The present invention relates to the technical field of network communications, and discloses a system optimizing method and apparatus. The system optimizing method comprises: judging whether programs running in the system meet a preset optimization rule; displaying programs that meet the preset optimization rule in a first class of a program list and displaying programs that do not meet the preset optimization rule in a second class of the program list, wherein states of the programs in the first class are selected by default and states of the programs in the second class are not selected by default; and performing optimization processing for programs in the program list whose states are selected according to a triggered optimization instruction, wherein the optimization instruction includes the states of the programs in the program list. In this way, the problem in the prior art that an undesirable optimization effect is achieved because file cleaning work can only be simply executed is solved, and an advantageous effect of effectively processing various conditions of the system is obtained so as to reasonably optimize the system.