With the end of a cold, blustery winter comes a tradition in homes and dorm rooms alike: spring cleaning.

After you've swept up the dust bunnies and done all your laundry, though, keep in mind that your computer needs some attention as well.

The huge hard disks found on late-model PCs get just as cluttered as the area under the bed. Sure, that Christmas screen saver was great in December, but now it's just taking up space on your system, along with dozens of programs you've probably forgotten about.

This isn't a trivial matter of cleanliness. Every time you install a new program, it adds extra files to your system's operating environment. And each of these files, in turn, makes your computer slower and less powerful.

On the Macintosh, for instance, some programs add new extensions to the System Folder. While an extension by itself is a small file, each one is run by the system at startup, forcing users to wait impatiently while several rows of icons fill the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen.

Unfortunately, just deleting a program's folder doesn't remove these extensions from your System Folder. You should prune old extensions from your System Folder every few months. But don't put them in the trash right away, in case you take out the wrong file. Instead, create an "Old Extensions" folder on your hard disk and put them there instead.

Windows applications are more devious; instead of placing their system additions in one directory, they scatter a variety of .INI, .VXD, and .DLL files across your hard drive. It's harder to remove these old files yourself because they have names like WW601X.DLL and ABW.INI, so you can't always tell what files go with what programs.

Windows 95 users are in luck, though, since Microsoft requires that all programs bearing the "Designed for Windows 95" logo come with a built-in uninstaller program to remove themselves completely from your hard disk.

In some cases, there will be an uninstall icon in the program's folder in the Start menu. Other files can be removed with the powerful, but little-known Add/Remove Programs applet in the Windows 95 control panel.

This solution only works for new applications, though; many older programs originally designed for Windows 3.1 don't have uninstall features. Windows 95 and 3.1 users alike are still stuck with guesswork for these files.

One good solution for these programs is to buy a commercial uninstall program, like MicroHelp's Uninstaller series and Vertisoft's Remove-It. These programs will look through your system files for you and remove the files you no longer need. They also edit configuration files, like CONFIG.SYS and SYSTEM.INI, and remove junk left behind by old programs.

Other programs clutter your hard drive through normal use. Netscape, for example, saves images and text from the web pages you have visited in a cache directory.

Although disk caching speeds up the browser, the directory can get as large as 100 megabytes. Be sure to use the "Clear Disk Cache Now" option under Network Preferences every few months.

After removing old files, you should probably "defrag" your hard disk. A defragmentation program resorts the data on your hard disk to speed up its performance.

Windows 95 users will find a defragmentation program in the System Tools folder. Better, yet, the Microsoft Plus! pack contains System Agent, which can automatically tune up your hard disk at a scheduled interval.

Macintosh users on the Harvard network can access the popular Norton Utilities package of disk tools via General Software, giving you access to a solid defragmentation utility.

It may take you a few hours to get your system back in shape after a long winter. But pruning old files will make all your programs run much faster and leave you with more time to enjoy a beautiful New England spring.

Kevin S. Davis '97 is the Currier House User Assistant and HASCS's Networking Advanced Support technician. His e-mail address is ksdavis@fas.harvard.edu.