Speed up your Computer

One of the stranger aspects of computers is that they do indeed suffer from old age. Oddly enough, the longer you use a computer - particularly a Windows PC, the slower it ends up running.

One strategy for improving things is rather draconian: back up your computer files, reformat your hard disk, then reinstall the OS from scratch and the key applications you use. This will probably take a couple of days by the time you get everything restored, but it's really a pretty good annual task for PC users.

Here are a few tips that should be carried out monthly which will keep your computer running smoothly:

Disk Defragmentation

• Start
• Programs
• Accessories
• System Tools
• Disk Defragmenter

Other Windows operating systems has the disk defragementer tool in a similar location. If you can't find it, go to Windows help and search for "defrag" to find out how to run it.

Clean Temporary Files

• Start
• Programs
• Accessories
• System Tools
• Disk Cleanup

For other Windows operating systems you may have manually remove temporary files. To find out how, go to Windows help and search for "temporary files".

Clean Up Your Desktop

• Start
• Control Panel
• Double-click "Display".
• Click the "Desktop" tab.
• Click the "Customize Desktop" button at the bottom.
• Click the "General" tab.
• Click the "Clean Desktop Now" button at the bottom.