and just wait until the setup is done.
9. After the setup is done, your computer won't look the same since this is a fresh install, so you will have to update all of your drivers in order to fix that issue,
10. Once all of your drivers are updated and your Computer is up-to date. what you need to do now is get an Anti-Virus, download 1, if you cannot pay for one, get a Free Trial (I recommend BitDefender)
11. Once that is installed, insert your USB or log in to your Google Drive, and take the list of programs you made, and download and install all of the programs you still want.
12. Make a new Folder called "Backup Files" in the Document Folder, and take all of the files in your USB or Google Drive and put all of them inside your newly created Folder.
13. Download and Install a Program called "CCleaner" (Google it)
14. Make sure everything is organized, now eject your Windows OS Installation Disc and put it back in the box of course.
15. Do a FULL Scan with your Anti-Virus to make sure that everything you downloaded and installed is clean and virus-free.
16. Open "CCleaner" and click "Run Cleaner". The list on the left side can be edited so you can choose what the program cleans up and what it doesn't clean up.
17. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and toast to a FULLY cleaned PC.
If you followed my instructions properly, you should have cleaned up your PC and gained a little or a lot of speed on your computer depending on how big of a mess you had on it before you did this.
Lastly, here are a few tips and problems answered for those having trouble:
1. If the Windows Installation Disc keeps booting up no matter how many times you reboot, reboot your computer, and keep pressing F8 or F2 (whichever worked the last time), and change the boot up settings back to normal, THEN you can eject the disc.
2. If you do not have a USB Flash Drive, just use Google Drive (Should be available to you if you have a Gmail account), use this link - https://drive.google.com/
3. If you don't wanna do a full Clean up and just start new, without restarting your computer or anything like that, insert the Installation Disc, and you should be able to start the Installation from your computer.
4, If you have a lot of music, just create a list of Albums you have, and download them back later, this is not needed if you have a USB Drive with the amount of space needed.
5. If you have files that can't get uploaded to Google Drive nor can be placed in your USB, upload it to a file hosting site, and create a text document with the links of the files so you can download them later. (I recommend you upload the files to MediaFire [Google it] and put a password on the files you upload so no 1 can download them or you can just set the files to Private)
6. If you really want a like-new PC, after using this Tutorial, clean the physical part and wipe out all the dirt and dust off your computer.
If you followed this Tutorial properly, you should have a (Almost) brand new PC ready to use and it should be faster than before. If you have any problems, comment on this page and I will get back to you soon!