Occasionally it is worth checking to see if you have any temporary files collected. These should be deleted whenever the application that created them is finished with them, or whenever Windows closes down, but bad programming and crashes mean that they can sometimes be left behind.

In order to delete these files we must first make the folder that contains them visible. To do this you need to open Windows Explorer - by double-clicking on ‘My Computer’, holding down the Windows key and pressing E, or whichever your preferred method is - pulling down the ‘Tools’ menu and selecting ‘Folder Options’. Select the ‘View’ page and make sure that ‘Show hidden files and folders is selected’.

Next you will need to open your system drive; which, for most people, will be the ‘C: drive.’ From there double click on ‘Documents and Settings’. This will open the folder that contains all the profiles for all the users on the PC. Open up the folder for your user, if you are not sure what your user-name is open the Start menu which should show your user-name at the top.

If you are running low on hard-drive space it may be time for a purge of files that you no longer use, or have no wish to keep any more. In my previous post on this subject I suggested installing and running the excellent Treesize to find out the size of each folder, and I explained how to clear the cache in your web browser. In this post I will describe what steps to take in a more general purge of unwanted files.

Removing unwanted applications
From the Control Panel and open either ‘Add or Remove Programs’, or ‘Uninstall a Program’ (if you use Vista). Go through the list of programs and remove any that you don’t use any more. This may sound like obvious advice, but the easy availability of freeware programs means that many of us have collections of applications installed on our machines that we played with once or twice and then forgot about.

Removing non-essential files
Over time, Windows collects various temporary files, logs and other non-essential files. To delete these, go to the ‘Start’ menu and select ‘Search’. You may then have to select ‘All files and folders.’ In the search…