Step 1.  Run a disc scan at least once a week.  This will help ensure that your hard drive is functioning properly and alert you to any potential problems that are brewing.  While someone with very large hard drives can expect this to take quite a while, most home computer users can anticipate this task taking less than 5 minutes and worth every moment.

Step 2.  Defragment time.  Run disk defragmenter on each hard drive you have in your computer to ensure that all of your hard drives are performing at the top speed possible.  This is a process that is fairly quick and can be a huge help to ensure hat things are running as well as possible overall for your computer.

Step 3.  Run disk cleanup to delete those pesky files that are not needed.  While some information is obviously needed, there are other files that are virtually useless and can be deleted without any problems at all.  Disk cleanup will help you find a large batch of those files and get them out of your way in a single swoop.

Step 4.  Clean out those internet files.  This includes your cache and even your cookies.  Keeping information in these places that is not needed will only slow down your performance and make it take even longer before you are able to really access things.  While cookies and your cache are designed to make surfing the internet faster once these files build up to large levels if will actually slow you down, rather than speeding you up.

Step 5.  Run a full and complete virus scan.  This will likely take quite some time to do, but running this on a regular basis will help ensure that there are no problems or mistakes that you are unaware of.  You would much rather find any problems with your computer before your computer crashes and by running a virus scan at a normal interval this will ensure there are no sudden surprises as much as possible.  The good news is that while most through virus scans take a long time, most programs have an option for you to schedule your scan.  Simply schedule it for a time when you are normally sleeping or not using the computer and then the virus scan will run all on it’s own saving you valuable time and protecting your computer.

Boot Tip #1.  Look in your Start up options under msconfig, anything that is not essential that is checked can be unchecked.  All of the items that are checked all start up when your computer boots.  This means that most likely you are looking at a good 10 or more programs trying to boot when your computer first starts up.  This can make a computer take a very long time to boot up.  Unchecking non-essential programs from the list will mean that you are able to see exactly how quickly you can get your computer starting up.  Typically, the only programs that you must leave in the msconfig box checked are your Virus programs, and anything else that you need to have start up immediately upon booting.  Most programs can wait until they are actually needed.

Boot Tip #2.  Defragment your computer.  Always ensure that you are defragmenting your computer at least once a week.  If you are not defragmenting your computer then it is going to take longer for your computer to actually boot up each time.  This means that you can experience a long delay as your computer is seeking the information that it needs.  The more you use your computer, the more often you need to defragment.

Boot Tip #3.  Under the Control Panel, run Disk Cleanup at least once a week.  This will help you clean out files that you do not need that you can safely delete without causing problems to the way your computer runs.  While some advanced users can search the computer for acceptable files to delete themselves, those who are not as advanced should always stick to using Disk Cleanup to avoid any problems with deleting something that is important and essential to keeping your computer running.

As you can see, you have three short and simple to follow tips that will keep your computer from taking 20 minutes to boot up.  Once you perform these tasks you should see a huge improvement in the overall manner in which your computer runs, and should have much better results.  Always ensure you continue maintenance to keep your computer running properly and you should be much happier with the overall results.

Your first step as part of Operation Clean Sweep should be going and taking a quick look around in your “temp” files.  Once a week or so you should be emptying out all of your temporary files.  These files are not needed and typically do nothing more than just slow down your computer after a couple of days.  Without clearing all of these files out on occasion, you are going to have a huge backlog of older useless files.

Next step is to make sure you use a CD-Rom cleaner at least once a month.  This will ensure that your CD drives as well as DVD drives are operating at full capacity all of the time.  This will help the drives last longer, read discs faster and overall help ensure that your drives run properly and do not overheat causing damage.

Another valuable part of the maintenance process should be taking your mouse apart and cleaning them.  Most people think that cleaning the mouse at a once a week interval is the best option.  This keeps your mouse working properly and avoids any frustration from your mouse not following what you are trying to do with the computer.

Help ensure that your computer is able to avoid overheating which can cause damage to your hard drives by ensuring that at least once a year you open up your tower.  Take a can of pressurized air and carefully clean everything out.  Do not touch anything that you do not recognize to ensure you do not damage anything.  It is very important to keep your computer clean even inside, but do not ever use cleaning products inside of your tower.  Using compressed air is a safe way to clean your computer without causing any damage.

Remember, the most important part of computer maintenance is ensuring that you always keep a regular maintenance schedule going.  If you allow the maintenance on your computer to be ignored then your computer will start to perform at slower speeds and without functioning in the proper way.  Spending as little as 10 minutes a month can ensure that your computer stays up to speed, clean and running properly.

Spyware is software that runs in the background of your computer, and sends back to the company information about things such as your computer usage, what websites you visit, how often you are online, and other details about your computer activity.  This is information that most people consider to be private and do not always readily give to people.  To help ensure that your computer is as secure as possible from the prying eyes there are some simple maintenance things you can do to keep your privacy.

First, get a good spyware detection program.  There are several of these that are available free, and they do wonderful jobs.  Since they are free, there is no reason to delay downloading and installing.  The sooner the spyware is removed, the sooner your computer will be safe again.  Run the spyware detection program at least once a week.  While running once a week is a good minimum to do, it is also possible to run the program much more often if you feel the need.  You can never really run the program too much so do not worry about causing any problems.

