If you’re a smart PC user, then you tune up your PC on a regular basis. Tuning up your PC isn’t rocket science and it doesn’t take lots of time. Best of all – you can immediately see the benefits of tuning your PC.
But what should you actually do when tuning up your PC? What does “tuning up a PC” actually mean? Today, we’re going to answer those questions and show you 6 specific things to do when tuning up your PC:

6) Uninstall old programs and delete unnecessary files

Your hard drive has a finite amount of space. When that space fills up, your computer gets slower.
Even if you have a large hard drive – say, 1TB or more – your hard drive is going to perform more slowly when it fills up with more and more data. As you reach your hard drive’s total limit, your computer’s performance will slow to a crawl. To prevent this from affecting your PC’s performance, clean your PC on a regular basis and delete all unnecessary, unused files. Uninstall any large programs or games you no longer use.

Big files include HD videos or pictures that are backed up in other parts of your hard drive. Reduce duplicate files wherever possible and consider backing everything up to a cloud service to reduce your dependence on physical storage space.

5) Perform an antivirus scan

Nothing slows down your PC faster than a virus or malware infection. Even the most PC-savvy users get viruses from time to time, and your PC is no exception to that rule. Scan your computer with good antivirus software to identify any virus/malware problems before they become serious. You don’t want your identity stolen!

4) Clean your registry

Most PC users have heard of the Windows Registry, but most PC users have no idea what the Windows Registry actually does. The Windows Registry stores all your program configuration data and is essential for the healthy, fast operation of your PC.

Cleaning your registry requires special software. Fortunately, there is plenty of registry cleaning software to be found online. I recommend PC Cleaner Pro, but only because it does so much more than just clean your registry.

3) Update Windows and driver software

Windows generally installs updates on its own. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, Windows doesn’t install important updates that your computer needs, while in other cases, you might have accidentally turned off the automatic update system.
Whatever the case may be, you can fix it easily by typing update Windows into your Windows Start menu search bar.

While you’re waiting for your Windows update to finish downloading, search for driver updates. Identify your video card, sound card, and motherboard by typing dxdiag into the Start menu search bar. Then, search for those drivers at www.Nvidia.com or www.AMD.com, among other manufacturers’ websites. If you play a lot of PC games, then updating driver software is an absolute must. 

2) Run a PC Cleaner Pro scan

PC Cleaner Pro is an all-in-one PC optimization software capable of boosting your PC into overdrive. It performs several optimization tasks at once and often finds PC errors that other software overlooks.

PC Cleaner Pro is free to scan, so you don’t have to buy ANYTHING until you see the results of your scan. Sometimes, scans don’t return any problems. In other cases, they can return hundreds or even thousands of results.
If you see serious errors after performing a scan, then paying $30 to activate the software is a small price to pay for faster performance and better security. But hey, it’s up to you.

1) Backup your data

Once you’re finished performing all the other tune up steps, it’s a good idea to back up your PC. Backing up your PC secures all your data in a safe place. If something awful happens to your PC, then all your data isn’t lost. Learn how to quickly and easily back up your PC here.
All of these tune up tasks, when performed together, shouldn’t take more than 10 to 20 minutes. These 10 to 20 minutes can save hours of frustration and extend your PC’s lifespan by years. You can also perform many of these tasks simultaneously to cut down on time.

Note: We’ve received a lot of emails asking us why we didn’t include defragmenting the hard drive in this list. The main reason is that defragmenting the hard drive is totally unnecessary in Windows 7 and Windows 8. Both of these operating systems automatically defragment the operating system without you even knowing it – defragging software is a thing of the past!