Follow these steps and you'll have your computer purring like a vintage Porsche (or whatever your dream car of choice is). And the best part? Maintaining your computer is a lot less messy than an automobile. You don't even have to roll up your sleeves.
Clean up disk errors (Run once a week)
Whenever a program crashes, or you experience some power outage, your computer may create errors on your computer's hard disk. Over time, the errors can slow your computer. Luckily, the Windows operating system includes a Disk Check program to check and clean any errors on your computer and keep it running smoothly.
Remove temporary files (Run once a week)
Your computer can pick up and store temporary files when you're looking at Web pages and even when you're working on files in programs, such as Microsoft Word. Over time, these files will slow your computer's performance. You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup screen to rid your computer of these deadbeat files.
Rearrange your data (Run once a month)
Don't be shocked, but your computer can get sloppy. Your computer often breaks files side by side to increase the speed of access and retrieval. However, as files are updated, your computer saves these updates on the largest space available on the hard drive, often found far away from the other adjacent sectors of the file.
Make Internet Explorer run faster
The Web is a sparkling achievement of modern society. It's everywhere—from the home to the classroom. We use it to communicate, to work, to play—even to waste time when there's nothing else to do.
Automate Microsoft Update (Configure once)
Microsoft works constantly to release updates to Windows and other Microsoft products, including Office. At Microsoft Update, you can find and install all these updates—not just the critical ones. Often, these updates will improve your computer's performance.
Install antivirus and antispyware programs
Computer viruses and spyware (hidden software that gathers information about you without your knowledge or consent when you're using a computer) both reduce system performance. Computer viruses can not only reduce performance, but they can also destroy data. Any computer that accesses the Internet should have antivirus and antispyware programs installed.