Sorry to hear that, but I'm here to help!

You see, I work on PCs day in and day out and I have learned some tricks to speed things up. Some cost a little money, but most are free. So, what do you say ... let's get to it, eh?

I see that worried frown upon your face. You think you're not capable of fixing things yourself. Well, without the proper knowledge this is true, but I'm here to help you with this part. 

First off, we'll need to realize the main things that make a PC slow: Not enough RAM, too many programs running in the background, and viruses and spyware. We will approach each issue and do what we can to fix them, okay? Don't fret ... I'll make things as easy as I can, and with that said, we will move onto the first topic.

RAM (also knows as Random Access Memory) can slow down your PC if you don't have enough of it. Why, you may ask ... Well, I'll see if I can explain.

Remember in elementary school when we had those wee little desks? You couldn't put much on them without something toppling off the side. Of course, the desks grew bigger as we did, allowing us to work on more things at once. The RAM in your PC works the same way. What was enough yesterday might no longer be enough today.

So, how much do you have? You don't know? I'll tell you how to find out:

XP Instructions:

Left-click the start button

Right-click My Computer

Left-click Properties

Vista Instructions:

Left-click the Start circle

Right-click Computer

Left-click Properties

Good, now you should see a place where it says (some number)Mb of RAM or (some number)Gb of RAM. For XP, you want at least 1Gb of RAM and if you have Vista you want at least 2Gb of RAM. If you are uncertain how to install more RAM, then please (please) have an expert do it for you. Typically, the upgrade will be less than $100 for the parts and will make a dramatic difference in how your PC runs.

Once you have enough RAM, move onto the next step.

Let's see.

For XP, do the following:

Click the start button

Click Run

Type msconfig

press the enter key on the keyboard

For Vista do the following:

Click the start button

type msconfig in the search box

press the enter key on the keyboard

With that done, you should see the System Configuration utility on the screen.

Click the startup tab. Here, you will see a list of all the programs that run at startup. Anything with a checkmark in the box is a program running at startup. You can uncheck the box to stop these things from running (which will improve the performance of your PC), but you might also turn off something important.

If you read the descriptions, you might recognize a few things you no longer use ... those are the ones that I recommend you unckeck, as unchecking others could have adverse results. (I never promised this would be easy).

When you complete your changes, click OK. The system will offer to restart (which you must) and will prompt you that changes where made after the computer completes its reboot (yep, you changed them). With that all done, you should see a bit of a performance boost, but you still might find yourself needing more. That's the reason for the final step.

If you have an antivirus program installed, perform a full virus scan of your system. If you don't, then I highly recommend one. Personally, I use Norton Internet Security 2009 and it works very well for me.

When done with the antivirus scan, you need to check for spyware. For this part of the job I recommend a free program called MalwareBytes, you can find it at www.malwarebytes.org. Don't worry, you can try it for free and if it helps - I recommend purchasing it.

When done performing both scans and letting these programs remove all the baddies, restart your PC to see if it runs any better than when you first started - my bet is that it will, though there are a (very) few rough cases that these tricks won't work for.

Provided all went well, share your experience in the comments section for others to hear. After all, there isn't one of us that doesn't like to listen to a success story. Good luck!