Manually reviewing all of the various settings in the registry is something beyond the ability of most mortals. Reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling means we have to go through at least a day, if not more, backing up our system, formatting the drive, installing Windows all over again, waiting another day for all of the patches to update, reinstalling our programs, copying our data backup, realizing we forgot that one driver or program we really need - it can be days or weeks until everything is where we need it. Like cleaning an office, both techniques have their issues: Manually go through the registry and remove all unneeded information.Format the hard drive, and reinstall the operating system from scratch, reinstall our programs and files.Go through each item in our office, judge whether to keep it or not, and then either put it in a good place or discard it.ĥ Best Data Recovery Software for Windowsįrom a computer point of view, what this means we can:.Get a new office, and transfer only what we need from the old office.Like cleaning an office, cleaning a computer really boils down to two options: One project could have files scattered all over the filing cabinet – unless we take the time to pull out all of the files, put each project into one drawer so all of the files are together, and then go on. And if we still need more space, we’ll have another note in that drawer saying “Look into Drawer 2 for the rest of the files”. So we might put part of the files in one drawer, with a note to “See Drawer #3 for the rest of the files”. But suppose that a project takes up multiple files, and we don’t have space in one drawer for all of them. We open the file cabinet, find where we want to put our files, and put it away. Think of the computer as a big filing cabinet. Disk FragmentationĪnother issue of computer slowdown is disk fragmentation. And when that program is removed, the uninstall process might or might not remove its data – leaving bits and pieces of itself behind. Every time a program is installed, the registry grows.

Windows operating systems use a database called the “Registry” that stores information on how programs on Windows work – where they’re installed, file settings, and a plethora of other settings. And just like clutter in the Real World, clutter is an issue in the world of computers. Reduce unneeded things, reduce the distractions, shrink things down to just what we need in life, and only keep things that give us joy. One of the goals of the Konmari movement is to reduce clutter in our life.

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