by bluephin

Created on: July 15, 2008   Last Updated: July 17, 2008

There is nothing more frustrating that sitting in front of a computer that seems to have lived in the Stone Age. Click the mouse here Type a letter here Open a window there but instead of each event happening with a click of a finger you have to wait a couple of seconds (or worse, minutes!) before the system responds to your commands.

If you have ever been in these situations or if you are one of those people who has to boot up his computer, walk away, get a coffee, come back and sit while the computer is still busy doing it's boot up, then read on. These pointers might help make your computer perform as how it should be.

FREE UP DISK SPACE

You can do this using Disk Cleanup a System Tool used to delete unnecessary files residing in your drive. These unnecessary files can be composed of Temporary Internet files, application setup files, temporary files, and recycle bin files among others. To access Disk Cleanup, click on Start Menu Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Cleanup.

In addition, review all your installed programs and uninstall those that you think would be of no use for you. You can do this through the Disk Cleanup interface, just click on the More Options tab and hit Clean up in the Installed Programs group. It will the open your Add or Remove Programs interface where you can view the programs that you have and how often you use them. It is recommended to uninstall softwares that you do not use because the space they are occupying could be placed to better use for other files or softwares that you will install in the future. Alternatively, Add or Remove Programs can be accessed by opening Start Menu Control Panel Add or Remove Programs.

DEFRAGMENT

Disk defragmentation slows down your computer because whenever it accesses a file system has to search the entire drive space to piece back the file together before it can actually open it. Thus, defragmenting your drive could help speed up processing to some extent.

To access this tool, click on Start Menu Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter. Simply select the drive that you want to defragment and hit the Defragment button. This process may take awhile depending on how big your drive is and it is recommended that you do this while you are not using your computer.

CHECK AND REPAIR DISK ERRORS

In addition to defragmenting and cleaning up your drive space, you could also check for and repair disk errors to help optimize your computer's performance. Do this by running Check Disk utility. To open,

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