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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Sweeping Out Your Computer

Besides defragging, there is another “housekeeping” chore you can do to help your computer perform more speedily. This simple task can be done monthly. Most of us use either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox for our browsers. When you surf the ‘Net, your computer stores files temporarily to enhance your surfing experience. These files (or cache) are stored on your hard drive. Unfortunately they do not go away when you shut down your browser. Depending on the size of your hard drive and how many other things you have on it, these temporary files can cause a slow down.

This housekeeping task, though, is relatively simple and takes just moments compared to defragging. The step by step instructions follow:


Internet Explorer

1. Open a browser window and click on “Tools” in the menu bar (no – over on the left side). In the pull down menu, click on ‘Internet Options’.

2.Under the General tab (you should be there already) look for the section labeled Browsing History. Click on ‘Delete’. (Don’t worry – you have not deleted anything yet – I get nervous too when deleting things).

3. Up pops another window which should have several choices - Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, History, Form data and Passwords. Now depending on which version of Windows you have, you may need to either select ‘Delete’ under the Temporary Internet Files or just check the box (unchecked the ones that you do not want to delete) and then click on delete at the bottom of the window.

4.Wait a few minutes for your computer to sweep the temporary files away and then click ‘Close’.


Mozilla Firefox

1.Clean out your temporary Internet files using Mozilla Firefox. Open a window in your browser. In the tool bar along the top, and click "Tools." Then in the pull down menu, select "Clear Private Data.

2.Check the box next to "Cache" in the pop-up window. Make sure the rest of the boxes are unchecked. Then click on "Clear Private Data Now" at the bottom. The window will close itself when your cache is emptied.


Simple, fast and easy.

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