There are some simple things you can to that will keep your computer running smoothly. Microsoft incorporates some maintenance tools and utilities within the operating system.

Deleting other unused programs by using the add/remove programs utility. You get to this by going to StartRun and typing msconfig then select ok and choose the start up tab.

Try to never install programs that start running as windows start, like messengers. Because the programs you are wanting to run have to compete with the messengers type programs that keep running. To stop them, just press Ctrl + Alt + Del and go into processes tab and close them from there.

You may also want to turn off any unnecessary services in the services manager.(Access your control panel by going to your control panel administrative tools services) These are all simple things you can do yourself to help improve your computer speed.

I also recommend that you invest in two software programs that will greatly benefit you and your computer. Scan your computer weekly with a spyware program. And also get a registry cleaner software program. Cleaning your registry will really make a difference in your computer speed and your computer performance.

Protecting your computer from viruses, adware, spyware and other malware requires that you have an anti-virus program running. Major damage, besides just slowness, can be causes by these types of programs. You can download some good, free utilities from Microsofts web site or you can choose a third-party option.

You will be rewarded with a better performing system if you keep it maintained.

You can optimize your computer to get it to run faster and not take it in to a computer tech and save a lot of money. All you really have to do is go through all the settings and verify that the entries are best suited for your needs in order to optimize your computer. It is important to have all updates installed for any software, devices and the operating system as it is critical to a peak operating system. This is not a difficult process and you can set it to be performed automatically.

Run Check Disk. Running a check disk will enable you to fix operating system and software errors. To run a check disk, you will first need to go to “My Computer” on the start menu (If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, it is called (Computer.”). Press “Enter” on “My Computer” or “Computer” and then use your arrow keys until your cursor is on the “C” drive. Once there, press the “Applications” key, click the “Tools” tab and press the “Check Disk” button. You will be given two options if you check both of these boxes and press “start” you will then be asked if you want the process to take place when the computer restarts. Just click on “yes” to proceed.

It is recommended to run the Disk Cleanup utility weekly. As you save documents on your computer, and as you surf the Internet, your computer will save temporary files. In order to run the Disk Cleanup utility to rid you of such files, go to your start menu, click on “All Programs., click “Accessories,” click “System Tools” menu and click “Disk Cleanup.” The computer calculates the amount of space you can free up. Once finished  you will then be shown a list of different files that you can choose for the Disk Cleanup to throw out. It is best to check all of them and let the Disk Cleanup run.

Maintaining your Windows XP computer will help to insure that its performance will not degrade over time. If you don’t maintain your PC and are experiencing issues with speed you can choose to try to resolve the issues yourself or you can take your PC in to a computer professional. While the latter does not require any time on your part it will cost you a considerable amount of money. Many things you can do to resolve speed issues with your computer are free and easy to perform.

More than ninety percent of all problems related to slowness in PCs can be attributed to problems found in the system registry. Microsoft does not provide a tool to scan or fix registry entries but they do provide a registry editing tool. However, unless you really know what you are doing it is not recommended that you manually modify registry entries.

Adding more RAM (random access memory) to your system will almost always help speed up a slow computer and the act of multi-tasking will not bog down the computer as it would with a lower amount of RAM. RAM is hardware that needs to be physically added and tends to be somewhat costly. However if you plan on keeping your system for a while it is an excellent investment.

For faster browsing speed clear your Internet cache (temporary internet files) and delete your cookies. This causes the computer to gain speed on the Internet and the pop-ups from sites that you have been to will also be less frequent.

Your computers system registry is a critical repository of all the settings and controls that allow your computer it software and hardware to run. While Microsoft only provides a registry editing tool there are many good third-party utilities that will scan, analyze and resolve any issues found in your computer systems registry. When you have a clean system registry you will notice an improvement in the speed of your PC.

Most of the registry utilities will create points from which you are able to restore from. You can choose a back up point prior to when you began experiencing any real issues with slowness in your computer and that would be all you need to do. With the tools you will be able to scan your registry for errors, invalid shortcuts, missing keys and other items and provide you with a list. From this list you can use the editing tool to manually fix the registry yourself or other software may actually repair the issues found.

Remove unnecessary items from the start menu. To do this type “msconfig” in the “run” box and hit enter. Choose selective startup and uncheck all of the programs that you do not need to load every time you start your computer. This will make the computer start more quickly and efficiently. DO NOT uncheck items that you do not recognize. This could cause you computer to run improperly.

Use a browser with an integrated pop-up blocker (Firefox for example) to decrease the amount of pop-ups and increase browsing speed.

There are in fact many factors that impact how fast a computer is able to perform. The age, amount of RAM, hard drive, programs, registry, and malware can all contribute to the slow speed of your PC. As things get older, they wear out; a computer is no different. Components wear out from regular use as a result of dirt in the environment they are exposed too as well as from repeated heating and cooling. Every time the computer is turned off, it cools down, and when turned on it heats up.

Metal and plastics expand and contract which slowly weaken and degrade resulting in poorer performance. Age also plays a big part when considering the programs installed. Newer software is often designed to work better with newer machines, thus over time, while the computer may be able to run the newer software, it may have to work harder to do so.

If your computer is on in years then, over time, the hard drive has probably become cluttered with many now unnecessary programs and other data. There may have been software that came pre-loaded that you never use or when you buy a piece of hardware sometimes software is automatically installed. If you do not use or need these programs then you should use the un-install process to remove them. The more space your hard drive has on it the better off your system will be.

