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Examining the pros and cons of cleaning your Windows Vista computer system can help you decide whether you want to clean your system right now or later.
The pros
Computer systems easily and quickly become untidy and messed up. Over time, your computer can become cluttered with unused programs, unknown data, and unwanted visitors. With a little effort, you can clean your system so that it runs at top form.
- Speed: A clean system runs faster than one that needs cleaning. If your system stays clean, you shouldn't notice it running any slower over time. Unfortunately, most systems don't stay clean and require your attention. Do the cleaning, and it can run just as quickly as it did the day you got it.
- Efficiency: If you're using a clean system, you can get through your work faster and therefore more efficiently. A clean system doesn't make you immensely more efficient — if it did, the self-help publishing market would shrink dramatically. You can still get sidetracked playing games or arguing religion and politics on various message boards, but with a clean system, you can do even those things more efficiently.
- Reliability: A huge benefit of a clean system is that it is more reliable than one that isn't. If you fail to clean your system, over time it goes from clean to cluttered to messed-up to unstable. Unstable systems crash. Unstable systems have a tendency to lose data. Unstable systems are a real pain. Clean your system, and you should see stability jump dramatically. No pain, big gain.
- Stress reduction: A clean system can reduce anxiety and provide a pleasant ease of mind. How so? Consider the worry that you'd have if your system were infected by a virus, or you weren't sure that the financial data on it was safe, or you didn't know what programs were running on the system, or. . . . You get the idea. Worry comes in all shapes and sizes. If you clean your computer, you have a better handle on what's on your computer and how it's being used.
- Economics: Cleaning your computer can save you money — sometimes lots of money. Hard-drive clutter likely has helped significantly boost the bottom line of hard drive manufacturers over the years. Running low on space? Get a new drive. Computer running slow? Get a new system. Chances are, some of those new drives and new systems would have been unnecessary had the users done just a little housecleaning.
The cons
A system cleanup also has its negatives, which you need to be aware of right from the get-go:
- Time consumption: Cleaning your computer takes time. You probably feel strapped for time right now, don't you? (Most people do.) Cleaning your computer can take anywhere from a trivial to a substantial amount of time. You can clean some systems — completely — in as little as two hours, but other systems can take days. There's no way to tell how long your system will take, so be prepared for a time commitment and be patient. That time will pay off in the end when your computer is running more smoothly.
Fortunately, you have some control over how and when to spend that time. You don't have to spend it all in a single block, although you could. You can spend the time over a period of days or weeks, as the time becomes available.
- The learning curve: Part of the time required to do the cleanup is rooted in another drawback: the learning curve. Figuring out how to use some of the cleaning tools takes time. If you're already comfortable with your computer and the cleaning tools, your learning curve is lower than for those who are unfamiliar.
- The bother: If you approach the task as a chore, then it will bebothersome. Fight the urge to procrastinate cleaning; don't put it off as you might other bothersome tasks. To borrow a phrase, remember that it's not just a job — it's an adventure. Try to overcome the "bother factor" by looking on it as a learning experience. If necessary, spread the cleanup out over several days so that you don't max out your stress level in a single session.
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