It's time for spring cleaning!

No, not your home your computer!

Has your computer started slowing down and you have to wait for a program to come up, and you wait and wait and wait.

SJK has some helpful hints to help improve the performance of your computer along with some free software you can use.

As always, make sure you are doing regular backups of your system.

So let's get cleaning!

How often do you clean your computer?

SJK recommends that the following be done:

Weekly:

1. Disk Clean up
2. Empty your recycle bin
3. Run a complete Anti-virus Sweep
4. Run a complete Spyware Sweep
5. Delete your SPAM & Deleted Outlook items

Monthly:

1. Run Disk Defragmenter
2. Clean up your Desktop clutter

Why? While hard drives cannot be cleaned physically, they can be cleaned with various utilities to help it run faster and more efficiently. Utilizing these utilities will prevent the hard drive from slowing down

Software to help you out

• Try HijackThis From Trend Micro:

HijackThis is a free. If persistent spyware is bogging down your computer, you might need HijackThis.

• Try Optimizer XP v3.51

Free program that improves the way Windows uses your computer to keep your pc running smooth and clean.

• Try Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2

Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot can also clean program and Web usage tracks from your system