One of the most annoying things that can happen to the computer, especially to those who install and uninstall programs and applications continuously, is a drastic slowdown of the overall performance of the system.

In this post I’m going to discuss some very useful and effective tools in general, that you can use regularly to optimize the hard disk and significantly increase the performance of a computer that has become “slow”.

In fact, the basic tools to improve the performance of a hard disk on a Windows PC are: disk cleaning , uninstalling unused programs, defragmenting the hard disk and optimizing the autostart menu.

Of all these topics it has already been written, so we make a summary and a summary of which programs to use, how to use them and how to actually verify that the computer’s performance has improved and the hard disk has been optimized .

To demonstrate that these tools are able to improve hard disk performance, it is important to take a clear and precise reference point of the current situation.

After reviewing the list of the best benchmark programs to measure the power of the computer , I chose NovaBench , an easy to use and understandable software that summarizes the performance measurement in a summary and easily comparable score.

Once you have downloaded and installed Novabench, you can then perform a quick comprehensive test of the general performance of your computer and then get a global and specific performance score for each hardware component, to be saved and kept aside.

The final score combines performance measurements on memory, hard disk, processor, graphics card.

1) First of all then, to optimize the hard disk, you must perform disk cleaning .

Cleaning the hard disk means eliminating all unnecessary, obsolete or temporary files.

For this operation I have already reported several Windows tools, all excellent and usable depending on personal choice.

For example, I have listed programs like Ccleaner and the like with a tab of the ones I considered the best to clean up the disk and delete all the useless files.

Two other programs I’ve used recently and which I think are excellent are Wise Disk Cleaner(different from Wise Registry Cleaner dealing with registry keys) and Moo0 Disk Cleaner with a nice and easy-to-use interface.

Using the wizard you will notice how much this software digs to clean up a hard disk.

From the list, you can choose the types of files you want to delete, but leaving the default settings is always the safest way to avoid deleting something important.

Alternatively or in addition, you could also just use Windows Disk Cleanup which only deletes temporary files.

2) To uninstall programs that are no longer used,

you must use programs like Revo Uninstaller that do the complete removal and clean uninstall of any installed application.

The point is that the standard removal of Windows, always leaves something, some orphaned files or registry keys with dead references so it is absolutely necessary not to rely on the internal Windows Installer.

3) After freeing up the hard disk of useless data,

it’s time to defragment.

One of the most common causes of slow performance of a PC is a terribly fragmented hard drive that lengthens file uploads.

In this regard, as already mentioned in the article on the best programs to defragment the hard disk, I want to say that the Windows defrag utility, the integrated one that can be started by clicking the right mouse button on the disk in My Computer, it’s a poor and not good tool.

It does not do an intelligent and complete defragmentation.

The most valid program to defragment a hard disk is surely Perfect Diskwhich is, however, a paid software.

The best free defragmenter for me is Auslogics Disk Defrag, a free program that has the dual function of defragmenting and optimizing a hard disk.

AusLogic Disk Defrag automates the defragmentation procedure with an automatic weekly or monthly schedule.

From the program menu, very simple, you can do a risk analysis and you can choose whether to defragment and optimize the hard disk.

Alternatively, Ultimate Defrag is one of the best utilities because it performs a complete defragmentation of the hard drive in an ” intelligent ” way”ie move the most used files so that the computer can access them faster.From the Tools – Options menu, you must check the Automatic in the ” High Performance ” tab. You

can change the percentage of the most frequently used data that will be placed on the hard disk in the fastest sectors

To finally defragment just press the Start button and follow the graphic representation of the move in real time. Other good programs to defrag a hard disk are Disk Speed Up (Di Glary Soft), Defraggler ( of the same as Ccleaner), Smart Defrag (of IOBit),Puran defrag .

All of these are absolutely reliable defragmenters with all the functions to plan operations and optimize the disks in the computer.

4) To clean up the automatic start

menu and remove programs from the Windows start-up, you can refer to the article on how to disable programs that start with Windows.

Bonus: You can use a single program to defragment the disk and to clean it from obsolete files by installing Fixbee, free for Windows.

During installation, be sure to select the Custom installation to avoid installing unwanted software.

The program follows a very clear wizard that starts from defragmentation and error checking of the hard disk to end with a cleanup.

Final results

After carrying out these operations, especially after cleaning and defragmenting the hard disk, an increase in overall performance should occur.

Rerunning NovaBench , you should see an increase in the overall score of computer power.

However, these optimization operations are not just a way to get a computer that shows slowdowns, but also preventive maintenance that should be done at regular intervals if you want to keep your PC working just like when you bought it.

What do you think?