Computers are made up of gigantic amount of semiconductors, which works by passing no electric current (represents '0', or FALSE) or passing a tiny amount of it (represents '1', or TRUE). Semiconductors are basically made up from silicon and copper, with prolonged passage of electronic current, copper could degrade and no longer transmit signals to and from circuits. CPU works by putting in lots of logic circuits thus producing answers or outputs as users wish. What happens if some of the logic components no longer functioning? It will use other parts of it to perform equivalent calculations, for example, when a dedicated circuit for comparing >= cease working, it is automatically processed as > AND =, thus, an operation >= could end up with manipulating THREE seperate operations (which, of course, degrades performance)! So, old computers are said to be having poor performance (and unstable).
However, there are something that we could do to 'relief' the computer by doing several 'housework' to our precious computers. For Windows users, four kinds of basic tasks could be done to boost up performance.
1) Hard Disk Defragmentation - If you have already used the computer for a long time, it is probably a good time to do a defragmentation to your hard drive. Fragmentation occurs when a file is deleted and a new file is created (or downloaded). For example, the old file may took up '5 blocks' of space while new file could take up '10 blocks' of space, the new file is forced to stay in two different places inside the computer, which is bad (since hard disk have to read from two places instead of one place), so doing a 'defrag' could boost up performance.
Recommended Defrag Software: Diskeeper www.diskeeper.com
2) Windows Registry Cleanup - Registry of Windows is the table for storing all Windows settings such as what's your favourate media player or your favourate browser. When you have installed new softwares, registry are automatically written or updated. When you uninstall them, registry could be broken or some will be left over, Windows loads the registry every time when the computer is start (so loading useless registry entries slows your computer). So it is a good practice to scan and fix or cleanup registry when you uninstall something.
Recommended Registry Fix Up Software: Uniblue Registry Booster www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/
3) Uninstall software that are no longer used & configure startup programs. You may uninstall software by clicking Start - Control Panel - Add Or Remove Programs. To configure startup programs, click Start - Run - Type 'MSCONFIG' then enter. A program called 'System Configuration Utility' will be run, in tab 'Startup', you may uncheck unwanted software to start. But beware, some software are essential (such as the language bar 'ctfmon') . However don't worry, it will still boot up and you may do a little try and error about that.
4) Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware - Virus are programs which, contaminates your computer and results in file loss or functionality loss (such as unable to boot up Windows). Spyware are programs which stays inside your computer and 'spy' what you do. Software companies creates software which we called 'freeware' earns money by building spywares inside them (not all of them do that), by collecting statistics of which site you visit the most and sending them to companies such as Google or Yahoo!, they might earn some money. However, those could also affect your computer's performance as well. Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware softwares are essential for your computer and frequent scanning could protect you from data loss as well as performance gain.
Recommended Anti-Virus Software: Kaspersky Anti-Virus www.kaspersky.com/products/
Recommended Anti-Spyware Software: Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
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