Clean up Windows PC or laptop

We all recognize this…… Over a period of time your Windows PC gets slower……. and slower……. and slower…..

Until the moment you want to throw it out of the Window.

Is doing that the right solution ?

Need to reinstall ?

Nope. Just follow these steps to make it back lighting fast, when you got it.

I wrote this article after a client with a red hat dropped a laptop at my desk claiming it was worthless.

Can you look into this ? Sure I can.

So lets get into the technical stuff of making your PC new.

First of all it this guide is more for the experienced user. it assumes you will find the stuff /settings I talk about.

Often I see that the machine hasn’t been logged in for a while, the main reason it is slow because it is downloading updates for months ! Install the updates, reboot, check for updates again, and again, until it finds no more updates, this can take hours. (Often updates are installed as a previous one has been installed, so you need to check more then once)
Got to Control Panel, find add /remove programs (Win 10 you find this under system /apps) and delete all the old software you do not use. please leave stuff like java, flash and software where you are uncertain off.
Delete all the browser toolbars you do not use, in the browsers, do also delete the plugins you do not use.
Reboot your machine
Install ccleaner from www.ccleaner.com .They have a free version, but you have to look for it, the of course want you to have the paid version, but it has no extra features we need here.
Configure ccleaner with the following settings:

Now let it cleaner your PC totally
Now click on the register tab, let it scan and repair all settings. if it askes you if you want to save a backup, please do!!!
Reboot your machine, open ccleaner again and goto the tools section. Goto startup and disable everything you do not need on startup of your computer.
Now open a command prompt Start -|> type cmd and rightclick the Icon and choose run as administrator
type in the following command set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 and hit enter
now type in start devmgmt.msc and hit enter
In the device manager Window that opens up choose in the menu bar view hidden devices
Now start working your way through and delete ALL greyed out devices EXCEPT: RAS ASync Adapter (if any) And the Non plug and play devices.
If you have a harddrive installed it is good to defragment at least the the C: drive, if you have an SSD do NOT defragment your drive, because it is not neccesary and it will shorten the life time of your SSD drive.
Reboot. I manged to boot up a Windows 7 PC which loaded more then five minutes to reduce this to a minute.