Delete download files to speed up computer

When a download is initiated, a temporary file is created on your hard drive and removed when the computer is shut down later. If your computer has ever been incorrectly powered down, the temporary file may still be taking up a small amount of space on your hard drive. If you're concerned about the downloads you're deleting, run Disk Cleanup in your system tools to take care of any lingering temporary files that are clogging up your hard drive. Melly Parker has been writing since , focusing on health, business, technology and home improvement.

She has also worked as a teacher and a bioassay laboratory technician. Parker now serves as a marketing specialist at one of the largest mobile app developers in the world. Google Chrome Hangs When Opening. Share on Facebook. Benefits There are two main benefits to removing downloads from your computer. Dangers The main danger of deleting a file you downloaded to your computer is that you won't be able to use the file again.

Computer Performance If you notice your computer running more slowly than usual, it may be due to hard disk fragmentation. Disc Clean Up When a download is initiated, a temporary file is created on your hard drive and removed when the computer is shut down later.

Blue Microwave. There's no risk in deleting those files, Disk Cleanup utility can also delete not needed files which includes those folders and some more. How satisfied are you with this reply? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. Three points: 1. Deleting a or b above will not speed up your computer. Yes delete all temporary files and speed up! In reply to deleted message.

Email will not be published required. HTML is not allowed. Submit Comment. For SpyHunter technical support requests, please contact our technical support team directly by opening a customer support ticket via your SpyHunter.

For billing issues, please refer to our " Billing Questions or Problems? For general inquiries complaints, legal, press, marketing, copyright , visit our " Inquiries and Feedback " page. Click the Disk Cleanup tab and then select the check boxes for the files that you want to delete.

Click Adjust visual effects. If you have a USB drive or a memory card with at least 1 gigabyte GB of available space, you may be able to make your system faster using ReadyBoost. For more information, see Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer. On the Select a power plan page, select the power plan that you want.

Some of the custom plans from the device manufacturer may also appear by default on the battery meter on a mobile device or as one of the preferred plans on a desktop computer. Microsoft Community for Windows Vista. Forums for Windows Server Microsoft Support for Windows Vista.

Microsoft support for Windows Server To make sure that you can see icons for all the running programs, click the Show hidden icons button. Some programs include themselves in the Startup folder so that they start automatically every time that you start Windows. To see what programs run at startup and disable any, follow these instructions:. If you see any programs in this folder that you are certain you do not want to run when Windows starts, right-click the icon for that program and click Delete.

It only deletes the option that starts the program automatically. System Configuration helps you identify programs that run at startup and discover if a program is slowing down your device. To open System Configuration, follow these instructions:. You can change a program's configuration by adding or removing certain options.

If you cannot stop the program from running on startup and the program does not have the option to change the configuration, you must talk to the program manufacturer for a solution.

In the Currently installed programs box , click the program that you want to remove and then click Remove. If you are prompted to confirm the removal of the program, click Yes. You can solve some certain device problems or improve performance by making sure that your hard disk has no errors. To check for disk errors, follow these instructions:.

Note: If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.

Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? Restart your device to start the disk check. The Disk Defragmenter dialog box appears. Click your hard disk drive and then click Defragment.

Disk Defragmenter will work for at least several minutes, although it might take several hours. When prompted, click Close. Note: If you have more than one hard disk drive, repeat this process for each hard disk drive listed.

On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk. The Disk Cleanup dialog box will appear. Select each of the check boxes in the Files to delete list and click OK. When prompted, click Yes. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes removing these files.

Note: If you have more than one hard disk drive, repeat this process for each hard disk drive listed in My Computer. In the section labeled Performance , click the Settings button to open the Performance Options window. Under the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance.

The system could take a minute or so to make the adjustment and the screen may briefly go black and white during the process.

After the process is complete, the Performance Options window will close. Windows uses an index to perform fast searches of the most common files on your device.

For more information, see Adjust indexing options. Microsoft Community for Windows XP. Microsoft support for Windows XP. Tap or click Search.

Type appwiz. Tap or click Appwiz. Restart your device. Click Start. Click Run. In the Start Search box, type appwiz. Close programs in the notification area running with startup If your device takes a long time to start up, one of the causes could be having a large number of startup apps or a few apps that have a high impact on startup time. To stop a program that has one of these icons from automatically running on startup, follow these instructions: On the Start screen, tap or click Desktop image to see the icon tray.

Point to each icon to see the program name. View Startup items To see what programs run at startup and disable any, follow these instructions: Press and hold or right-click in the blank area on Taskbar and select Task Manager. Change a program Sometimes, by adding or removing certain program options, you can prevent a program from running at startup.

To change the configuration of a program, follow these instructions: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen if using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen and move the mouse pointer down. Tap or click Apps. Clean up disk errors Over time, your device may create errors on its hard drive.

To run Check Disk , follow these instructions: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen if using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen and move the mouse pointer down. Type computer in the Search box. Tap or click Computer on the left side of your screen. Tap or click the Tools tab. You may need to restart your device after error checking is complete. To run Optimize Drives manually, follow these instructions: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen if using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen and move the mouse pointer down.

Tap or click Optimize. Notes Optimizing a drive can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours to finish, depending on the size of the drive and degree of optimization required.