You can do various things to make your PC faster. Understanding the basic things that slow down your PC will help you maintain it well. Usually a PC performs tasks slowly for many reasons, including overloading the disk space, maintaining unnecessary or invalid files in your registry, housing viruses and adware or even for having multiple applications automatically launch at start up. Fortunately, you can make most system adjustments on your own and with the help of additional applications that can be downloaded for free.

Scan for Virus And Spyware

Scan your system for virus and adware. Deleting harmful files from your computer is a priority, for security and performance purposes. Housing viruses and adware could potentially wipe out your hard drive or be the reason for consistent system crashes. If you don't have antivirus and spyware software you could find free downloads on the Internet, such as Spybot (for adware) and free trials of NOD32 antivirus, or Kaspersky antivirus (See Resources). Once you download these applications, scan your whole system and wait for the results. If viruses are found, the system will detect them and will prompt you to delete them

Free Up Disk Space

Remove unnecessary files or applications you no longer use. Overloading your disk space is one of the reasons your PC might be performing slowly. Freeing up space by deleting or relocating files into an external hard drive will greatly improve the overall performance of your PC. Move heave files, like movies, or .wav files you rarely use into an external drive or burn that data into CDs or DVDs. Remove unnecessary applications correctly by accessing the ''Control Panel'' from your ''Start'' menu and selecting the ''Add/Remove Programs.'' A list of all your applications will display. Click on the Remove button on the right of each application you no longer need, and confirm the removal.

Defrag Disk

Run disk defragmenter routinely. When files have been continuously moved to different locations within your computer, your hard drive takes longer to access this data, because it wastes time searching for it, since all files in a way have been fragmented. Running disk defragmnent will organize the contents within your disk so this can be accessed easily. Shut down all applications you are using. Go to your Start menu, select ''All Programs,'' then ''Accessories,'' ''System Tools'' and click on ''Disk Defragmenter.'' A window will appear. Click on the ''Analyze'' button. Shortly a popup window will inform you whether its necessary to defragment. If necessary, click on the ''Defragment'' button to begin the process.

Clean PC's Registry

Clean up your PC's registry. Every time you delete applications without the proper uninstall or removal procedure, orphan files in your PC's registry are left and end up affecting the performance by slowing it down and causing system errors. Clean the registry by using Windows Live Clean Registry tool (See Resources).

Remove Start-up Applications

Disable all ''Start up'' applications. If you have many applications set to launch automatically at Start up, it might clog your system. Go to the Start menu, and select ''Run.'' Type ''msconfig'' in the text field. A window will display. Click on the ''Start-up'' Tab. A list of all the programs that automatically launch at Start-up will appear. Uncheck the boxes to the left of all. Confirm the action and restart your computer for this to take place.

Clear Web Cache

Clear the cache on your computer. The cache is a storage area that contains frequently accessed data and helps your computer find things quickly. However, many times some of the data gets corrupted or is obsolete, and when this happens, it slows down your system. Locate the cache on your web browser by going to the ''Tools'' menu (for Windows Explorer), select ''Internet Options'' and click on the ''Delete Files...'' button under the ''Temporary Internet Files'' section. Click ''OK'' on the dialog box that appears to confirm the action.

Source:

Microsoft at work: 5 ways to speed up your PC

More Information:

Spybot: Search & Destroy: Spyware

ESET.com: NOD32 Antivirus

Windows Live: OneCare: Clean Up Scan