My computer has gradually slowed down as more things have been added to the hard-drive and then been deleted. I have tried compressing it but the process seems to stop and restart every time when it reaches about 81%. Is there any way of making my computer work faster without calling in the help of a technician?

Ipana, November 2003

If you are trying to Defragment your disk, you should make sure that all the applications you can close are closed down.

Have you cleaned out the Registry recently? You may well have lots of old clutter in your PC's Registry. Removing these old entries will make the computer run faster. There are loads of free utitlies to do this. Microsoft have one for Windows 98 which is free, or you could spend some money and look at products like "Registry Medic" and "Registry Mechanic". If you've lots of money to spend you could buy probably the best "Norton SystemWorks or Norton Utilities." One tool in this called "WinDoctor" is very good.

Tony Fletcher, November 2003