Getting Started with Turbo Your PC Over time your computer becomes slow simply through every day use, installing and uninstalling software leaves debris that make everything run a bit slower. Files can be stored all over the place that you don t necessarily need and applications set themselves to run immediately when your computer turns on, Turbo Your PC is a management suite for sorting all of these problems out. This Quickstart guide explains the various features of Turbo Your PC in a simple to understand way. For more in-depth technical support please consult turboyourpc.com/support Each heading below will correlate to the options seen on the left hand side of the Turbo Your PC application. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these software options as you read through the guide. Page 1
Registry Cleaner The computer registry is a collection of configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows. Typically, applications make necessary changes to the registry in order to work properly, however when applications are removed, new or similar applications are installed the registry can become corrupt which ultimately slows the performance of your computer down. Using the Turbo Your PC Registry Cleaner will do all the hard work to correct any problems with the registry for you. Simply by clicking Start Scan Turbo Your PC will check for errors, this process may take a few minutes, the results of the scan will be displayed once complete. Clicking Clean afterwards will correct all found registry problems. We suggest running a registry scan weekly, or particularly if you have been carrying out activities such as installing or uninstalling software or deleting large amounts of data. You may notice that the scan lists entries that appear time and time again, this is because as some registry entries are fixed and deleted they leave behind empty entries this is nothing to worry about and will not affect the speed of your computer. The first time a Registry Scan is ran it will most likely pick up hundreds of errors, each run after that though will pick up less and less if carried out regularly. These scans and clean ups will in turn greatly improve the speed and everyday running of your computer. Page 2
Disk Cleanup The management of your virtual files is a lot like your physical files and documents in many ways, many of us have organized folders where we keep banking and other personal information but a lot of us are also guilty of having folders and places where we store and keep odds and ends in their abundance. Computers have these folders as well and it is often surprising just how much data we have stored in these folders slowing down the operation of everyday tasks. Each time you download a file in your web browser it goes into your Downloads folder, when was the last time you looked through this folder and cleaned it out? Many web browsers open any downloaded files automatically and we tend to then save the file where we want forgetting about the copy left collecting cobwebs in the Downloads folder. With Turbo Your PC s Disk Cleanup you can easily keep an eye on this folder along with other computer locations that are guilty of collecting unwanted data. Disk Cleanup will look in five key areas for files that we suspect you don t need: 1. Cached Windows Updates It seems like every time we turn on our computers Windows wants to update, right? Well, each time it does update a whole lot of temporary files get saved to your computer by default. This temporary data slowly starts to take up a lot of space on your hard drive and Turbo Your PC can remove that for you hassle free. Page 3
2. Downloads Folder As mentioned before, the Downloads folder on most machines is a dumping ground for files downloaded through web browsing. Think of all the documents, pictures, videos and music you have downloaded, a copy of it probably sits in the Downloads folder gathering dust and taking up space. 3. Recycle Bin Although emptying our virtual trash is alot easier than doing it for real we are all guilty of allowing it to build up, until it is emptied the Recycle Bin is eating away into your hard disk space. 4. Temporary Files These are files created to temporarily contain information while a new file is being made. Temporary files should be automatically deleted by whichever application created them, but some programs don t do this. Again, this is data you just don t need that takes up space which Turbo Your PC can deal with. 5. Windows Error Reporting Files - Every time an error occurs, perhaps when you try to open a corrupted file or a program that won't run anymore, a report is stored on Windows all about the error. This report is created for diagnosis, sending these reports to the software developers or perhaps Microsoft helps them fix the error. However, unless you are in communication with a company about a software problem you may as well clear these reports as they only take up hard disk space. After running a Disk Cleanup scan each of the above locations will be listed with the number of files found and disk space used at each location. To clean a location simply check the tick box next to it and click Clean. Turbo Your PC will then wipe the location of the unwanted files and therefore free up your hard disk space. Page 4
