What I have to do to regularly maintain and tune-up my computer for peak performance ?

What are the best softwares to use ? And how often I have to use them ?Where to get them ?

Thanks !

Here's my usual C&P for cases like this:


When was the last time you did some serious maintenance on your system ?

System maintenance includes:
Defrag
FULL patching
Virus scanning
Spyware scanning
removal of rubish files

Defrag is an inbuilt function in XP.
Open My Computer > Right click C: > Tools Tab and its there.

To make sure everything is running fine run both anti virus and anti spyware apps in normal AND safe modes. (make sure that they are updated first ! ;)) (AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) is good and free AV)
(A couple of good removal tools are Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/) and Adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/))

ALso an on line virus and spyware scanner is Trend Housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/)

Just a note: actively running two AV's on one machine can cause problems.
So if you are thinking about it make sure your current one is disabled first.
Same thing applies to online scanners as well.

Removal of junk files is easy with CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) a free app that does exactly what


How often, well that's up to you.
I do with monthly

This lot should resolve your issue.

Sometimes The Performance Of Your Computer Can Be Affectect By Viruses.
The Best Way To Save Your Computer Is To Use An Antiviruse.
Eg You Can Use Avg Antiviruse, You Can Down Load It

I think CurlyBen has covered most of it, follow his guide and your PC should run very well.

Make sure that you update Windows regularly - if in doubt, click on Start> Control Panel > Update. At the very least, you should be running Service Pack 2 if you have Windows XP... don't ask me about Vista though, I'm not sure anyone has gotten their head around that monster yet!

I use AVG Antivirus, AdAware SE, SpyBot Search & Destroy, C Cleaner and Zone Alarm Firewall. They are all free and downloadable from any freeware site - try the freeware section in SnapFiles.

BelArc Advisor and CPU Z are also quite useful for finding out exactly what hardware you have inside your PC.
Oh, and if you are using a desktop PC give the fan a good clean once in a while! It's a dust trap.

There's some really good advice here and here's my addition...
I don't really like the Windows de-fragger... it'll work but I prefer either Symantec Speed Disk ($) or Auslogics Disk Defrag (http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag). (free)
Symantec also has a tool for cleaning the registry... a fat registry is another thing that will greatly reduce the speed of your computer.

SP 2 is a must have... if you do not have it and you've had an issue with spyware then be very very careful when you install it. I've had the OS get corrupted more often than not when upgrading a spyware ridden computer to SP2.
CCLeaner is a good app for removing junk files.
SpyBot Search & Destroy is a must have.
As for AV software you can ask 50 different people and get 50 conflicting views of what the best and worst is. Fine a popular program you like and keep it updated. Many ISP's now offer free AV software so that might be worth looking into.

Finally try to schedule as much of this as possible so you don't have to remember to do it. My computer is on 24/7 and with the exception of CCLeaner everything I have is automated so I don't have to think about it.


Edit: Oh yeah... it's a good idea to run CCLeaner before you defrag.

It is a good practice only to defrag after installing or uninstalling a number of new programs, I don't recommend you to do a lot defrag because it can have a unforeseen problem to the hard disk.

So remember only when big files are added or removed

Get the best free clean up tools to clean up the spyware from your temp folder ?
Security News from the net: Clean up tools to prevent people from tracing your internet surfing (http://securitynewsfromthenet.blogspot.com/2007/03/clean-up-tools-to-prevent-people-from.html)

TweakNow RegCleaner Standard
Tweak Now! - Tweaking Windows Couldn't Be Easier (http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html)

Read Windows XP Super Tweaks and stop un-necessary xp services.
Security News from the net: Windows XP Super Tweaks (http://securitynewsfromthenet.blogspot.com/2007/04/windows-xp-super-tweaks.html)