Cleaning out Windows 10 is pretty much the same from Windows XP through Windows 8.1. The big difference is how you get to the programs. Since Windows 10 is the newest OS, that's what we will be working with today.
Now lets go down load a few of the free programs that I like to use. If you like any of these programs, you should think about purchasing them. This helps support the developers and give more features like automatic monitoring or protection and so on.
CCleaner Click Here
Defraggler Disk Defrag Click Here or you can use the built in defragger in Windows 10
Super Anti Spyware Click Here then click on the Free Edition
ADWCleander Click Here then run it
Revo Uninstaller Portable Click Here It's all the way at the bottom of the page
Note: If you using IExplorer or Edge make sure when downloading the programs you select Save not run. Also things change so if my links to the programs don't work, just copy the name of the program and do a Google search and down load from there.
Now your ready to install the programs you just downloaded. Close you Web Browser and get it out of the way. Now open your File Explorer and go to your Download folder and double click on the first program Super Anti Spyware. The program will start to load, as all the programs load, pay attention to the Check Boxes and makes sure that you Un-Check all the Boxes so you don't load any extra programs you don't want. I know this is how they can let you have the software for free but there are programs I don't want or use.
Sometimes when you go to install a program you may get this prompt
Just click on More info then you will get this prompt
Select Run anyway and now the program should start to load When installing Defraggler Disk Defrag make sure you Check all the box's then click on Click to install.
Now search for windows 10 Disk cleanup program from the taskbar and select it from the list of results. Click on the top of the search Disk Cleanup
Hit enter to run
Click on OK
Next click on Clean up System Files and pick the C: drive and again wait till the previous screen appears again.
Make sure all the check box's are marked then Un-Check Windows ESD Installation or E.S.D. if it shows up in the list, and now select OK. Will start the cleaning and once done it will just disappear. That's how you know it's all done.
It's hard to remove a virus or malware that is running on your computer. So your best defense is to scan your computer before Windows loads.
Here I will show you how to run Windows 10 Defender offline (before Windows 10 starts up).
Click on the menu button (bottom left on screen) the select Settings then select Update and Security.
So Head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Defender. Scroll down and click the “Scan Offline” button under Windows Defender Offline.
Once you click this button, your computer will automatically reboot and start scanning your PC for malware. The scan will take time depending on the size of your hard drive and speed of your computer. If any malware is found, you’ll be prompted to clean it up from within the Windows Defender Offline interface. If no malware is found, your computer will automatically boot back into Windows once the scan is complete.
Click on the menu button (bottom left on screen) the select Settings then select Update and Security.
So Head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Defender.
Manual Scans
Scroll down to the Version info section at the bottom of the Windows Defender pane in the Settings window and click “Use Windows Defender” to access the Windows Defender desktop app interface. If you’ve used Microsoft Security Essentials before, you’ll immediately recognize this. (We can probably expect Microsoft to move more of the options here to the Windows Defender pane in the Settings app over time.)
From this window, you can initiate a quick scan, full system scan, or a custom scan of specific folders. For example, you could connect an external hard drive to your computer and perform a Custom scan to scan that entire drive for malware.
Windows Defender scans everything in the background anyway, and there’s even a scheduled task in Windows that automatically scans your computer on a regular basis.Show you shouldn’t have to regularly perform manual antivirus scans.This feature is mostly useful for scanning external media and network locations.
Double click on the program to start the install. Make sure to un-check all the boxes so no un-wanted programs are install.
Once the program is installed, lets run it. Type in the search bar CCleaner then towards the top of the search results select CCleaner to run the program.
In the pane on the left side select Options then in the Middle column select Monitoring and make sure all boxes are unchecked.
On the bottom of CCleaner screen select Run Cleaner and any prompts that popup select Do not display this message again and hit OK.
- Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start buttonIn the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.
- Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
- To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk.If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.
- Click Defragment disk.If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
Just double click on the program to start installing it. Go through all the prompts and after you click on Finish you will get a prompt to either Start Free Trail or Decline. Select Decline unless your going to buy the software. (Which I do recommend)
When finished select the tile that says System Tools. On the next screen select Preferences. Make sure your program setting look like this.
Hit Done twice, now select the tile that says Scan this Computer and make sure your screen looks like this.
From the main screen select Scan this Computer
Now click on Complete Scan and just sit back and wait. The time it will take depends on your computer speed and how big your system is. (How many files it has to scan)
Once the scan is done, if the program found anything, make sure all items are selected and then hit Continue and it will remove the infected items from your computer. It may ask for you to reboot, so if it does reboot your computer.
So this was a simple way for cleaning out Windows 10 box's and you should do this about once a week. Also, you should do all this before you do a complete system backup. You don't want to backup junk files and any Malware, Spyware or Adware you may have on your machine.
Windows 10 Basics 4