Frequently Asked Questions

• Defragment. This process moves files around on your computer so that there is more free space. It's literally "tidying-up" your computer. (you need 10-15% free hard-drive space before you can defragment)
  

1. Run 'Disk Defragmenter' (Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter)
2. In the top frame, click on the hard-drive you want to defragment (if you don't have any partitions, you should only see one)
3. Click the Defragment button.
4. DO NOT USE YOUR COMPUTER DURING THIS PERIOD!!! IT CAN INTERRUPT THE PROGRAM! (you may want to turn your screen-saver off before you defragment)
   
5. The process can take a few hours, depending on the size of your hard-drive. (this is why we turned off the screen-saver)
6. Once it says that defragmenting is complete, you can close out of that window.

• Cleaning-up. Doing this can free up a lot of space on your computer, although you'll might have to delete some files.
1. Close any windows that are open. This will make the process less hectic.
2. Clear you desktop. We're serious; the only things you should see on your desktop are 'My Computer', 'My Documents', 'My Network Places', and 'Recycle Bin'. Don't just dump all the files into a single folder. Put them where they should go. Music goes in 'My Music', Pictures go in 'My Pictures', etc. No programs should be on the desktop. If you are accustom to having applications on the desktop, we recommend ObjectDock.
   
3. Open up 'My Documents'. Folders are the key here, but where to put them is the trick. If you have all your music in the 'My Music' folder, and you have downloaded lyrics in the form of word documents right in 'My Documents', wouldn't it make more sense to create a 'Lyrics' folder inside 'My Music' and put all those documents there?
4. This will make it so less computer memory is used when viewing the desktop, resulting in quicker actions. And the 'My Documents' folder will load a bit quicker because it contains all/mostly folders on the first level, instead of files.

Doing these both can result in a much faster system. If your PC is super slow, you may want to uninstall any applications you don't use, disable 'System Restore', or (this is pretty drastic) reformat your computer. If you aren't worried about paying for a solution, you can buy extra memory (RAM) to insert in your PC, or you can buy an external hard-drive to store all of your files, freeing up your computer space.