Let me start by saying that some PCs are so far gone, there is nothing we can do for them, short of a complete format and reinstall of the operating system. Anyone who has been exposed to Windows for a significant amount of time is aware that every installation of Windows naturally degrades along a logarithmic curve until it becomes virtually unusable. This is called it's half-life. Like I said before, if your PC is at this point, you need to wipe it out and start over. That being said, lets move on...

Here I have a few tips and tricks that you can try when you notice your Windows XP computer starting to get sluggish. At some point during these steps, you will inevitably be asked to reboot. Simply decline. I will tell you when to reboot. Also, you don't have to do EVERY step here. If you don't want to disable an option, then don't. These are just some of the steps that I take. Here we go...

I am going to assume that you have up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware software installed and have performed these scans on your PC. If not, stop right here and do that. If your performance issues are caused by viruses, etc.. then these steps are not the resolution to your problem. AVG and Avast! are good free antivirus programs. I recommend Spybot AND AdAware for anti-spyware. I usually run them both at least once a week.

1. MICROSOFT UPDATE - This should always be done anyway. It's also important that you have current drivers. Out-dated or incorrect drivers can slow your system down drastically. Note that the drivers on your PC manufacturers website are not necessarily the latest. For example, if you have an nVidia Graphics Card, check out nvidia.com and see if there's a newer driver for it.

2. UNINSTALL APPS - Select Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel. Go through the whole list and Uninstall everything you don't use often, or at all. You won't miss them.

3. AUTORUNS - Go to Google and search for 'Autoruns'. This is a Microsoft program that allows you to control what programs run when Windows starts. Download and run it. The first tab that comes up is called 'Everything'. Don't be intimidated. Just click on the second tab, called 'Logon'. Carefully make your way down the list and uncheck anything that's not necessary. Don't remove anything related to your antivirus scanner, etc... I usually remove everything but that.

If you are confident, you can head over to the 'Services' and other tabs and see what can be disabled there as well. Otherwise, just close Autoruns.

4. DISABLE INDEXING - In My Computer, right-click on your hard disk and select Properties. Uncheck the box that says "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching". It may take a little while. If you get errors, it's ok just select 'Ignore All'. Repeat the process for any additional drives you have.

5. CCLEANER - Download CCleaner from www.ccleaner.com or just Google it. Install it, but be careful to uncheck the 'Add Yahoo! Toolbar' option from the install program. Once it's installed, run the program and click the 'Analyze' button on the bottom. It will display a list of all the temporary files it will remove. Click 'Run Cleaner' to proceed. When it finishes, close the program.

6. EASYCLEANER - Go to Google and search for 'EasyCleaner'. This is a program that cleans your registry out for you, so you don't screw up your system trying to do it manually. Once you get it installed, run it and click the 'Registry' button. Click 'Find' and you can probably go get a cup of coffee. When it's finished, click 'Delete All'. When finished, close the program.

7. WINDOWS PERFORMANCE SETTINGS - Right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'. Choose the 'Advanced' tab and click the 'Settings' button in the 'Performance' section. Choose the radio button labeled 'Adjust for best performance' and click 'Apply'. Switch to the 'Advanced' tab and click 'Change'. Select the radio button labeled 'System managed size' and click the 'Set' button. Click OK, OK, OK.

8. WINDOWS CLASSIC - Right-click on the desktop and select 'Properties'. On the 'Themes' tab, select 'Windows Classic' from the drop down list and click Apply. Note that this will remove your wallpaper. If you insist on having a wallpaper, at least resize it to match the resolution set on the 'Settings' tab. Click OK.

9. TWEAKUI - Google 'TweakUI'. This is a great little tool that Microsoft released to make it easy to change these settings. Otherwise we'd be poking around in the registry and screwing up our systems. Anyway, install TweakUI and run it. Go through each menu option and disable whatever you want in here. The following is the procedure I follow, but you make your own decisions:

# Don't beep on errors.
# Disable combo box animation.
# Disable cursor shadow.
# Disable list box animation.
# Disable menu animation.
# Disable menu fading.
# Disable menu selection fading.
# Disable mouse hot tracking effects.
# Disable tooltip animation.
# Disable tooltip fade.
# Disable window animation.
# Don't optimize hard disk when idle.
# Don't show Help on Start menu.
# Don't show Recent Documents on Start menu.
# Don't allow web content to be added to the desktop.
# Disable smooth scrolling.
# Don't maintain document history.
# Don't maintain network history.
# Don't manipulate connected files as a unit.
# Use Classic Search in Explorer.
# Do use Tab to navigate Autocomplete.
# Hide places bar in common dialogs.
# Disable balloon tips in Taskbar and Start menu.

10. CHKDSK/DISKEEPER - At this point I run Chkdsk to make sure there are no file system errors. This requires a reboot. Go ahead and do it. When that's done, I HIGHLY reccommend Diskeeper. It's not free, but it's worth every penny. If there's absolutely no way you can get your hands on a copy, then run the Windows Defragmenter.

Sometimes a PC is just not sufficient for the programs you're trying to run. If this is the case, and a hardware upgrade is not possible, look for alternative programs. For example, if Microsoft Word is really slow, try AbiWord. It's much lighter, and free.

I usually reboot again at this point for good measure, but your PC should be running a lot better by now. If you have some more pointers for me to add to this list, I would appreciate the input.