Computers become slow for a multiple reasons.
1. Programs in the Startup. Goto, Start -> Programs -> Startup. Delete everything you don’t need. I have zero programs in there, you probably don’t need any of those either. Unless you want to start your scanner software every time you use a PC. Not necessary. If you afraid you will delete something useful, just take a name of software found in that menu item and do a Google search.
2. Services. PC runs many services. Kkind of like programs in the Startup, but a bit more complicated. To see what is running hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE and open “Task Manager”, goto “Processes” tab. You should have about 30-40 processes running (if you recently rebooted). When I go see my family, they normally have 70+. That’s half of your speed eaten up crap you don’t need. Here is how to get rid of it. Goto Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services (on Windows XP, very similar on Win Vista)
Bunch of those services will not make sense to a “normal” person, huh… non-geek. Don’t start disabling everything. Sort the list by ‘Status’. Now look at the list of what is “Started”. By the way, best to do this after a clean reboot. This is because you will know if something is running after clean reboot, something started the process. If you do this exercise after using a PC for 4 days, then you have no idea what started those processes. Anyway, just listed, reboot and come back.
Now look over the list of processes that are “Started”. Double click the ones that look weird. For example “AdobeLM Service”. When double clicked, it shows “”C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe”" this path. So this tells me, this didn’t come with the PC. Do I use Adobe every time PC is started? Hell no! So why is it running?? So I go to drop down and select Startup type “Manual”. This way program is not removed but will only be started when it is necessary! Not when PC is rebooted. Get it?
If this is your first time doing this, I would not recommend disabling anything that comes from Microsoft such as:
svchost.exe
services.exe
lsass.exe
Those programs are normally under: “C:\WINDOWS\System32\”
Anyway, if you disable something and you notice something stopped working, just come back and enable that service again.
I could go on and on where to disable services, such as registry, task scheduler, other weird places, but fact is for regular person (non-geek) it’s takes too much time and too much risk. I know a few things, but even I use software products to speed up my PC. It saves a lot of time. Even I disable something and later get frustrated something stopped working. Anyway, just get a registry cleaner software you won’t have to deal with this again. Got mine here: http://registrycleanerpros.com