Browser Data Web browsers collect information from nearly every website you visit. This data is then used by your computer in order to easily get back to web pages you have previously visited, to make visited websites load faster and to save preferences from previous webpage visits. All of this data takes up hard disk space and isn t necessarily needed. On Turbo Your PC any web browsers you have installed will show up under Browser Data: Options are available to clear browsing history and/or Cookies. A cookie is a small piece of information accumulated from a website which a website looks for on your computer next time you visit the site. The cookie may contain information about preferences on the website you had selected previously, or may even help the website load up a bit quicker. Once you have selected what Browser Data you want deleted you can simply click clean to have Turbo Your PC remove these from your computer. Page 5
Autorun Applications Have you noticed over time that your computer is taking longer and longer to start up? This is generally because different bits of software that have been installed are opening on start up unnecessarily. Each application that does this makes your start up time that bit longer. Using Turbo Your PC you can easily manage what applications open when you turn on your computer. Clicking on Autorun Applications will reveal all the applications that are set to open when your computer starts up. From here you can manage what applications run on start up and which don t. Disabling programs you don t need immediate access to will drastically speed up the start up time of your computer. Page 6
Browser Plugins As you surf the internet you will encounter different applications (or plugins) that want access to your browser. Some of these will be beneficial such as Adobe Flash which enables viewing of YouTube and other online videos but others may be an annoyance that have been installed by accident or even without your consent. Turbo Your PC neatly displays the plug-ins you have enabled on your browsers and provides easy management options to disable them. Some of the most common unwanted plug-ins are search bars which find their way onto browsers and ultimately slow down your computer as well as take up precious screen space, disrupt us with advertising and in some cases contain malware or viruses. In order to disable or enable these plug-ins the browser these are plugged-in-to needs to be closed first. Page 7
Uninstall Applications Through Turbo Your PC you have a one-stop-shop for managing what applications and software you have installed. Any applications in the populated list which are not used, or no longer wanted, can easily be removed by checking the tick box next to the application name and clicking Uninstall. Uninstalling unwanted applications frees up hard disk space and ultimately speeds up your computer. Page 8
Permanently Delete Files Turbo Your PC comes with a utility to permanently delete files from your hard drive, although a regular delete frees up hard disk space technically the deleted files are still recoverable. Using Turbo Your PC s file deletion you can rest assured deleted files are unrecoverable using industry standard deletion methods. Page 9
System Information System Information displays some useful information about the different key pieces of hardware within your computer. Here you can find out the exact specifications of your hardware as well as some crucial statistics about your hardware. This gives you an informed decision as to whether your hardware is performing as well as it could or, if it is overloaded, it may be time to upgrade. CPU Your CPU (Central Processing Unit) is basically the brain of your computer. This is sometimes also referred to as a computer chip and carries out the instructions defined by various computer programs. There are lots of processes and programs running at once and this all builds up and places significant workload on the CPU. In turn, too much work causes the temperature of the CPU to go up if this gets too hot then it can physically damage not only the CPU but also your entire computer. A normal temperature for operation is around 45-60 C. The other stat available shows the clock speed, the higher this number is the more instructions your computer can carry out a second. RAM Think of RAM as memory, all running programs use this memory and over time as programs are updated and the things you do on your computer become more complex you will find more memory is being used. If you find the load on your memory is significantly high it might be time to think about upgrading it. This is the cheapest and easiest hardware upgrade you can do and is extremely effective in speeding up a machine. Page 10
Disk Drive Your disk drive is where all your data lives, this isn t only your documents, photos and other saved files but also all the important files that make Windows and your software applications up. Over time this space will begin fill up and you can see your usage on Turbo Your PC as a total in Gigabytes and as a percentage. The hard disk is a moving part in most computers so it also can get hot after heavy usage, the temperature gauge shows you how hot the drive is. The safest temperature range is between 30-45 C. Turbo Your PC s Top Tips 1. Run a registry clean once a week to ensure your computer runs as quick and as smooth as possible 2. Use Disk Cleanup to ensure your hard drive isn t filling up with unwanted files 3. Regularly clear your web browser history and cookies to save hard disk space 4. Turn off any unnecessary applications from auto-running on start up 5. Regularly check your Browser Plugins for unwanted toolbars and add-ons 6. Uninstall applications you don t use Page 11