Introduction
Months go by, and Windows works. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, your computer begins to slow down. The file is not opened immediately. The program is frozen or closed. Your system probably needs some TLC, but what do you do?
You do not want to leave your computer, although it is slow, does not meet the latest operating system (OS) requirements, or makes strange noises, it may be time to say goodbye.
Once Windows is screwed you struggle to identify the exact problem. This could be an Internet problem or unknown malware, or – it often happens – an irrelevant program operating in a complex background.
Sometimes this is a simple solution. You may use software to scan your hard drive and mark files and folders for removal, such as Uninstall View, a free utility that can make your PC perform faster.
Other free tools, such as the ones I outlined here, are in the arsenal of each Tech Pro. It is important that you download these directly from the developer and official website and not from any third party This is because you may be installing junk, which can make your already unpleasant Windows situation worse.
1. Windows
Free Task Manager and System Monitor for Microsoft’s Free Process Explorer helps you find out if a specific file or directory of a program is open. The program shows you information about which handles and DLL (Dynamic Link Library, or instructions for other applications) processes have been opened or loaded.
The software has two sub-windows; Displays a list of active processes, including the top owner’s account The window below relies on Process Explorer options. Be sure to check the DLL mode, where you will see the DLL and the memory-mapped files that the process has loaded.
2. Identify Wi-Fi issues with this free app
The Wi-Fi Analyzer program from Microsoft is a free app that utilizes your PC, laptop, tablet, or mobile device to discover the optimal Wi-Fi channel or location for your router/access point. The basic version is completely ad-free. Features of the Pro version include live-tile support, a beeper for signal strength, lock screen rotation, and the ability to change signal strength limits.
3. Determine which devices are linked to your network.
Free App Angry IP Scanner works with Windows, Mac OSX and Linux This software provides a quick IP address and port scanner. Use it to find out which devices use Wi-Fi in your home or business
Angry IPs scan IP addresses and any ports they have, then ping them to see if they are “alive”. It can optionally resolve hostnames, assign MAC addresses, and more. These results can be saved as CSV, TXT, XML, or IP-port list files. Applications can also be created with plugins to collect information about scanned IPs.
4. View your hard drive’s utilization statistics and clear it up.
WinDirStat is a free programme that runs on any version of Windows 95. This application looks at disk usage statistics, and doubles as a cleanup tool. WinDirStat examines the full directory tree during startup.
The directory listing looks a lot like Windows Explorer’s “Tree View”, but it is sorted by file / subtree size, trimap, and extension list, which serves as a legend and shows file type statistics.
You can use Treemap, which presents each file as a colored rectangle. The rectangles are arranged so that the directories create a rectangle again, so that they have all the files and subdirectories. So their area is proportional to the size of the sub-tree.
As seen in the extension list, the colour of the rectangle reflects the kind of file. This allows you to easily see the contents of your hard drive and the space used.
5. Windows operating system monitoring, management, and troubleshooting
If you find only one free tool in this complete list, make it a synchronous suite. Microsoft has a free utility package available.
The suite includes the following: Autologon, Autorun, Bluescreen, Cassette, Clores, Debug View, DiskMon, DiscoView, Disk Usage (DU), List dll, Logon Session, PageDefrag, Portmon, ProcDump, Process Exporter, Process Explorer, Sysmon, TCP View, VMMap, VolumeID, WhoIs, WinObj and others.
You could say that Sysinternals Suite is Microsoft’s catchphrase, which handles 80% of your problem solving needs well.
6. Clean your hard drive thoroughly
Over the years, I have personally used this program to clean other people’s machines. Malwarebite not only lets you scan memory, but also deeply cleans hard drives, including cookies and registry.