How to Clear Memory on Your Computer
Over time, computers will collect and store a lot of data. Usually in the form of personal data such as photos, music, movies and programs, it can also take the form of unused data from web browsing, temporary files, incomplete downloads and spare system files. Occasionally, it may become necessary to clean out your computer to free up some of this space. It may be rather time consuming, but it is relatively simple, and you don't need any special software or computer knowledge to do it.
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Instructions
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Cleaning Windows Computers
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1
Clean out your personal data such as photos, music, movies and documents. This can be the most time consuming process if you have a lot of files. Go through your data and delete anything you don't need, no longer want, or files that have no business on your hard drive, such as duplicates or broken/incomplete files. You may be surprised at how many things you can remove.
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2
Remove any programs you no longer need or want, or programs that are simply taking up space. Click "Start," then "Control Panel," then click "Add/Remove Programs." This will bring up a window that lists all the programs currently installed on your computer. To remove a program, click on the program name and click the button that appears next to it. If you do not actively clean out your programs list, there may be many programs here you can remove.
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3
Run the "Disk Cleanup" program by clicking on "Start," "All Programs," "Accessories," then browsing to the System Tools folder. Click on "Disk Cleanup," then run the program. This will scan your computer for items to remove, such as temporary files. If you haven't run this program in awhile, or are running it for your first time, this may take a long time to complete.
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4
Finish running Disk Cleanup, then empty the trash can if necessary. When you are finished removing programs and files, restart your computer. You can check how much space you have on your computer by right clicking on "My Computer" and selecting "Properties."
Cleaning Mac Computers
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5
Go through all of your data and remove the files you no longer need or want. Check your user folder (which shows up as your name on the left hand side of a Finder window), and check the Downloads and Incomplete folders to make sure there are no spare files taking up space in there. Delete these files by moving them all to the trash, then right clicking on the trash icon and selecting "Empty Trash."
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6
Open a new Finder window and navigate to your Applications folder. From here you can uninstall any program you wish simply by selecting its icon and dragging it to the trash. Alternatively, when you have an icon or multiple icons selected, you can press "Command" and "Delete" simultaneously to move the program to the trash. To complete the deletion of these programs, right click on the trash, and click "Empty Trash."
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7
Remove any leftover files by navigating to "Macintosh HD," "Library," then "Preferences." In this folder may be some leftover application files that you can remove by deleting in the same way as Step 2. This will remove any spare files leftover by any applications you just deleted and give you more space. You can also access the Application Support folder, also found in the Library folder, to check for other unused application folders.
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8
Restart your computer. You can view how much space you have on your hard drive by right clicking on the "Macintosh HD" icon on your desktop and clicking "Get Info." Make sure the General information tab is open by clicking the small, gray arrow next to the "General" text if you don't see anything there.
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Tips & Warnings
To avoid long maintenance times, consider performing basic maintenance on your computer once a week by checking your programs list and going through your recently-used files.
When trying to delete programs and files to gain more space, refrain from deleting anything in system folders, and don't delete anything unless you are sure you may do so. Removing the wrong files may cause errors on your computer.
