Improve WinXP Performance....

Hi,
I am doing a write-up on how to improve your computers performance. I know there are a lot of these treads out there but I would like to tell everyone the programs I use, how they help, and why these programs are the best tools for the job.
I was getting tired of looking around for "good" programs, when all I found was junk. So, once I found good programs I decided to write something up to help the advanced computer guru's (hopefully) as well as the people who don't know a lot about computers, and wonder to themselves 'why does my computer lag so much' and 'where has all my room gone on my comp?'Some stuff written will be very 'beginners' stuff and others (hopefully) won't be.

First things first...
Go To...Start...Programs...Accessories....System Tools...Disk Cleanup....clean up all your files and get some nice free mb's storage back. You will be surprised at how much Windows Temporary Files take up. Now...Go to explorer window...Go to home drive directory...Windows...Temp...Everything in that folder you see can be deleted, as complicated as some of the stuff looks there it is useless and taking up space. Delete it all, you can, and there will be no harm to your computer.
Next...Go to Control Panel...Add/Remove Programs...Tab across to Add/Remove Windows Components (it should think for a bit before the next window comes up)...Go through each category and their details, and unclick the ones you KNOW you DONT use...then press next...Finish.
While you are in that Add/Remove Window go through your installed components and check to see if you can uninstall stuff you either forgot about or just realized that you don’t a lot of the programs you have on your pc.

Second Thing...
With Windows XP its default physical look (i.e. Blue taskbar etc) takes up a lot of your running RAM, to save up to 15mb of RAM, make your computer look like Windows 98 style, personally I like it better (not so blue looking) plus it allows you to have more RAM free for the stuff you really need it for... To do this go to your desktop, right click... Properties... Themes ...Windows Classic, after you can change the colors and stuff but you'll be surprised at how much faster you pc runs. While you are in your desktop Properties to the tab...Appearance and then click 'Effects.' You see some options read through them and unclick the ones you don’t want, after look at you normal effects throughout the computer and you will see that there is not much difference as what it looks like, yet your menus will pop-up faster, makes your computer run more smoothly. Personally I unselect the first two options (Transition effect and Method of Smooth Edges).

Next thing...
On your taskbar (system tray)...if you see a lot of icons (mainly loaded from startup) this may explain why your computer runs slow-if it does at all. It has been proven that 30% percent of your RAM usage is wasted with system-tray icons. You may see battery ones, monitor icons, games, just crap that u never use....get rid of as many as possible, this slows down your pc so much, I only have two icons down there and my system loads up so quickly and never freezes etc.
Please Note: Never close down your Anti-virus system tray icon...that icon will save your computer at the best of times.
If you close some program down and it still startsup on next startup, do this: Go Start...Run...type: msconfig --> the tab across to startup, untick the ones you know you don’t want those unselected program to startup, the ones you don’t know what they are...leave them, they are probably all Windows Registry keys and you really don’t want to touch those!

Next thing....
Get ad aware (Lavasoft) from http://www.lavasoftusa.com, search your pc and delete all necessary spyware, I know a lot of people use Ad aware but there are many who
don't, spread the word and tell your friends about it - it won’t hurt. You can use other programs besides Ad aware, there are many out there but I know that Ad aware is stable and they know there spyware, and there are frequent updates. Which reminds me...Make sure you download all Ad aware Lavasoft Spyware Updates...

Next...
Go to...Start...Programs...Accessories...System Tools...Disk Defragmenter...Defrag your system, could take a while but it’s worth it.

Next we will use the Registry Cleaner for Windows...Get Registry Cleaner from: http://www.geocities.com/licit_moles/home.html, and then install and go into the program....When at the main window, go along the top where all the tabs are till you reach 'Tools', then go down to 'Registry Cleanup,' and then 'Do them all.' It will look through your registry, once finished, go up to 'Select' and then 'All,' go down the bottom to the 'Remove Selected' button, and you are done. If you wish you can look throughout the program, read up on it and you will find you will be able to delete more stuff without hurting your pc....if a problem does occur,
RegCleaner automatically backs up your registry for you just in case you remove something your pc does not like.

Next you need to download Tune Up Utilities from: http://www.tune-up.net/download/, download the trial; you can use that for now until you wish to buy the software, which is worth it in my opinion.
Once installed go into the main menu and make sure you look around, you will find that it is a great program that offers to clean-up your computer in many ways. It allows you to change system properties that you may have never known existed within Windows. Do yet another registry cleanup, clean up your hard drive, and do anything else you wish to do within the program.

After this sit back relax and watch how your computer works beautifully with no pop-up errors, lagginess etc.

Thanks

DaVo