Is your
PC running slow?

Keeping
PC free of clutter can help in performance and can also increase valuable disk
space.

Here
are a few simple Steps for maintaining the performance of PC.

Run the
Windows Live OneCare clean up scan

The clean up scanner itself checks hard disk
for any unnecessary files and gives the option to delete them. Run the clean up
scan in performing a disk cleanup—or run the complete full service scan to
check for other PC issues as well.

Clear
Internet browser cache

The clean up
scanner handles most frequent types of temporary files, but Internet browser
automatically caches, or stores, another type of temporary file while surfing
the Internet. Browsers like Internet Explorer save copies of the Web pages
visited in order to load these pages faster while visiting those sites next
time. Outside of speeding up browsing, still, browser does not require this
cache of temporary files in order to operate properly. Since most of the Web
sites have large graphics, clearing out browser\'s cache can save important hard
disk space.

To clear
cache in internet explorer

1.     
Click the Tools menu, and then
click Internet Options.

2.     
Select the General tab, and then
click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet files section.

3.     
In the Delete Files dialog box
that appears, select Delete all offline
content, and then click OK.

If it\'s the first time clearing the cache, or it\'s been a long
while dumped the cache and the file accumulation is large, deleting these files
might take several minutes. When the cache is cleared, click OK to close the
Internet Options dialog box.

Remove
unused programs

Just because
of using a program doesn\'t mean it isn\'t consuming resources and affecting PC\'s
performance. Removing unused programs from hard disk is an easy way to maintain
system and maximize available hard disk space.

To remove
the unwanted programs

1.     
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2.     
In this View, click Add or Remove
Programs, then click Remove a
program.

3.     
Scroll through the list and look at each program. Windows XP lists how often
the program is used and what day it was last started.

4.     
Click the unwanted programs, and click Change/Remove,
and then follow the prompts to uninstall it.

Then restart
the computer after removing a program. After the computer is restarted, repeat
this process to remove more programs.

Remove the optional
Windows components

Remove
optional Windows components from PC to free up space. Many components come
normal with Windows, but may not use them frequently. Reinstall these
components from Windows CD if it’s not needed later on.

In order to
add or remove a Windows component:

1.     
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2.     
In this View, click Add or Remove Programs,
then click Add a program.

3.     
On the left hand side of the menu, click Add/Remove Windows Components.

4.     
Follow the commands in the Windows Components Wizard.

Modify
System Restore data

Windows XP provides the option to
restore PC to a previous state by manually saving restore information. System
Restore continuously monitors PC for changes, like file changes, application
changes, or installations. System Restore takes a \"snapshot\" of PC at
a given point of time and then stores each of these snapshots so that it can
turn back any changes to a period before experiencing any problems.

These snapshots of whole system take
up memory space. Delete older snapshots which are not required in order to
clean up hard disk.

To delete System Restore snapshots
except for the latest one:

1.     
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and click Disk Cleanup.

2.     
Wait till the Disk Cleanup calculates free disk space.

3.     
Click the More Options tab, in
the System Restore area, and
then click Clean up.