system maintenance

I started by uninstalling six familiar third‑party utilities and trying to live entirely on Windows’ built‑in tools for screenshots, archive handling, media playback, notes, system cleanup, and antivirus — and, over several weeks of real use, I didn’t miss them. What began as a minimalist...

Windows today does many of the things that used to force a fresh Windows install to be followed by a list of “must-have” third‑party utilities — but the reality is nuanced: built‑in tools have improved dramatically, yet they don’t make every third‑party app obsolete. A recent MakeUseOf roundup...

I stopped treating “cleaning” as a race to delete the most files the moment a routine cleanup left a working PC broken and refusing to launch apps — and that change in mindset made one tool stand out above the rest for real-world, cautious maintenance: BleachBit. Background: the problem with...

For decades the reflexive answer to a sluggish Windows PC has been the same: “nuke it from orbit” with a clean install — but that ritual is increasingly a symptom treatment, not a solution. The recent XDA piece arguing that “you don’t need a clean Windows install — you need better defaults”...

If you’re still clicking through menus to clear space, reset networking, or launch a familiar suite of apps, a handful of tiny text files can save you minutes every day. How-To Geek’s recent primer on “7 useful batch files you can create to automate tasks on Windows 11” walks through seven...

IObit’s Uninstaller 5 lands as a hard‑working entry in the crowded Windows cleanup category, packing new modules for startup control, residual cleanup, secure file shredding and deeper removal of stubborn software — and it arrives at a moment when weekly app roundups like BetaNews’ “Best Windows...