Look at the notification area next to the time. How many icons are there, including any hiden one? More than 10 is often a clue of some problem.
You should disable any so called "Quick starter" as they are of no real use. They make your computer start slower.
You should also disable those for any application or utility that you don't normaly use. Removing unneeded utilities will make your computer start faster and be generaly more responsive.
For both of the above, you need to unckeck the "Start with WIndows" option.
Look in your startup folder. Suppress any entry for stuff you don't realy use or want.
Uninstall any programm and application that you no longer need or use. It will gives you back some drive space.
Is your main drive compressed? What about the Windows folder or any temporary files folder? Those drive and folders MUST NEVER be compressed!!! Accessing a compressed drive or folder is significatively slower than a normal drive or folder. Compressed folders should be reserved to only those containing files and documents that you access only rarely but need to keep.
Make sure that you don't open ANY document on startup.
Drive clutter can seriously impair your performances.
Get Ccleaner and use it to cleanup your drive. This free utility from Pyriform is just great for that task.
Disk fragmentation is a huge performance killer.
Get a good defragmenter like the excellent anf free Defraggler from Pyriform.
Defragment your drive. If you've never done it, this may take several hours, so, be patient. It may be a good idea to set a one time boot time defragmentation. Boot time defragmentation is a slow process but can optimise files that are otherwise impossible to move. Let your computer at this task over night...
Get and run a good anti-virus utility. There are some realy good and free offerings like AVG free (free.avg.com) and Avira free edition. Have it repair any infestation it finds. After some cleanup and a good defragmentation, the scan will be much faster.
Any viral infestation will make your computer slower and steal your resources and internet access to do nefarious things.
You may also use Spybot to find and suppress some other non-viral nasties. Those also slow you down and may steal your personal informations, user names and passwords...
Electro, November 2012
