Is your computer running at less than optimal speed? Remember when you first got that new computer, it ran so fast, there were no errors and everything just seemed perfect. Computer's, like cars, need maintenance as well. How well would your car run if you had ?skipped? oil changes for the first 3 years of ownership? That's right it would either work terribly, or not work at all!



Some of the more common symptoms users experience are strange error messages and sluggish performance in general. These error messages will often appear when starting your computer and/or when you are opening or closing programs. Let's take a look at some simple methods to get that computer running nicely again.

The first step to fixing any sluggish computer is to take out the ?trash?. By trash I simply mean temporary or extraneous files. To do this we must first grab a copy of Ccleaner. This is a free utility and can be used to cleanup just about all of the temporary files on your computer in one simple click. Just stop by ccleaner.com and download your free copy.

Once you have installed the software, open it up and simply click on ?Clean Now?. This process is 100% automated and requires very little interaction from you. Upon completion you will receive a confirmation screen, which shows you exactly how much space you have cleared up on your machine.

Step 2 in this process is to simply clean your Windows Registry. The registry is an important part of your system and should be maintained as well. To perform this task open up Cclceaner and click on the ?Fix Errors? section. This will automate the entire process. Wait for the scan to finish and follow the on screen instructions.

The final step we will take is to scan the machine for Spyware and viruses. Doing this manually is a complete waste of time so let's grab a useful utility to do this for us. I recommend Super Anti Spyware. Grab yourself a copy and fire it up to continue. Once the software has been opened, follow the on screen instructions. This program will track down and remove the majority of Spyware on your machine. This process can take anywhere from 5 minutes up to an hour. So sit back and relax and let Super Anti Spyware to the work. Once this process is complete the software might request that you restart the machine. Make sure to abide by this recommendation and let the machine restart.

When the machine is done rebooting you will more than likely be rid of many of those pesky problems. If this is not the case, you should simply repeat the above steps just once more. This will remove the left over problems 90% of the time.

We recommend following these steps at least once per month. This will allow you to keep up with the maintenance of your machine. By doing this often you will ensure that your computer will run to the best of its capabilities.