Posted On 21 Nov 2020

We all know that however organized we are and however hard we try, it’s very easy for our desktops and hard drives to get filled up with clutter that we don’t need and which slows down our computers significantly.

Fortunately, there are a number of available tools built into Windows that will help you remove this dead wood and get your computer running as quickly as it was straight out of the box. There are five varieties of clutter that can have a serious adverse affect on your computer’s performance:

Windows updates: sometimes when you update Windows, the download will fail and you’ll start again, not realizing that some useless files from the failed download may still be hanging around on your system.

Registry bloat: when you delete files and applications, this is still kept as a record in the computer registry alongside all actions you’ve taken; the registry can be cleared by resetting Windows.

Error logs: if your system crashes or finds processing errors, a log of the program is kept by Windows; as with the registry above, these files can take up system resources and so your computer.

User bloat: if you have a lot of files on your computer, particularly if you haven’t organized them properly, they can slow down the system.

Bloatware: this is preinstalled software placed on your system via the computer manufacturer or your retailer; a lot of it is unnecessary and never used, but runs in the background taking up processing power. Using Windows 10 Fresh Start will effectively reinstall the OS while disposing of all the unwanted software.

By refreshing or resetting Windows, you can remove nearly all of this dead wood that slows down your system. If you use the reset option, a new copy of Windows 10 will be installed and your system returned to the state it was in originally; this may include the bloatware that was on your computer when you purchased it. However, if you refresh Windows 10, you will get a new copy without this bloatware attached.

To initiate either a restart or a reset, go to Start >Settings >Update and Recovery >Recovery and follow the instructions from there.