Computers of most of the users get dead slow due to several reasons. Maintenance of the computers is not difficult. However, it can not be expected that all the users become expert in few days. One has to understand why the computers get slow. Reasons of sluggishness include fragmented files, duplicate files, cookies, storage of web files from internet, corrupt registry, unused shortcuts, listing of recently used documents etc.

1. Configuration of the system setup: is one of the methods but you have to spare some time to update configuration of your computer. To make your computer fast you can change few settings in your computer's BIOS so it take less time loading windows.

How to change settings in BIOS?

• Press the Delete Key during startup.

• Choose the Quick Power On Self Test

• Disable the "Boot Up Floppy Seek" option

• Turn Off "Boot Delay"

2. Unclick unnecessary start up programs: Another cause of delay in booting is due to enabling of various start up programs. If your system tray is full of program, each program will take its own time to load. This cause considerable delay in start of the computer. There are programs which are not used frequently and not needed to be loaded with windows start up.

To disable these program at windows start up, type "msconfig" in the run command. It will open configuration utility. Here clicking start up tab will show different programslisted to be loaded at startup. Programs like messengers (MSN messenger or yahoo messenger) need not to be loaded always with windows start up. Hence, these programs can be unchecked. Some other programs that are not needed at windows start up (like "reshed" related with TV tuning card ) may also be disabled. Hence, disabling them will reduce time taken to boot considerably).

3. Set the delay time if you have more than one operating system:

Right click the "My Computer" icon and then "properties". When you click properties a new window will open. Here click on the "settings" of start up program and set the time to display of default OS to "0" or "5". Next time you start your computer it will automatically choose default OS. Next thing to do in "Advance" settings of my computer windows is to decide whether you are interested in good appearance of your windows display or you would like to run your program fast. You can also select the option of running fast your background or your main programs.

4. Clean up your hard disk::

To tackle otherissues like clean up of hard disk, registry etc.several methods may be used. Manual maintenance is tedious and time taking so I tried few programs to make computer fast, some I liked and some I did not like. I downloaded several program from the net and tested for their usefulness. I do not prefer trial versions so my favourite program list include only free software. Ultimately I succeeded making my computer fast and I am giving details about programs and processes that others can follow.

BeClean:

BeClean 1.4 is a very useful tool and complete suite of utilities. It is a free and full packaged application. It can be downloaded from net and time taken for download is also less as it is a small program. But don't be mistaken by the size of the program. It includes several cleaners like registry cleaner, internet cache cleaner, history cleaner, temporary files cleaner, start menu cleaner, desktop cleaner, empty recycle bin and custom cleaner. It can silently work and easily customized to your needs and, "of course, it is free", it does not cost you.BeClean can be configured to run at Windows start and perform a silent cleaning of the above mentioned locations. Some Windows programs leave behind a list of files that have been previously opened and these can be eliminated from History tab by checking the corresponding boxes.

BeClean components:

• Registry Cleaner clean up irrelevant registry entries

• internet cache is cleaned up by Internet Cleaner

• History Cleaner, clean up common Windows applications recent file lists

• Temporary Files Cleaner, clean up temporary files

• Start Menu Cleaner, clean up Start Menu of broken links

• Desktop Cleaner, clean up Desktop of broken links

• Empty Recycle Bin, clean up all deleted files in the Recycle Bin

• Custom Cleaner, clean up your specified folders and registry keys

• Disk Clean Wizard, clean up your computer drives

Free window registry repair:

It is also a very handy tool. I never faced any problem using this tool. It repairs corrupt registry entries and removes empty registry entries. You can restore your computer to an early date or precleaning state as this program create restore points before removing useless registry entries.

EasyCleaner:

Besides removing unnecessary registry entries it performs several optimizing tasks like removing most recently used (MRU) links, duplicate files, finds and removes unnecessary files, cleans invalid short cuts, clears IE temporary Internet files and several other optimization tasks. I recommend use of this free program to run your computer fast.

Windows XP optimizer:

This is also a good program and has several options for optimization of your computer. It can make your computer run very fast. Optimization using safe optimization is really safe. However, I got problem with internet connection using dial up modem. This program sometime may disable some of the services. I recommend use of this program for advanced users.

Disk clean up utility (windows):

This is a useful toy in the "System tools". It can clean garbage from your hard disk and slightly improve the performance of your computer.

Disk defragmenter:

It's also a nice tool to arrange your fragmented files on the computer. Your computer takes more time opening a file if files are fragmented all over the hard disk. If you defragment your hard disk after a long time, it will take more time for completion of the task. However, time decreases in subsequent defragment processes. I'll recommend performing this action whenever you get free time.

Believe me; all these programs will speed up your slow computers and will not cost anything as all these programs are either free or available within your windows system. Using 2 or 3 free cleaning utilities like BeClean, Easy cleaner and free registry repair in combination will clean up your computer of lot of unnecessary files, empty registries, duplicate files, most recently used documents list etc. and you will feel the speed of your computer and window based programs.