How To Perform Spring Cleaning On Your Trading Computer

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Have you ever had your computer get sluggish? You’re not alone. We all have. There’s really nothing worse than looking at an hour glass on your monitor while you wait for a piece of software to load.

You may have asked yourself why your computer was fine yesterday, but today it’s as slow as a turtle. Often times garbage can pile up in your computer’s system that causes your computer to slow down.

Anyone can improve their computer’s speed by performing what we’d call, “Spring Cleaning”. Everyone should look at their computer as an appliance. Just like any appliance in your house, a computer needs basic maintenance periodically.

5 Steps To Spring Cleaning Your Trading Computer

  1. Get all the latest Windows updates.
  2. Get all the Microsoft Security Essentials updates.
  3. Run a scan for any malware or virus issues.
  4. Clean up all unused internet history and dead end registry files.
  5. Defragment your hard drive (applies to magnetic, SATA hard drives. DO NOT Defrag SSD hard drives).

In today’s Quick Tip Video Series you’ll get detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to perform these spring cleaning steps. You can use the video below to follow along. You should feel free to pause the video any time. Once you complete the steps you can click play to resume. (Note: Today’s video was recorded on Windows 7. We recommend Windows 7 for traders. However, the steps are similar on all operating system versions, such as Windows 8).

Software Tools You’ll Need For Spring Cleaning

  1. Microsoft Security Essentials
  2. Malwarebytes
  3. CC Cleaner

Instructions For Completing A “Spring Cleaning” On Your Trading Computer (for Windows 7):

  1. Make sure that Windows is up-to-date. Left click on the start menu button. Next, hover your mouse over, or left click the “All Programs” from the menu navigation.
  2. Left click on Windows Update. The Windows update will appear. Then left click to check for “available updates”. After a few moments Windows will say if new updates are available.
  3. There are two types of updates: “important updates” and “optional updates”. Important updates are the ones that we’re looking for with our Spring Cleaning routine.
  4. Your updates should automatically be ready for installation. Left click on “install updates” to allow Windows to begin downloading and installing the important updates.
  5. As part of this update process you may or may not have to restart your PC. Repeat all of these steps until there are no longer any important updates.
  6. Close Windows Update after you’ve downloaded all updates.
  7. The next thing that we’re going to do is make sure that Microsoft Security Essentials (pre-installed on all EZ Trading Computers) is also up to date. Once Microsoft Security Essentials opens, left click on the “update” tab. Next, left click on the “update” button to proceed.
  8. Close Microsoft Security Essentials.
  9. After you download Malwarebytes (pre-installed on all EZ Trading Computers), find the icon on your desktop. Double-click it, or right click on the icon. Then choose open from the menu. When Malwarebytes opens left click on “update”. Now to begin updating the software.
  10. Close Malwarebytes after you update the software and fix any issues.
  11. After you download find CC Cleaner icon on your desktop. Either double-click it, or right-click the icon. Choose “open” from the menu. When CC Cleaner software opens, left click on the “run cleaner”.
  12. Running the cleaner will delete the system temporary files and cache files that your computer stores by default. These files can build up and really slow down your computer.
  13. Left click “scan for issues” in CC Cleaner. After you scan for issues, CC Cleaner locates and finds registry files that do not point to anything.
  14. Choose the “fix selected issues” option in CC Cleaner. Left click on the “yes” button when the pop-up window asks if you want to backup changes to the registry.
  15. After you have saved a copy of the registry, go ahead and left click on the “fix all selected issues” button.
  16. Now left click on the “scan” button again and see if there is anything else that might show up. Rinse and repeat until there are no more issues found during the scan.
  17. Close CC Cleaner.
  18. Next, hover your mouse over and left click on “all programs”. Find the “accessories” folder and left click.
  19. Now that were inside the accessories folder, scroll down and find the “systems tools” folder and left click. Now scroll down and left click on “disk defragmenter”. (Applies to magnetic, SATA hard drives. DO NOT Defrag SSD hard drives).
  20. From the pop up menu, left click on the drive that you want to defragment.Then left click the “defragment disk” button. Your computer is now defragmenting the drive that you chose. (Defragmenting your computer could take a few minutes or hours depending on how many files or on your drive.)
  21. When the defragmentation is complete close the program by left clicking on the “close” button.
  22. Reboot your machine and enjoy.

Congrats!! Your computer has now been thoroughly cleaned up. You should notice a performance boost right away.

We hope today’s Quick Tip helped you.

There are more trading computer tips like this in our buyers guide. Check out our “How To Buy a Trading Computer” e-book.

We’re also happy to answer any of your questions about trading computers via phone: 800-387-5250