Organising Your Game Files – Top Tips for Gamers
As a gamer, you need to make sure that your computer is in top working order. This is how you play your games, and it will be your portal to the online community for your game too. If you are a streamer then you have even more reason to keep your computer in the best working order possible. Most importantly, you need to ensure that your game files are as organised as can be. Here are some top tips to help you do so.
Install on Recommended Paths
Yes, you have the option to set a custom path when you want to organise your game files. However, that does not necessarily mean that you should do so. More often than not, installing on a custom path means that you could end up with a confusing system that makes it difficult to troubleshoot any problems that might crop up.
Instead, you should try to install your game files on their recommended paths. This will create the folders necessary for the game and install everything as it should be. Whether you are installing the game itself or trying to mod it in some way, you need to ensure that everything is organised properly. This will help you to avoid unnecessary glitches and software failures, or can make it easier to work out where things have gone wrong if you do encounter one.
Know How to Best Manage Depending on Your Machine
You need to make sure that you tailor your file management to the system that you use. After all, how you manage storage on Mac products will be very different to how you do so on a Windows PC.
There might be some elements that are the same, but there will also be many that are different. You need to make sure that you are selecting the right paths, and the right backups, for your operating system. While there are some similarities between Windows and Mac, there are enough differences that you need to learn what they are. If you won both, make sure that you are following the best tips for either machine.
Organise as You Go
Whenever you download a new game or install a new piece of software, you need to make sure that you organise as you go. This will make it much easier for you to manage things overall. If you leave it too long, you could end up with a mass of files that need to be organised, and this could potentially take you hours to sort out.
It might not be convenient in the moment, but taking those extra few moments to organise your files can pay dividends. For example, if you mod your games a lot, you might find that the mod creators do not always name their files in the best way. Taking the time to rename the file with the contents of the mod will not affect the way in which the mod alters the game, but will make things easier for you. If you need to try to track down conflicting mod files to find out which one is causing issues, having them labelled properly will make this a much easier task than it otherwise could be.
Uninstalling Doesn’t Mean Deletion
Our computers only have a finite amount of space on them. If you want to try out a new game, it might mean that you have to uninstall some old ones to be able to free up enough space for the new one. This will delete your game files, but it does not mean that your progress in that game has to be lost forever.
Instead, you might be able to copy your save files and store them elsewhere. This could be in a folder on your computer system, but since we are trying to save space they should probably go on an external hard drive instead. This means that you can safely uninstall the game, but if you choose to reinstall it later then you can just put your save file back and continue on playing as if there had never been a break!
As a gamer, it might be a good idea to get an external hard drive that is exclusively for your save files. This will be a much better option than if you were to mix them in with your other files that you might have stored on this device. Don’t forget to organise here! Make sure that the save files are divided by game – or you might never be able to track the right one down again!
Learn Which Caches You Can Delete
Many games need a little TLC every now and then. They can quickly become bloated and slow if you do not take the steps needed to cut things down and make them run smoother. One of the key things you can do is go into the caches and delete some of the files there. Games will generate useless files while they run, and many of these will end up in the caches. Clearing them out will help things to speed up.
However, there could be some files in the caches that you definitely don’t want to delete. You need to make sure that you can identify these files. If you accidentally delete them, you could knock out a significant function in the game, or even render it unplayable.
Take Steps to Organise Your Game Files Now
As a gamer, you need to make sure that your computer is in top working order. Even if you do not consider yourself to be that much of an organised person in real life, take the time to ensure that your game files are organised. It will make all the difference in how your games run, and can make managing the back-end of them much simpler too. No matter what, you need to make sure that you are able to take the best possible care of your computers imaginable – and that means being organised.
