Step 2: Remove Extra Programs

In general, the more programs you have installed, the more memory they are using. This isn't the case with all programs, but it's still good practice to remove programs you don't use. You'll save hard drive space and even system memory if the programs load at Windows startup.

Add/Remove Programs

Enter the Control Panel (Start, Control Panel or Settings/Control Panel) and go to the Add/Remove Programs applet. The list of programs you'll see rarely contains anything essential to the PC's operation. Most of the programs were installed by a user and can be removed if they are not required - just don't remove Microsoft Office and so-on if you plan to use it.

Go through this list and remove all the programs you're positive you don't use or need. Anything you're unsure of should be researched on Google before you uninstall it. The most common entries we uninstall are: AOL, AOL AntiSpyware, Yahoo Toolbar, Wintools, Viewpoint Media Player, Speedway, Weatherbug and various "Deals", which are almost always spyware. Additionally we'll remove programs installed for one-time use or that we thought we'd use but never did. If you don't use AOL feel free to remove any reference you see. Don't remove any drivers unless the hardware has been removed from the PC. If your antivirus or anti-spyware program are expired and out of date, you may as well uninstall them since they are taking tons of resources and newer, free alternatives are available online. Removing some items here will require a reboot.

Step 3 - Clean-up Registry and Temporary Files

This may not be as much of a performance tune-up as it is a generally good practice to cover, especially since it'll free up some hard drive space.

The best tool we've found to clean up temporary files and the registry is CCleaner (aka CrapCleaner). Overall this is one of the best tweaking programs out and can definitely help you easily fix issues with your system. Download and install this program, making sure not to turn on extra features you won't use like the Yahoo Toolbar it tries to install. Run the program and uncheck any specific items you don't want to remove. If you require it, go through the Advanced Options and check any entries that you require to fix issues with your PC (such as Window Size/Location if one is resized awkwardly). Then click Run Cleaner at the bottom right. After several seconds it should complete, giving a detailed report on resources recovered.

In this case, 1.3 GB was recovered!

CCleaner also has some other cool features. Click the Issues button on the left and it'll find problems in the Registry. It might be a good idea to quickly browse the list to determine what kind of problems were found. Backup the registry before running this tool (Start, Run, Regedit [HIT OK], File (at the top), Export [type name and Save]). Most of these can be fixed safely using the Fix Selected Issues button. Additionally the Tools tab can be used to uninstall more programs, delete broken uninstall links, and turn off additional Startup programs much like HiJackThis as mentioned in Step 3.