Over time, your computer can quickly become filled with unneeded files and obsolete settings. And because of all this clutter, performance suffers—every time you start your computer or open a program, your PC has to load and process all these useless items.

Effects of clutter

If you're experiencing any of the following, it's time for a Spring cleaning:

• Recurrent crashes and lock-ups. Unnecessary files overtax the operating system. With an excessive amount of debris, Windows behaves in unusual ways, including locking up and crashing.
• Slow loading times. Insufficient RAM is a key component of what makes a PC slow. Clutter can waste hundreds of megabytes of RAM and dramatically slow down your PC.
• Perplexing error messages. Your computer is wasting resources trying to decipher invalid and obsolete settings, rather than processing the services you really need.
• Unstable PC. Broken and obsolete settings can cause conflicts with other software and lead to lockups and overall PC instability.

Solutions

Below are some easy cleanup tasks you can run in System Mechanic to keep your PC clean and running at its maximum performance.

• Streamline Windows startup with "Optimize Windows Startup"  Eliminating unwanted programs from startup is one of the most effective ways to speed up a PC. Your computer starts up faster and, by reducing the number of programs loaded in memory, your computer runs faster, too.

[TO ACCESS: Tools > Individual Tools > Increase Performance > Optimize Windows Startup]


• Clean the registry with "Repair Registry Problems"  Your computer constantly references the registry, so cleaning it and removing invalid data references gives an immediate boost to your PC's speed and reliability.
  
  [TO ACCESS: Tools > Individual Tools > Repair Problems > Repair Registry Problems]
  
  
• Erase unneeded files with "PC Cleanup"  Simply deleting files from temporary directories does not completely delete all the clutter. Use the PC Cleanup Wizard to thoroughly clean out unneeded debris from up to six PC locations.

[TO ACCESS: Tools > Power Tools >  PC Cleanup]


• Automate cleanings with ActiveCare  With System Mechanic's built-in ActiveCare™ technology, you can configure cleanups to run automatically behind-the -scenes. ActiveCare runs onlywhen you're not using your computer, so there's no interference in your work and no drain on resources.
  
  We recommend you enable the following Automated Tasks to keep your computer clean and streamlined:
  
  
  • Automatically clean up excessive system clutter
  • Automatically repair registry problems
  • Automatically optimize startup configuration
  • Automatically repair broken shortcuts

[TO ACCESS: ActiveCare > Automated Tasks]