It’s time to do the fateful spring cleaning, this means that you have to arm yourself with a lot of goodwill and get ready to dedicate a few hours to your PC to make it stable and snappy as before.
I know, it’s not really the best of fun, but try to look at the positive side of the question. You will not have to spend a penny.
In fact, there are many programs that make it possible to rebuild PCs equipped with Windows (from XP to Windows 10) in a totally free way without regretting the most noble paid solutions and, above all, without compromising the stability of the system.
Use them the right way, which is how I’m going to explain, and I promise you that in a lot less time than you fear you’ll get a fast, reliable computer with lots of free space on your hard drive.
If you are therefore really interested in finding out what you need to do to clean up your computer for free, I suggest you position yourself in front of your credit card, take a few minutes of free time and concentrate on reading this guide.
I am sure that in the end, you will be able to tell you more than satisfied and that if necessary you will also be ready and happy to explain to your needy friends to receive a similar advice as you did. What do you think we bet? Let’s take a look:
Remove unnecessary files
I would say to start this guide on how to clean up your computer for free by talking about some free programs that can help you free up space on your PC’s hard drive.
And when referring to the software of this kind, it is practically automatic to think of CCleaner.
If strangely you had never heard of it, know that it is one of the most complete and reliable free solutions to delete unnecessary files from the hard disk, repair errors in the registry (even that is “cleaning”) and delete the duplicate files from the PC.
You can download CCleaner on your computer by clicking here.When the download gets complete, open the CCleaner installation package ( ccsetupxx.exe ) and click on the Yes button.
At this point, choose English from the language selection menu (top right) and complete the setup by first clicking on Install and then on Yes and Start CCleaner.
Once the program window on the desktop is displayed, to clear the computer for free with CCleaner, click on the Analyze button and wait for the program to detect all the useless and temporary files that reside on the hard disk of the computer.
If you know where to put your hands, you can choose which items to include in the scan by putting the check mark next to the items and programs that are listed in the left sidebar.
At the end of the check, CCleaner will tell you which superfluous files have been found in the system and how much space you can free by deleting them, then click on the Start cleaning button and then on the OK button and the program will delete the detected temporary/useless items.
To delete duplicate files, however, you must go to the Tools tab in CCleaner and select the item Duplicate search.
Then set the search parameters for the tracing of duplicate files, putting the check mark next to the variables you want to include in the search (eg Name, Size, Last modification, etc.), click on the Search button and choose which files to delete between those duplicates found by the software.
You can also use this software to eliminate errors from the Windows registry (this operation can be useful to speed up the general progress of the system and eliminate many small errors that may arise in the daily use of the PC).
To take advantage of this feature, go to the Registry tab of the program, make sure that there is a check mark next to all the options placed under the heading Clean registry and click on the Find problems button to start scanning the Windows registry.
At the end of the operation (it takes a few seconds), click the Repair button selected to clear the Windows registry from obsolete and no longer valid keys.
As a precautionary measure, you can also create a backup copy of the registry before cleaning it, replying OK to the request that appears after clicking on Repair selected for the first time.
Delete data that takes up more space
Another program that can help you clean up your computer for free is Free Disk Usage Analyzer which, as the name suggests quite easily, analyzes the contents of the PC’s hard drive and highlights which files and folders are the most space.
In this way, you can easily identify the most “cumbersome” elements and proceed with their deletion or their movement on other media (eg DVD, external hard drives, etc.) to free the hard disk of the computer.
You can download Free Disk Usage Analyzer on your PC by clicking here and then click on the green Free Download button and then on the Download Now item located under the application name.
When download gets complete to open, double-click on the file you just downloaded ( FreeDiskAnalyzer.exe ) and, in the window that opens. Click on Run and then on Next twice in a row.
Then accept the terms of use of the program, putting the check mark next to the entry I accept the terms of the license agreement.
Now click on Next two consecutive times and then on Finish to complete the installation process. Then start Free Disk Usage Analyzer.
Now, select the local disk C: from the sidebar of the program and navigate to the directories where you want to look for files and folders that occupy the most disk space.
Every time you select a folder, you have to wait for the contents of the drive to be analyzed to evaluate the size of all the elements (the progress bar located at the top right must become completely green).
So you do not have to analyze the most “full-bodied” elements and eliminate them from the PC to “clean” them as much as possible.
Perform a complete maintenance
At this point, your computer’s hard drive should be free enough but there is another step that I suggest you do to clean up your computer for free: use IObit Advanced System Care Free.
This is a free suite for Windows maintenance that allows you to get rid of the useless files on the hard disk, errors in the system registry and other “ballast” that can negatively affect the overall performance of the system and Internet browsing.
To download IObit Advanced SystemCare Free on your PC, click here to connect to the Internet site of the program and click on the Free Download button and then on that Free Download attached to the new Web page that will open.
When the download gets complete to open, double-click on it. Then a new window will open, click on the first Yes and then Accept and install then complete the installation process and start IObit Advanced SystemCare Free.
At this point, wait until the window of the program is visible on the screen and then put the check mark on the box next to the item Select all, click on the OK button attached to the new window that is shown to you and then click on the Scan button to start a complete system scan.
At the end of the procedure, click the Repair button. In this way, disk space will be freed by deleting the useless files.
The errors in the system registry will be corrected, the Internet connection parameters will be optimized, the disk will be defragmented and other operations will be performed to return a snappy PC as when you bought. Or it is better than this?
Install a good antivirus
As icing on the cake, I invite you finally to make a good antivirus scan to detect and remove any malicious elements in the system (which can slow down the PC as well as damage Windows and pose a privacy risk).
To scan for viruses, you have a wide range of programs to choose from: Bitdefender, Avast, Avira and more. You just have to choose any one, install it on your PC and run a full scan of your computer. It will take some time but it is an operation that must be done from time to time.
If you can not perform a full scan of your PC, there is probably malware that prevents the antivirus from functioning properly.
To avoid this problem, download a self-starting antivirus (eg Kaspersky Rescue Disk ), copy it to a USB stick or diskette and use the latter to boot.
Use an antimalware
There are some computer threats, such as spyware and browser hijackers (those malware that alter the homepage and browser search engine), which antivirus can “escape”: that’s why, regardless of the result of antivirus scanning, you should also install good antimalware software and you should perform a full scan of the PC with the latter.
To clean up your computer for free from malware, I suggest you to use Malwarebytes Antimalware (it does not overlap with the antivirus, as it does not have a real-time control module).
This is an excellent free program which, in fact, is perfectly capable of removing Trojans, worms, rootkits, dialers, spyware and other types of malware from your computer.
You can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on your PC by click here. Then click on the button Start the free 14-day trial period.
When the download gets complete, double-click the file you just downloaded (eg mbam-setup-2.xxexe ). In the window that opens, click on Run button.
Then click Yes, OK and Next. Now accept the conditions of use of the software by putting the check mark next to the entry I accept the terms of the license agreement.
Then click Next five times in a row and then on Install and Finish to finish the setup. Select the Activate Free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro Trial item as well.
Then wait a few moments until the Malwarebytes window is visible on the desktop. Wait for the latest antimalware definitions to be downloaded from the Internet.
Then click on the Scanning tab at the top, select the Search for harmful items section on the left, and then click the Start scan button.
Now wait for the software to complete the control of the entire computer and then make sure that there is a check mark next to all the threats detected and click on Apply actions to eradicate them.
I hope this article has solved your problem. But if you still have any problem then please feel free to ask in our comment box.