Follow these eight steps, and it will be hard for your computer to slow down. First, check how much "system resources" you have. Right-click on "My Computer," select "Properties," then choose "Performance" and see how much "system resources" are available; ideally, it should be around 95%.
1. The fewer items on your computer desktop, the better. My desktop only has "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin." Too many items consume system resources. Although having things on the desktop may seem convenient, it comes at the cost of using up system resources and sacrificing speed. The solution is to delete all shortcuts from the desktop since they can also be found in the "Start" menu and "Programs" bar. Move other files that are not shortcuts to drive D or E, and avoid placing them on drive C. Drive C should only contain Windows system files and programs that must be installed on C. All others should be placed on drives D or E.
2. Right-click on "My Computer," select "Properties," then choose "Performance." Click on the left-hand "File System" option. There will be a "Primary use of this computer (T)" setting. Pull down the arrow and change "Desktop" to "Network Server," then confirm. Next, choose the "Virtual Memory" option on the right, select "User-specified virtual memory settings (M)," and set both the maximum and minimum values to twice the amount of your computer's RAM. For example, if you have 128 MB of RAM, set it to "256." Confirm the changes, ignoring any warnings that appear. After confirming, restart your computer.
3. Open "My Computer," then open drive C. Inside, there will be a Windows folder. Open it and find a "Temp" folder. Delete all the files inside (make sure to close other applications first). Next to the "Temp" folder, there will be a "Temporary Internet Files" folder. Open it and delete all its contents. Be very careful not to delete the "Temp" and "Temporary Internet Files" folders themselves—only delete everything inside them. Remember this well! It’s best to perform this operation once a month.
4. On the bottom row of your computer screen, leave only the real-time monitoring icon of your antivirus software and the "Start" button on the far left. Delete everything else, as they consume system resources and many of them are unnecessary anyway. Even if you use some, they can all be accessed through the "Start" menu. You can add shortcuts for the most commonly used software to the Start menu and place less frequently used ones in the Programs menu.
5. Set both the desktop wallpaper and the screensaver to "None."
6. Select "Start" in the lower-left corner — "Programs" — "Accessories" — "System Tools" — "Maintenance Wizard." Choose "Change my maintenance settings or schedule," confirm, then choose "Custom." Proceed to the next step, selecting "Custom" again. A dialog box titled "Speed up Windows startup more quickly" will appear. Remove all the checkboxes inside, as these are programs that start when the computer boots, and many of them are unnecessary. If needed, you can always start them manually later. Then proceed to the next step, choosing "No" each time until you reach the end. Finally, click "Finish." OK!
7. Select "Start" in the lower-left corner — "Programs" — "Accessories" — "System Tools" — "Disk Scan Program." Check the "Automatically repair errors" option, then click "Start." Once the process finishes, repeat this for all your hard drives (C, D, E, F), then exit by clicking "Close."
8. Select "Start" in the lower-left corner — "Programs" — "Accessories" — "System Tools" — "Disk Defragmenter." In the drop-down menu, select "All Hard Drives" and confirm. Then wait—it might take a while, so you could take a break. If this program has never been run before and your hard drive is large, it could take over an hour (if the time seems too long, you can stop the process and run it in parts later). This program should be run approximately once a month, and subsequent runs will take much less time.
After such maintenance, has your computer regained the speed it had when you first bought it? Maybe even faster, huh? Then right-click on "My Computer," select "Properties," then choose "Performance," and check how much "system resources" you have. Is it at 95%?