Speed up your system..and other programs!

Here's a few tips on cleaning up your hard drive and speeding up your overall programs.  This is especially useful if you save a lot of pictures:

Dump your thumbnails file (C>.thumbnails or C>Users>Name>.thumbnails). Simply delete the contents of the folder "fail" and "normal". Sometimes "normal" may be 100 megs. You can change this with preferences too, this just seems easier for me.

Empty the Recycle Bin so you computer knows it has that space available. If you don't empty it, then that stuff is still sitting there taking up space. After dumping the RB, the info is still there but the computer knows it can write over it with something else and shows it as available space on your HD.

You also want to remove brushes and patterns that you are not using from photo-editing software. You don't have to delete them, just move them to another file. When I make new patterns and brushes I copy them to the "To Burn" file immediately so I can have them for later and I don't forget if I'd rather save them on a disk.

To go one step further, you can now clean out your temporary internet files and if you haven't in a while, defrag your baby too. All of this makes every program you have run faster, not just internet. About 2-4 times a year you should clean your computer. If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, spend the money and bring it in. Some shops have discounts for regular maintenance. Sometimes cleanings are under your warranty, read your small print or call the store to find out. A tower full of dust bunnies will run hotter, using more power and running harder, in the end slower. The only thing fast on a dirty computer is the time that comes when the computer quits. I don't recommend cleaning it yourself because static electricity can zap a computer and then all you have is a paperweight. ALWAYS back up your stuff before cleaning the insides of your tower. I will do my own tower but I have my laptop done at a shop. Don't forget to clean your mouse and keyboard. A sticky key on my friend's computer happened to be the F10 key, which upon reboot put her into system restore. She lost everything.

Lastly, to make programs start up better, always shut them down by using the File>Quit or Exit option instead of hitting the little x's at the top right corners. The little x's is almost equivalent to a hard shut down or a crash.

Go on now, don't waste another minute, clean up your system and maintain it.