You can use the Disk Cleanup utility, MSCONFIG and the Disk Defragmenter utility to clean out and reorganize your computer hard drive. Keeping your computer free from clutter and errors isone of the biggest steps to improving how it performs.

There are five things that are easy to do that can improve your computers performance. In summary they include: removing malware, adware, and spyware; finding and fixing errors on the computers hard drive, freeing up space on the hard drive and adding additional virtual RAM.

Spyware, adware, viruses and all sorts of malware can cause significant degradations of your computers performance. You can find good programs to scan for and remove these threats on Microsofts website as well as from third parties.

Use registry fix programs. The computer registry can be described as the database that contains all of the settings and options for 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows (including Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, XP, and 2000.) It also contains all of the settings for the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the P.C. Whenever a user makes changes in the Control Panel settings, file associations, system policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected in the computers registry. Many times a registry error occurs and this causes files and data to be inaccessible. If there are numerous minor errors (which is usually the case) a registry fix program will get the data back in accessible sequence and a slow computer will be speeded up with this fix.

Removing as much clutter and junk from your PCs hard drive and freeing up space will go a long way to improving your computers performance. There are several utilities that will help you do this but the main one people use is the MSCONFIG tool. Once you have created more space on your hard drive the computer has more room to use it as virtual memory.

There some simple things you can do to maintain your PC and keep it operating at peak performance. Freeing up space on the disk drive will help speed up access to data, detecting and repairing disk errors and protecting your computer from viral infections from other mailware and using a ReadyBoost feature increasing the amount of RAM by using a MicroSD card.

Think of the hard drive like a bookshelf full of books or DVDs. Would finding a specific movie or book will be faster faster if the shelf is organized in alphabetical order and/or by genre? Like a bookshelf, a computer operates better when its hard drive is kept organized. Using a good defrag program regularly will ensure the hard drive remains neat and orderly thus making it easier for the computer to find files and programs.

The more programs and applications running at the same time, the more resources are required and the slower the computer will operate even if they are not immediately seen on the screen. Does the printer always need to be primed and ready for printing? Shut down programs not regularly used and/or remove them from the start up operation.

When you free up disk space it will ensure that the processor has the space necessary to write the temporary items that is required. If the capacity of your computers hard drive is over eighty-five percent full then be sure to run the Disk Cleanup utility. This is a tool scans the hard drive, finding all the things that are safe to delete. After performing this task then go to the add/remove programs and un-install any software programs you do not use.

If you are experiencing severe issues with the performance of your computer and have tried all the standard fixes then it may be time for more drastic measures. Performing a system restore is one of the best ways to really improve your computers performance but it is truly the most drastic measure you can take. A full system restore takes time and requires you re-install the operating system as well as all your other software programs and device drivers as well.

However there are incremental system restores that can improve your systems performance without having to do a full system restore. A feature of many of the Windows operating systems is that it will regularly make logs of the PCs operating system, registry and configurations settings. If you suddenly begin to experience an issue with your computer then you can restore to a point just prior to when the problem occurred. The utility will makes records of the computer system every day. This will allow you to back up to any given point of time when the computer was functioning properly.

You can perform the incremental system restore by going into System Tools and selecting System Restore. Just select the Restore Point you want to use and then click on “Restore”. It is a quick and easy process that will take your computer back in time to when it was operating properly.

It is important that your computers registry is in good operating order. The registry is the heart of your PC keeping it running and preventing it from freezing, crashing or just running slow.

Before you begin to chase down performance issues you should check to see if your computer meets the minimum requirements for the software that is installed. You can find the specifications for all programs in their documentation. If you determine that your computer does not meet the requirements of a newly installed program then you should un-install it.

Windows provides many tools that are free and will help you optimize your computers performance. Live OneCare is an example of one of these tools. This piece of software will scan your system to determine what maintenance tasks you need to perform.

You can also start by checking to see what programs are starting up and running on your computer. By default when many software are installed they are set to auto start when your PC boots up. As you add program after program to your computer this can get to be quite a number of programs running all at the same time.

You are able to turn off this feature either in the properties of the program or by using the MSCONFIG utility. In this utility all you have to do is un-check the programs that you do not want to automatically start up. If there is anything you do not recognize listed you probably do not need it running but you can search the internet to be certain. You can always un-install any programs that you think you will never need. Any changes you make in the MSCONFIG utility will take effect when you re-start your computer.

For virtual memory to work properly you do need to have adequate amount of hard drive space available on the disk drive of the PC. Remove any unnecessary programs, empty the recycle bin and remove any temporary internet and Windows.

Memory leaking can cause your computer to slow down. A memory leak is caused when a program or programs including the operating system stops releasing memory they do not need. Oftentimes memory leaks are not noticeable as they disappear before any problems arise. But, on occasion, it can cause your system to slow to a crawl or even turn into the “blue screen of death”.

To close a program that may be causing the memory leak can be done by holding the “ctrl+alt+del” keys open up the task menu then click on the “Processes” tab. Restarting your PC can sometimes help if closing down the program does not.

If you continue to notice that particular programs are causing memory leaks you should check to see if they have a more recent version or if any updates or patches are available. You can find this information on the manufacturer’s website. While some patches may be available for fee major updates may require you to purchase the upgrade.

You may also see a message “your virtual memory is low” is displayed on your Windows XP computer. Most people do now know what to do when they get this message on their PCs. Virtual memory can be complicated as it is what allow your larger programs and applications to use RAM more efficiently and run smoother.