There are five methods you can use to make your computer faster than it is. The best thing to do if you want to optimize the speed of your computer is to use all five. If you go down the list in order you will optimize the cleanup effort and maximize the speed.

This is one of the easiest methods to get your computer running faster. It is also one of the most overlooked tricks to speed up a computer. Disk cleanup is a program that cleans out all temporary files (files loaded with web pages when you opened them), use cache (history, Internet logs, information used to auto-fill pages), any pages saved from the Internet onto your computer and empties the recycle bin.
Open the Start menu down at the bottom left of the window. Scroll over to “All Programs” and open that. Scroll over to “Accessories”; scroll over to “System Tools”. Choose “Disk Cleanup” from that menu. A box will appear. Choose the main drive of your computer (most often “C”). Click OK. Click on every option in the box that shows up. Click OK. This may take a few minutes or an hour depending on the size of your computer and the last time you ran this function.

The next phase of getting the computer running faster is to get rid of all those programs you either don’t use, or use maybe once a month or less. Many programs you may not even know you had.
Go back to the Start menu, get yourself back to the Disk Cleanup option discussed above. This also has a way to get to the Add/Remove Programs option. Once you get to the Disk Cleanup box, look for the “More Options” tab – highlight that with the mouse. This brings up three choices; you want the one in the middle that allows you to dispose of unwanted programs and software. Click OK to use the tool. A large window should open up displaying all of the programs you have installed on the computer. Look over the entire list. Take note of the last used date, to the right. If you don’t recognize the program you may not know you had it. There may also be a few installation programs that you used to put other software on the computer. Either download these programs onto a flash drive to keep them, or delete them. Usually you don’t need these as they are free on the net. Toolbars and games often bring software that piggybacked with the installation. Get rid of all that too. Highlight the program you want deleted. A box with the word “Remove” will appear on the lower right side of the highlighted section. Click that button to remove the program. You may need to click OK somewhere during the removal. You also may need to restart your computer for some software to completely remove itself. Repeat the process until you have removed all unnecessary or unwanted programs.
WARNING: Do not attempt to remove or uninstall programs by simply deleting the file folders. This does not delete the program completely. This also can cause damage to the operating system as many programs share files and folders with the operating system.

Defragment the Computer

Clean Up the Start up Files

Clean the Registry