What can I use to tune up my PC?

QI would appreciate your advice on a replacement for AVG Tuneup Utilities. I installed this on a laptop running XP some years ago and then updated it to Tuneup Utilities 2014 on a Windows 8 laptop. This laptop now runs Windows 10 and Tuneup Utilities 2014 seems to be suffering from the odd hiccup of late, even though it tells me I’m running the ‘current version’. Peter B Nunn

AThose hiccups may become more frequent because Tuneup Utilities 2014 was discontinued last year. AVG says it will still work, but won’t receive any security fixes or new features. AVG’S recommendation is to “upgrade to AVG Tuneup to enjoy full product support and to use several additional features”. However, the latest version of AVG Tuneup ( www.snipca.com/26331) requires a subscription, which costs £34.99 per year.

There are free alternatives to most of AVG Tuneup’s features. If you have the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update installed, you can set it to automatically delete junk files by clicking Start, Settings, System, Storage, then ‘Change how we free up space’, clicking the ‘Storage sense’ slider (see screenshot). You can then choose which types of temporary files are deleted in the options below. You could also install Glary Utilities ( www.glarysoft. com), which includes a Startup Manager for speeding up boot times, a software updater, an uninstaller and more.

Do you need our advice on what software to use? Just email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk