As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

Click My Computer > right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties > click the Tools tab > Click the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7) >select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, > then click Start.

If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Click Start > All Programs>

Accessories> System Tools > then

click Disk Cleanup.

Choose the files that you want to delete.

and then click OK.

When prompted to confirm that you want

to delete the specified files, click Yes

Click Start> All

Programs> Accessories> System

Tools> click Disk Defragmenter.

In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box,

click the drives that you want to

defragment, and then click

the Analyze button. After the disk is

analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting

you know whether you should

defragment the analyzed drives.(Continued

)

Event viewer: Use the event viewer utility by going to Start > Control panel > Administrative tools > Event viewer.

In the event viewer you will find the error or warning messages associated with any faulty hardware or software.

Shutdown Unnecessary programs: By using this

path Start > Run > Msconfig > Startup, you can

close all unwanted programs at the Windows

startup and this will automatically increase the

windows loading time and speed of the computer

will also be increased.

Increase RAM: By increasing the RAM in your

system you can get exceptional fast speed of your

computer.

Using the key

combination

Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

use the key

combination

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

The Applications tab in

Task Manager shows a

list of programs

currently running.

Choosing to End

Task from

the Applications tab

causes a request to be

sent to the application

for it to terminate.

The Processes tab

shows a list of all

running processes on

the system. This list

includes services and

processes from other

accounts.

The performance tab

shows overall statistics

about the systems

performance, most

notably the overall

amount of CPU usage

and how much

memory is being used.

The Networking tab shows statistics relating to each of the network adapters present in the computer. By default the adapter name, percentage of network utilization, link speed and state of the network adapter are shown, along with a chart of recent activity.

The Users tab shows

all users that

currently have a

session on the

computer. On

server computers

there may be

several users

connected to the

computer using

Terminal Services.

Before starting, shut down your PC and restart it. When your PC has completely restarted, close any programs that run automatically.

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose your Task List. End Task on everything that appears EXCEPT Explorer and Systray. Make sure nothing is listed in the Applications tab. Go to the Processes tab and End Task on any items you recognize, such as RealPlayer, Reminders, etc.

Delete trashy hard drive files (commonly

referred to as temp files).

Hit Start> Search> Files or Folders

In the Named box, type: *.tmp,~*.*,*.chk

When it has completed searching, hit

Ctrl+A to select all of the files that appear,

and hit your delete key

Delete Windows temp files.

Hit Start-Run and type %temp% and hit

enter.

Hit Ctrl+A on the keyboard to select

everything in that folder and hit your

delete key.

Delete temporary Internet files.

Open Internet Explorer and hit Tools>

Internet Options.

Click on the Delete files button.

System Restore helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos.

Sometimes, the installation of a program or a driver can cause an unexpected change to your computer or cause Windows to behave unpredictably. Usually, uninstalling the program or driver corrects the problem. If uninstalling does not fix the problem, you can try restoring your computer's system to an earlier date when everything worked correctly.

Open System Restore by clicking

the Start button > clicking All

Programs > clicking Accessories >

clicking System Tools > clicking System Restore.