There are several things you can do to speed up your computer. As most of the clutter there is caused by you, you should be doing the clean up. Much of the information that has accumulated is all caused by your activities using the computer. You have done all sorts of things except to regularly maintain the machine. Now, it's karma time.

To help you speed up your computer and free you from the karma that is in the form of slow booting time and slow responses, here are a few tips:

- If you really want to display nice wallpapers on your desktop, choose one that is simple because these things slow down your whole system. But, if you are ready to compromise your goal to speed up your computer with that awesome, but humongous file of a wallpaper - then, it's your call.

- Get updated on the latest drivers from the manufacturers of graphics cards and other components of your computer. There are regular updates that you can get that will help in increasing the speed of your system.

- If there are several programs you need to use at the same time, it will help lessen RAM load if you will minimize those applications not being used.

- If you need to restart, restart Windows only and not the whole computer system. So, when restarting the PC, hold down the Shift key so that only the Windows will be restarted. That should take only a short period of time.

- Decide if you really need all those animations running in the background. Various display settings and effects have a lot to do too, with slow response time.

- To speed up your computer some more, try to lower the resolution of your display.

- Perform a defragmentation procedure regularly so that your hard drive will be physically arranged. That will allow faster access to information.

- Let your PC take a nap by prompting the Sleep command instead of shutting it down, if you have to be out for a while.

- Lessen the number of programs that run during start-up. These applications are major contributors to why you are now longing to speed up your computer. Check which applications you can disable or uninstall altogether. That way you can free your start-up routine with lesser programs to launch and you free up spaces in your hard drive too

- In Windows 98, stretching of the wallpaper actually slows down Windows especially when you are dragging icons around on your desktop.

- Your RAM capacity matters a lot in order to speed up your computer. Upgrade this component and you will experience faster processing with your computer. (Granted that you also have cleaned up all your clutters).

- Free up some space in your hard drive. There should be at least 20 to 30 percent of vacant space in there to help the entire system in accessing your hard drive for information faster.

- Clean up the mess in your registry by downloading registry cleaners from the Internet.