Have the holidays got you bogged down?

Have you ever felt overloaded with details?  Trying to piece together information about events and activities while wading through the scores of information picked up throughout your day?

Your computer’s hard drive is a lot like your brain.  As you work, it stores information in temporary files for faster retrieval.  It will store those for as long as you allow it – even when not needed.

Additionally, as the computer uses space on the hard drive, it may not be able to place all pieces of one file together.  This leads to file fragments with parts in different locations on the hard drive.  The computer then has to work harder to put the pieces back together.

As temporary files build up and files become more fragmented, hard drive performance deteriorates.  Fortunately, the computer has tools to remove the temporary files and piece together file fragments allowing it to run more efficiently.

Please follow the steps below to keep temporary and fragmented files from bogging you down this season.

Removing Temporary Files:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

·   In Internet Explorer, click on Tools > Internet Options.

·   Press the Delete button.

·   Under the Temporary Internet Files section, press the Delete Files button.

·   Press the Yes button.

·   Once it completes, press the Close button and then the OK button.

Mozilla Firefox

·   In Firefox, click on Tools > Options.

·   Click on the Advanced tab.

·   In the Cache section, press the Clear Now button.

·   Once it completes, press the OK button.

Apple Safari

·   In Safari, click on Safari > Empty Cache.

·   Press the Empty button.

Defragmenting the hard drive:

Windows

·   In Windows, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

·   Press the Defragment button.

·   Allow it to finish and then close the window.