as mentioned above two big things that cause slow downs...defragmentation and spyware/adaware. Turning off indexing of files can help as well as setting the max and min virtual memory settings to be the same (will cause less fragmentation). Depending on your frustration and how much you choose to do a full clean install of your OS helps greatly also. Otherwise you probably just need to do the cleanup mentioned above. Alot of people also overlook the inside of a PC...keep it dust free so the fans can do their jobs if they can't cool the hardware your parts will more susceptable(sp) to failure. Also if dust is caked over everything it will add heat and that will slow you down as well.