It’s time to make resolutions to detox and declutter. We show you how to apply the same resolve to your PC life, speeding up your machine in the process.
Step 3. You should be able to identify a file’s content from its name, without needing to open it. Adding the location to holiday photo filenames is a good example. It can also be useful to include the date. If you’ve got lots of similar files to rename, copy and paste the common information into each file being renamed.

Step 4. Get a better view of what’s in your folders: click the ‘Change your view’ icon at the top-right corner of a folder and select Details. File size, creation date and other information will now appear next to a list of your documents. Reorder the list by date, file size and so on by clicking the various tabs at the top of the window.

Step 5. Keywords, which are visible when you right-click a file and choose Properties, make a file easier to search for. In Word, go to File, Properties, fill in the Keywords field and press Ok. For photos, tags are the equivalent of keywords; click the Tags field at the bottom of a Windows Explorer pane to add them.

Step 6. If you need to find a file in a hurry, enter its name into the Start menu Search box. The Windows Search Assistant is useful in such cases, but it’s no match for a desktop-search engine like Copernic. This free program indexes your entire hard drive to make finding the file you’re looking for much faster.

NEXT PAGE: Clean out junk files to restore PC performance




Comments
Tommie said: I downloaded Soluto and had all kinds of problems with it My computer slowed to a standstill I had a hard time removing it
stuart said: A simple solution is to download ccleanerrevo uninstaller and glary utilities all free and worth a go
Ian Daniells said: You mentioned Windows file finder Useful but slow I sometimes use good old DOS now known as Command Prompt To get a file listing of my personal folder and its subdirectories I type or paste this into the Command Prompt windowdir CIansFolderS gtCIansFolderfilestxtThat creates a text file listing my files the text file appears in my personal folder I can then search within the text file Edit menu FindTo list the whole of C drivedir CS gtCIansFolderfilestxt
ROB said: Might be worth a look herewwwbigbangenterprisesdeend I have used a freeware version of this on XP for years Never had a problem
Nulmany said: I never trust free downloads like Easy Duplicate finder when they dont tell you how much use you get out of teh trial part a measly 10 deletions and dont tell you the price until you register adn they have your details Come one PC Advisor you should challenge that sharp practice
clive said: Easy duplicate file finder has a limit of 13 files before you have to register and pay
Gary Gemmell said: I would avoid Soluto it causes a lot of problems not the least with removal as some users have describe din detail over on the tech forumsBetter wait until they have ironed out the issues
Rodders465 said: Good informative article which will be useful to lots of users
Always Necessary for Home user said: As these customers invariably cannot afford the professional versions provided on office PC laptopkeep up the good workWhy replace a PC when you can clean-up and keep for longer