So, your computers running like a dog these days, and it's frustrating the heck out of you.  Can't say I blame you, it drives me crazy, when my computer starts running slower than I do.  And that can be pretty slow at times.  There are of course a few simple tricks for getting your computer to run a little faster, and I'm more than will to impart those secret pearls of wisdom upon you.  Of course there may be other tricks that work even better, but you'll just have to search around a bit to find a few gurus smarter than I am. 

Getting jammed up with a frigging slow computer seems to happen to just about everyone at some point in time.  Computer lovers end up spending thousands of dollars every day to correct the problem, when money is not usually the solution.  It may be the problem, but rarely is it the solution.  Your computer registry is actually part of the problem.  Well, it's not really just a problem, as it's also a core piece of your computer that keeps it running tickity boo most of them time.  Basically any computer that runs any flavor of Windows wouldn't survive long without it.  But, because it is core to the running of your computer, it can also become a culprit in the slowing down of your computer over time.  It basically becomes cluttered with lots of useless information that you no longer use.  If Microsoft actually gets around to it, they should design a registry that cleans itself, or at least begins to relegate old information to an archive to make the primary registry a little more efficient.

Anyway, the way your registry currently runs, it keeps track of pretty much everything you do on your computer.  From caching websites, to opening documents, to keeping track of your favorites, to which programs you installed, and when you installed them.  This is obviously useful stuff, but I'm sure you can see how over time it can become pretty bloated.  And since it gets used by just about every application and action on your computer it just gets slower and slower as it grows.  Sometimes you can even get corrupted entries in your registry, which slows the whole process down even more.

The more corrupt entries, and erroneous information in your registry, the worse it gets.  At some point, the registry just needs to be cleaned out.  While you could attempt to do that yourself manually, it might be more fun to just pour honey all over your body, and run through a bee farm with with a big stick and start smacking all the bee hives you can find.  See how much fun that could be?  There is of course a better solution.  Try instead, getting your hands on a piece of software known as a registry cleaner.  This software understands all the validation rules that apply to Windows registries, and how to fix bad or bogus entries.  They will quite often scan through your entire registry, and then show you the problems before attempting any fix. At that point, you can approve or disapprove any corrections they suggest.  This is important, because deleting or modifying entries in the wrong way can seriously harm your computer.  Possibly even to the point of requiring a reinstall. 

A reinstall is of course a final option, if your computer is running too slow after the registry clean.  It's not a great one, as you can lose a bunch of information and settings.  But, taking good backups before you begin, and setting up your important documents, pictures, music, and video files in a well organized manner should prevent any major catastrophes.

Generally speaking though, a good registry cleaner will do wonders for your PC.  Almost to the point, of making it run like new.  Of course if that doesn't work, then there are quite a few other options you can try.  One being messing with the startup tab of your MSConfig program.  That one always seems to do wonders for me every time I've used it, and it's free.