In a perfect world there would be no lines at the bank, all of the traffic lights would stay green for us, and our computers would all run at lightning speed!  Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.  We live in a real one where things don’t always move as fast as we would like and there is not much we can do about it.  Or is there?  At least when it comes to your computer, there are some simple steps that you can take that will speed it up and make it perform better.
  
First check to see if your hard drive is too full.  The hard drive is where the operating system is stored, along with all other programs that are necessary to make your computer run properly, so if there is too much extra stuff there it will slow your computer down.  Ideally there should be 300MBs to 500MBs of free space on your hard drive.  It needs this free space for temporary files and other disk file chores.  If other things are being stored on your hard drive, move it to a different location on your computer or to an external hard drive, zip drive or back up disk.

Now look at your control panel to see if there any programs there that are you do not use.  If you don’t use them, get rid of them.  Uninstall programs that serve no purpose because they are just taking up space.  However, when you uninstall a program, be aware that it will leave empty spaces on your computer, and when you install a new program or download a file, your computer may fill these spaces with fragments of the new program.  As a result, when you go to open the program, the computer has to go searching for all of the pieces of it.  In addition to slowing your computer down, this also causes it to expend a lot of energy and could result in the hardware on the computer to wear out, which why you should defrag your disk drive on a regular basis.

When you defrag your computer you will find that its overall performance will improve.  Programs will run faster, and you will gain a variable amount of free space.  If you have not defragged your computer before, it will probably take a lot longer the first time, but when it is done routinely it is a pretty quick process and it keeps everything running smoothly.  You should run the Scandisk before you defrag to make sure the hard drive is functioning properly.  Both the Scandisk and the Disk Defragmenter are located in the System Tools folder under Accessories.  They come standard on virtually all computers.

Always make sure you are backing up your files on a CD-ROM or an external hard drive, especially if you are going to defrag.  If for some reason the computer shuts down during this process it could cause your whole system to crash your information may be lost permanently.

You will be able to speed up your computer and have it perform better if you simply keep it clean and organized.