Second, never download free software from websites that you do not know.  Many free software programs include spyware included in them.  Spyware detection programs cannot always remove this spyware, but they are able to remove some of it.  If you are downloading free software from all across the internet, you are downloading a lot of spyware yourself.  Pass on websites that you do not know and trust.

Third, whenever you install a program search through the user options and settings.  Many programs have a setting for sending back anonymous usage data.  Uncheck this box; there is no reason why you should do this.  It can slow down your computer, provide your personal information around the internet and is not something that you benefit from at all.  Let them get their information they want from someone else, always turn this setting off to help protect your computer as much as possible.

First, never ever click on any links in an e-mail.  It does not matter if your bank just sent you a message saying that your account is limited and they need your information to unlock it.  This is most likely a scam.  Call your bank to confirm any questions you may have, clicking on a phishing link can result in your personal information being used against you and your bank account suddenly being emptied out.  Avoid this at all costs, plus clicking some links is bad because it can have a virus or a worm attached which can cause huge problems for your computer.

Second, ensure that you have your operating system up to date.  Always download any updates that are released since many updates are security patches that help ensure your computer is safe.  There is a reason these patches are released, someone has found a way to do potential damage.  Never sit around and wait on the damage to occur, instead update your system as the updates are available and you can stay as far ahead of the problems as possible.

Third, keep a good copy of an anti-virus program on your computer and up to date.  While this may seem unnecessary since you have a free copy that seems to work just fine, you will be glad you paid for a good program.  There are several really good anti-virus programs that are available on the security market today.  You should look for the best anti-virus program available that you can afford.  Never purchase an anti-virus program simply because it is cheap, instead purchase because it is a good program that will adequately protect your computer.

Fourth, do not visit websites to download anything that you do not know and trust completely.  The idea of downloading music, videos, and other things on the internet draws many people to download things they normally would not download.  This is not always a good thing at all because there are sometimes viruses, worms and other problems lurking deep within those files.  Always avoid downloading from a site that you do not know, and always scan all downloads thoroughly with your anti-virus program before ever opening it.

First, you should always make sure you are removing old files on your computer periodically.  If you are not using the file continuously, then consider backing it up if you need to keep it onto a flash drive or even a CD or delete it if the file is no longer needed.  The more information you have stored on your computer, the longer it will take to access the information you need, and ultimately this can slow down your computer’s speed.

Second, run a disc defragmenter on occasion.  How often you should run the defragmenter will ultimately depend upon how much you use your computer.  People who are quite active on the computer or even those who practically live on their computer should consider defragmenting to be a weekly task.  If you do not use the computer much then running defragmenter on a monthly basis will be perfectly acceptable.  Running this will help ensure that files are accessed much faster, free up hard drive space and really help improve the overall functionality of your computer.

Third, always clear your cookies and cache from the internet browser that you use every so often.  At a bare minimum, there should be a clean out of all cookies and the cache at least on a monthly basis.  This information is not necessary to store any longer, but will begin to slow down your computer over time.  Keep your computer running as quickly as possible.

Without following these simple tips that are quite basic and easy to do over time you will notice a huge decrease in your computer’s performance.  Never postpone the maintenance of your computer because it is so simple to do, takes only a few minutes of your time and can help ensure that your computer works for many years.  A well-maintained computer can be upgraded much cheaper than it could ever cost to replace, and with a good computer running properly you can ensure that your computer activities are as pleasant as possible without being a burden.

Computers, unlike humans, can be saved from their grim fate simplyby formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system. Remember if you are a new pc owner or you are not aware that installing and uninstalling programs can have a major affect on the performance of your Computers Registry. Actually, there is no suchthing as a certified software product for computers. This program is specifically designed for those of us that just barely know how to turn the machine on and even for those folks that work with computers every day.

It can clean and optimize your computer in minutes, drastically speed things up on your PC, and prevent most PC crashes while stabilizing and optimizing your computer’s performance.

Registry Smart is a good choice if you need the job done right.

Come back for parts 2 and 3 of this review!

You can also check Registry Smart out for yourself.

On my most recent visit, as expected, my brother had me sit down with him to look at a problem he’d been having. Every time he tried to open a spreadsheet, the program would start, throw an error and close. He couldn’t read or edit any of his work! He had tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program a few times, but it didn’t help. He was at the end of his rope and had already started to shop for a new computer. Hoping I could save him some money, I sat down for a while and began to tinker.

I’ve been helping him with this computer since he got it. It’s a few years old and has had it’s share of problems, but this one was killing me. I was about ready to give up and tell him to go ahead and get a new PC, when I figured I’d try a registry cleaner. We downloaded Registry Smart, since it had work so well for me in the past, and ran the initial scan.

817- that’s the number of errors Registry Smart found. Good Lord. We ran the back up utility, just in case, and went ahead with the error fixing. With the push of a button we were done and decided to reboot for good measure. When the computer restarted, the first thing we noticed was how much faster it ran. Even booting Windows seemed to take half as long. He was so excited by how well the machine was running, it was probably 10 minutes before we check to see if the spreadsheet program was working again! It was working just fine, by the way, faster than ever.

A little window pops up with the words “Kernel32 DLL Error” and the screen goes black.

All those hours of work- gone. Just like that.

Sure, that’s a little dramatic, but not uncommon. Even your brand new computer starts picking up registry problems almost immediately. Like any maintenance on your computer, such as virus scans, Registry Smart should be run periodically, to get and keep your computer in great condition.

Try a free scan of your computer with Registry Smart.