Optimize and save a ton of space, speed up your computer, and make it easy to find your files.
Why Would You Need to Optimize Your Computer?
Think of your computer’s hard drive like a big library with all your files being like books stored within. Isn’t it quicker to find the book you want with fewer things in the library?
Having your files stored in the correct place or storage drive along with up-to-date applications (in most cases) will make your computer run speedily, allowing for a healthier machine with fewer problems. Remember, computers need to be serviced just like cars do to run more efficiently and without issue.
Let’s start by looking at the software installed on your computer and what you can do to improve.
Software
Uninstalling old software or old versions of existing software that you don’t need or use anymore serves a few purposes.
- You create more space on your computer (which is always a good thing — see my library analogy).
- Having different versions of the same software on your PC or Mac can sometimes conflict with each other, causing system crashes and bugs, stopping things from working as they should.
- If you’re sharing files with other people, having the latest version usually allows for backwards compatibility with older versions of software, and this is more likely to stop conflicts between versions of applications.
Mac
For Mac, this can be as simple as using the drag-and-drop method and dragging the unwanted software from the applications folder into the recycle bin on the end of the dock. MacOS will handle taking all the applications files and get rid of them once the bin is emptied (right-click on the bin and empty it by clicking empty bin).
PC
Go to Settings on Windows 10 and click the Apps section.
Then, click Apps and Features highlighted here on the left.