Every year billions of dollars are spent by folks just trying to improve the performance of their computers. Over the last couple years there’s been a big market for “Registry Cleaners” even though there has been little evidence having a “tidy”, smaller registry makes any difference to system performance or reliability Truth is, a few simple, free tweaks can be done which can drastically improve the speed of your computers.
A surprising number of computer issues, espesically internet related ones can be resolved by just cleaning up the Windows Temporary Internet Files Folder.
I haven’t read much from Microsoft about cluttered Temp Folders but my years of experience tell me if this file gets too large all kind of seemingly unrelated problems can result.
You might be saying “I don’t use Internet Explorer so why do I care about it’s Temp Internet Folder” option. Trust me, if you’re using Windows XP, Vista or even Windows 7, you care.
The original purpose of the Temp Internet Folder was to save time accessing web pages by storing images and other objects that don’t change on your system. This was a good idea when we were all on slow dial-up connections but today these features are no longer relevant.
Anecdotal evidence shows the Temp Internet Folder is used for more than just browsing the Internet.
So how do we fix it?
Go ahead and open Internet Explorer, Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Internet Options”. Go ahead and clicking on the Delete button on the first screen, Nothing will be deleted until the 2nd screen. Internet Explorer 8 provides more options and control over which items you’ll want to remove. It's a great reason to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 if you haven't already, in addition to the security and performance improvements. You can get IE8 through your windows updates or direclty from Microsoft here. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/
Click on the Settings button and you can tell Windows how much space to allocate for Temporary files. I recommend selecting the lowest amount recommended, usually 50MB.
If you’re looking for even more performance there are some standard changes you can make that all the experts agree on.
Adding memory will always be a big improvement. It may not be free but memory prices are very low these days.
If you’re getting a new computer and need to choose between a faster processor and more memory, go for the more memory every time.
The other tweak where you can’t go wrong is by cleaning up the list of programs which are loaded at startup.
The other tweak which many recommend is to defrag your hard drive.
Remember to dip back in every few weeks and Delete your Temporary files again, or when problems arise, and of course if you're using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox follow similar steps for those as well.
Keeping your technology running smoothly so you can focus on running your business is our business so don't hesitate to call or email with any questions.
And remember... For a Proactive Approach... Call The Technology Coach!
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