Of course you deleted something you need. You will probably discover what between a day or a couple of months. Now that you have deleted you need to do what used to be called De-Frag to compress your data.

Try downloading and running SuperAntiSpyware Program. Here is a link. Get the Free one.

http://www.superantispyware.com/

That graveyard of saved files likely had no effect at all on your PCs performance.

I'm very anti-miscellaneous utilities. Too many people clutter their machines with garbage like that and sometimes can cause themselves real problems. They're rarely needed and in the situation you describe they're unlike to provide any real benefit. Don't download anything, continue on with life and give it no further thought.

However, this does not solve the "running slow" ( slowly ) problem. The problem is not too many files as the hd is only 25% full. You need to find what is running in the background and using all the ram. Perhaps spyware/malware? malwarebytes would be the best program for that. A check in task manager would tell you what is running at the time and how much memory it is using. From there you can decide what to keep and what to uninstall. Defrag is fairly useless IMO.

This crowd does little more than reading on and interacting with websites. If things seem slow, clear your browser's cache, passwords, cookies, etc. Yes, you'll need to log back in the first time to sites you visit but that's usually the reason for any balkiness.

If you want to do a test, try using a different browser and see if the performance is better.

I agree that an accumulation of downloaded unnecessaries can also cause slow performance. Another reason to not download anything. Beyond one security program, try uninstalling other things you may have downloaded and installed.

I don't worry about deleting the contents of my Download file. At
the time I downloaded it, if I wanted to keep that info, I would have
filed it somewhere where I could find it.By computer crud, I thought you were referring to the crumbs - and worse - that I get in my keyboard from eating at my desk.

It doesn't sound as if this poster uses her computer for anything that is graphic intensive when she says she is not a techie person. Like Elmer, I am assuming this computer is used for web browsing and email. ( Not necessarily true for all of us. LOL ) Cookies, passwords and the browser cache can be emptied out but they promptly fill up again. It might be best to leave the settings for those at their default. Is there any newer software that could be suspect?

Most high grade security programs offer a utility module to clean up messes left behind. I know Norton, McAfee and Webroot offer excellent utility modules.

Norton: Also includes Norton Utilities which cleans up, tunes up, and speeds up your PC to help make it run like new.

I agree with Brushworks.

Many internet providers (especially the bigger cable and telco ones) have an added service that furnishes every customer free downloads of a top security products for their PCs. The utility/cleanup features of these products often run automatically, without needing a user action to start and typically happening when the PC is idle.

Check with your ISP and see if they provide a security program download for free. The download doesn't happen automatically. If it is available for you, you'll have to go to the appropriate page on the ISP's website to trigger it.

Is it the computer itself that's balky or just the browser/internet? If you generally let your computer sleep instead of shutting it down every night, you need to shut it down and boot it back up after a couple minutes to let all of the background programs close and release the amount of ram they're using.

Open up Task Manager and click on Processes and then Services. You will find running a lot of things that you don't need. Right click on them and then choose "End" or "Stop". I have a Sony Vaio computer and I stop from running all of the Vaio services such as Vaio update, Vaio Smart Network, Vaio Event Service etc. Computers come loaded with this stuff. I also stop Skype (I don't Skype), Windows Search (read that this is a memory hog and I don't know what it does), Xbox (I don't have), Windows Error Reporting Service, Windows Push Notifications User Service, Windows Biometric Service, and a lot more. If you right click on them, there is a selection for "Search Online" to help you determine if you need these things.

(I love my Mac.)

Lucy, I did as you suggested and stopped a couple things but am not daring enough to stop much. I was wondering about "Apple Push" and "Apple Security Manager." Not using a Mac, wonder why Apple items, maybe connected with iTunes which I do not use.

If you don't use Apple products such as an iPod or iPhone, turn those off. Anything that you turn off, you can turn back on. Also note, some of them don't stay turned off. You have to turn them off every time you start your computer. Most of the ones in "Services" stay turned off. I just looked at my computer and I have over 100 programs in "Services" that I stopped from running.