Speed up Windows

Choose ‘Add Scheduled Task’, click Next then Browse. Then paste the following location %systemroot %\system32\defrag.exe into the File Name box when it opens up the file dialogue box.

Another tool available in both XP and Vista is Disk Cleanup. This scans your PC and reports back with various options, including deleting files that are no longer required. You can launch this by typing cleanmgr.exe into the Run box on the Start menu.

The easy way
There is no shortage of commercial, shareware and free software that promises to boost performance levels in Windows. If you want to keep your spending to a minimum, you can use software that tackles just one aspect, such as cleaning the Registry, tweaking hidden Windows settings or boosting Windows performance.

Alternatively, you can pick a suite that handles all these tasks from a single interface. There are far too many utilities to cover individually, so we will give you a quick run-down of the most common types.

If you have installed and uninstalled a large number of applications on your PC, the Registry will most likely be full of invalid entries. Although these are often harmless, they can occasionally cause system crashes.

Delving into the Registry and attempting to fix problems yourself isn’t the easiest of tasks, but there are plenty of utilities to help you out. Registry Cleaner from PC Tools is one such utility and costs £29.95 for a three-PC licence.

Alternatively, you can opt for a free Registry tool called Ccleaner. Both work in a similar way, scanning for entries referring to software, files or services that are no longer installed on your PC. If any invalid or erroneous entries are found, they will be included in a report at the end of the scan, a nd you can then decide whether or not to delete them.

As with any such cleaner, you should always make a backup of the Registry before running the tool; most cleaners will automatically save a backup for you.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that a ‘clean’ Registry won’t make a huge difference in terms of how fast Windows runs. It may appeal to the tidy-minded, however, and you may well solve some odd problems with file associations and program shortcuts.