Keeping Your PC Healthy - Top Tips

• Windows can fill your hard-disk with temporary files - this can slow your machine down. Make sure you delete your Temporary Internet files now and then - From Internet Explorer, select Tools > Internet options > Delete files (select Delete offline content).
• Windows provides a useful cleanup tool to do this and to clean up other temp files. Go to 'My Computer' and right-click on the hard drive (C:) icon. Select 'Properties' and 'Disk cleanup'.
• Uninstall any apps that you don't use any more from Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs

To speed up your PC, try the following:

1. Delete as much rubbish as you can (see above)
2. Run a 'defrag' on your hard-disk to speed it up - Go to 'My Computer' and right-click on the hard drive (C:) icon. Select 'Properties', 'Tools', then 'Defragment now'.
3. If your system tray on your toolbar looks anything like ours, you've probably got too many programs running in the background taking up valuable memory. Install and run the free Startup Inspector application to see what automatically starts when your machine does. You can then get the advisor to tell you what they are and whether you need them. You can also stop them from starting up.
   

   
   
   

   You could also look at upgrading the RAM in your machine to give you a speed boost. We recommend: Crucial, who offer an online upgrade advisor to ensure you don't buy the wrong thing.

    

One of today's real pains is the amount of spam email that gets through. One thing you can do to reduce this is to sign up to a free spam prevention service - we currently recommend CloudMark, as this is the most effective solution we've found for keeping spam to a minimum - download the free trial, which adds a toolbar to Outlook.

If you're being annoyed by having adverts popping up while you're browsing websites, consider getting yourself a pop-up blocker.

We recommend the Google Toolbar, which adds extra functionality to your web browser, including a pop-up stopper. Best of all, it's free. Download from toolbar.google.com.

• Tidy your registry. Norton Systemworks comes with various tools to tidy and optimise your drive, as well as a tool to scan the system registry. Additionally, the following tools are useful registry cleaners: RegCleaner & RegScrub XP
• System Mechanic 6 - A great all-round application for keeping your PC running - tidy your drive, compress & optimise the registry, repair disks and reduce clutter. More on our System Mechanic 6 mini-review