Today is Clean Out Your Computer Day.  It’s a great time to clear out old files you don’t need, delete old emails, etc.

If you’ve been putting all of your files in the same folder, consider setting up sub-folders.  (Pretend it’s a paper file system.  What would you subdivide?)

Have you defragmented lately?  Emptied your Recycle Bin?  If you’d like to automate  tasks like these, take a look at System Mechanic.  It automatically does things like empty your Recycle Bin and defragment on a schedule.  It’s more than that, though.  It checks your drive for errors, and fixes any that it finds.  Supposedly, it protects against spyware and viruses, too, but I’ve had a trojan since installing this, so I wouldn’t necessarily trust it for that.  (Of course, AVG didn’t catch the thing, either, so maybe it’s ordinarily fine for this, and I just had an especially obnoxious infection.)

System Mechanic is supposed to help keep your computer running smoothly and quickly by sitting quietly in the background and cleaning out the clutter whenever it finds it.  It optimizes start-up, and compacts (and repairs, when necessary) the registry.  It helps improve internet browsing speed.  It even helps you update all of your device drivers.

Now, consumer studies have demonstrated all of this, but I can’t really speak to all of these details from personal experience.  I do have it installed on my computer.  I do see it do things like check for system clutter and delete the junk.  But I can’t really tell you whether it speeds up my computer, because I don’t have a concrete way to compare; I can’t do my work today with it and without it.  So I assume it works, based on what I can see and verify. 🙂

Another great “feature” is that it comes with a multi-computer license, so you can install it on several household computers for one price.

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of System Mechanic to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.