Performance suffers as your hard drive fills up. Below we will show you how to keep your hard drive clean.

Cleaning your hard drive

1. To uninstall an application or program you no longer use, follow these steps.
   1. Choose Start.
   2. Click Control Panel.
   3. Click on Add/Remove Programs.
   4. Select any programs from the list you no longer use.
   5. Click on the Add/Remove Button.
   6. Follow the steps on the screen.

2. There are many other files on your system that you can safely deleted. Among these are large multimedia files that have been forgotten.

   To find any type of file:

   1. Choose Start
   2. Windows Explorer
   3. Select Tools, Find
   4. Type * followed by the file extension below

      To find all the bak files located on your hard drive, type *.bak. You can then select the ones you no longer want and press the delete key. Files you can safely delete are:
      

      • .avi - movie file format
        
      • .bak - backup files from various applications
        
      • .bmp - picture files and wallpaper files
        
      • .gif - picture files
        
      • .jpg - picture files
        
      • .mov - movie files
        
      • .mp3 - MP3 music files
        
      • .tiff -picture files
        
      • .tmp - temp files
        
      • .wav - sound files
        
      
      
3. Every time you receive or create an email message, it makes the folder larger.

   Removing or deleting messages from folders doesn't automatically give you more space. This is because the deleted email leaves space behind which takes up hard disk space and needs freed. This can be accomplished by emptying your email trash folder then compressing the folders.

   Some email programs compress the folders automatically after the email trash is emptied.

   
   Note:
   This is done inside your email program
   
   

4. Delete all of your temporary internet files
   
   To find the files:
   • Select Start;
     
   • Windows Explorer;
     
   • Click on the "Windows" directory (if Windows is the directory where windows is installed)
     
   • Click on the "Temporary Internet Files" directory
     
   • Delete all the files in the "Temporary Internet Files" directory
     (caution - make sure you are in the correct directory or you will have problems)