As spring approaches, people often start thinking about spring cleaning their physical homes. But what about our digital lives? With technology playing an increasingly central role in our lives, it’s only natural to extend the annual tradition of spring cleaning to our digital devices as well.
Think about it — are you running low on hard disk space? Is your computer taking longer to boot up? Do you have way too many unread emails in your inbox? While it’s true that upgrading hardware such as bigger hard disks and more memory or even upgrading your motherboard and CPU can give your device a boost, it’s not always necessary. There are simple things you can do to improve the performance of your device and breathe some new life into your gadgets.
So, where do you start? Depending on the state of your digital life, there may be quite a bit to do. But don’t worry, any task can be made more manageable if you break it down into smaller steps. That’s where our three-part series on digital spring cleaning comes in. We’ll start by discussing how to cleanse your PC, laptop, smartphone, and tablet — the devices you probably use the most.
Firstly, go through all the installed software on your devices and minimize clutter by removing what you don’t need. Ask yourself when you last used a particular app and whether you still need it. Unused software takes up unnecessary storage space and should be deleted. To remove unnecessary software on Windows, for example, go to “Start”, then “Settings” and “Apps”. Remove any software programs you don’t need from there.
When it comes to your phone, consider disabling apps that you rarely use. Stop apps from running in the background by putting them to “deep sleep”. There are detailed pointers for both Android and iOS devices that can help you with this.
It’s also a good idea to review your startup programs. This refers to the software that automatically launches whenever you turn on your laptop or PC. Odds are, programs like Skype or iTunes don’t need to run right away. Preventing them from running during startup can improve your device’s overall performance. To view a list of these programs on Windows, right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and click on “Task Manager” and then “Startup”, or simply press the Windows button and search for “Startup Apps.”
Next up, let’s discuss decluttering your email inbox. If you use an email program like Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird, entire emails or their attachments are stored locally on your device. Some Internet Service Providers only offer limited quotas for email storage. Consider having your emails listed in reverse order by time and delete what you don’t need. Outlook’s Mailbox Cleanup tool can be helpful. You may also decide to search for emails with attributes such as bulky attachments.
Don’t forget about your Download folder. Go through it and delete files such as software installation files or tickets for events that occurred a while ago. Also, consider whether you really need all of the pictures and videos stored on your devices. Delete the ones you don’t need or move them to an external hard drive, network storage device, or cloud storage service.
Lastly, take the time to check whether you are using the latest versions of all of your installed applications. Software updates are essential for security reasons. Outdated software may contain security risks that are exploited by cybercriminals. Security updates are intended to patch these risks and prevent cybercriminals from exploiting them. Don’t hold off too long on installing available updates. In fact, today, most devices have automatic updates turned on by default.
Follow these simple steps to spring clean your devices and breathe new life into them. Tomorrow, we’ll dive into how to cleanse your home network and network-attached devices and ensure that you have a solid data backup routine in place.